By Natalie Bazinet
Staff Writer
CONNOR — For four weeks, students of Marion Ludgon’s fourth-, fifth- and sixth-grade class were immersed in American colonial history by reading books and writing poetry, creating timelines of historic events, learning how the Algonquian Native Americans marked the passage of month by each unique moon — even by playing games from the time period; a month’s worth of learning was culminated with the performance of “The Pilgrim’s Arrival: Thanksgiving at Plymouth,” written by Sara Glassock, that hit the stage at the Connor School on Nov. 28.
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
William St. Pierre, Bridget St. Pierre and Chelsea Levesque expressively acted their parts while performing the play “The Pilgrim’s Arrival: Thanksgiving at Plymouth,” written by Sarah Glassock. The students rehearsed for the play on Friday, Nov. 25 for their Nov. 28th performance at the Connor School.
“The show was wonderful,” said Ludgon, who took on the title of “director” in addition to her normal educational title of teacher. “We received many compliments on how well the children did.”
The students were praised for having great expression, knowing their parts, loud and clear voices, being so comfortable on stage, having created such vivid backgrounds and for being talented actors and actresses.
The performance itself taught the students many valuable lessons — memorization, articulation, “stage” voices, expression and how to properly pronounce some pretty difficult (and new) words.
“Students were actively involved in the making of props, costumer and in setting up the stage for the different scenes,” Ludgon explained.
Students acted out a handful of fairly accurately depicted scenes, including the first sighting of Land by Mayflower passengers, Thanksgiving at Plymouth, the signing of the Mayflower Compact, Samoset’s introduction to the Pilgrims, Massasoit and Governor Carver making a verbal treaty to live in peace with each other and Squanto teaching children how to plant corn.
“Throughout the play, narratives were very close in content to the content in our social studies and to the fictional and non-fictional books read by the students,” Ludgon explained.
While the students did enjoy themselves, the month was highly educational while also being fun.
“The most important thing I hope the children remember form the play is Massasoit’s closing statement, ‘Every year, we give thanks, too, for our harvest. We call our celebration the Green Corn Dance. We may dress differently. We may call our celebrations by different names, but — sometimes, sometimes — we are not so different.”
Students played a variety of roles during the performance:
• Katrina Salch, Caragan Haney, Abbie Caron and Kylee Zetterman were narrators;
• Allyson Shrewsberry played Mary Allerton, a Separatist;
• Kylee Zetterman played Isaac Allerton, a Separatist;
• William St. Pierre played Remember Allerton: a Separatist boy;
• Chelsea Levesque played Little Mary Allerton, a Separatist girl;
• Vincent Gillette played Miles Standish, a stranger;
• Renee Stubbs and Caragan Haney played Mayflower crew members one and two;
• Abbie Caron, Kylee Zetterman and Emma Rossignol played Separatists one, two and three;
• Katrina Salch, Emma Rossignol, Abbie Caron and Kylee Zetterman played strangers one, two, three and four;
• Bridget St. Pierre played Samoset, an Abenaki;
• Victoria Leavitt played Massasoit, chief of the Wampanoag people;
• Emily Monahan played Squanto, a Patuxet;
• Emma Rossignol played John Carver, the first governor of Plymouth;
• Renee Stubbs played William Bradford, the second governor of Plymouth; and
• Caragan Haney played Rose Standish, a stranger married to Miles Standish.
