Thornton Academy Postscripts Alumni Magazine Fall 2008 | Page 5

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Bringing “Once in a Lifetime”
to the Stage
Thornton Academy’s TA Players performed the comedy
“Once in a Lifetime” by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart on
Dec. 4, 5 and 6.
According to Director David Hanright, it was a large
production with more than 60 students in the cast and crew.
“It’s a funny show with many great moments and one liners
from a Pulitzer prize winning team of authors,” he said.
“Once in a Lifetime” is the story of a trio who hatch a
scheme to make it big in Hollywood in 1927, when vaudeville
is fading and the coming of sound films or “talkies” began.
The main characters Jerry Hyland, May Daniels and George
Lewis start a school of elocution for actors at the Glogauer
film studio, but it’s only a scam. When they are found out, it’s
bumbling George who comes out the hero. The early satire
of Hollywood featured student actors Clayton Luopa ’10,
Alexis Simonetti ’09 and William Sawyer ’09.

Photo by Jennifer Hass

Thornton Academy students Clayton Luopa, Alexis Simonetti and William
Sawyer (from left to right) run lines during play practice for “Once in a Lifetime,” which was performed earlier this month.

Middle School Students Start Online Radio Project
Thornton Academy Middle
School students in the eighth grade
are working on a new online radio
project.
Log on to http://tamsradio.
blogspot.com to check out the
interviews and stories. It’s a virtual
cornucopia of information, including
poems, persuasive essays and news
stories with local impact. Among
the recent postings are Maine Mall
shoppers talking about how they feel
about the recent economic downturn
and Saco residents chatting with TA
students about the recent presidential election.
The project grew out of work
done in the 2007-08 school year,
when language arts teacher Hope
Hall had eighth-grade students
conduct nearly 30 interviews as part
of the 100 People project, a national
initiative. Among those interviewed

were immigrants in a
Portland ESL
classroom, a
number of first
generation
Americans who
were interviewed in the
high school’s
podcasting
studio, and a
retired medic
who worked on
a boat during
the attack on
Pearl Harbor.
During
the current
school year,
Hall decided to
continue the
project with

another group
of eighth-grade
students. In
December they
will interview
10 recent immigrants at
Barber Foods
in Portland,
Maine. It’s her
goal to show
the kids at
TAMS how they
are connected
to what is happening locally
and around the
world.
Photo by Hope Hall
“Doing
these interStudent Eric Patoine, right, conducts an
interview for the TAMS Radio Blogspot views is so
with help from Saco resident Ernie Huot cool,” she
said. “They
’48.

learn such a wide variety of skills. It
improves their reading and writing,
helps them understand how to speak
clearly, and they learn how to be
active listeners. After returning from
the interview, the editing process
begins, and they have to decide what
is important to include in the radio
piece and what’s not. And they start
to see that it’s the same in some
ways as organizing an essay, where
it has a beginning and middle and
end.”
Once each piece is complete, the
students upload it to the web site
along with photographic images or
and sometimes video.
Hall believes that a public audience is an essential component in
motivating students to be their best.
The new TAMS Radio Blogspot gives
them one more place to share their
work.

News from Hyde Library and Academic Commons
The Mary Weymouth Hyde
Library and Academic Commons is
looking different this school year
– and buzzing with lots of activity.
The new Academic Commons
provides students with a fun and
relaxing space to research, study and
collaborate. And additional seating in
the library makes it easier than ever
for st