Actors from the Freedom Trail Foundation and students acted out the Boston Massacre, Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere's Ride in an hour-long presentation that included frequent costume changes, dramatic action and humor.
EAST LONGMEADOW - Shouts of "Lobsterbacks, go home" and "Fie, fie" rang out in the cafeteria of Mountain View Elementary School recently, where third-graders posing as 18th-century Bostonians collaborated with actors from the Freedom Trail Foundation to dramatize three major events leading up to the American Revolution.
The Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party and Paul Revere's Ride were acted out in an hour-long presentation that included frequent costume changes, dramatic action and humor to bring these historical events to life.
Third-grade teacher Nancy Adams organized everything.
"I read about the foundation in a newspaper article and contacted them through the (Massachusetts Teachers Association)," she explained. "I was attracted to it because it was interactive and because the school was able to get a grant through MTA."
Anna Waldron and Nate Gundy, actors from Freedom Trail, asked the students at the start of the assembly, "Can you be rowdy?", and the kids complied, but only on cue.
They began with the Boston Massacre, portraying both the colonists' and Redcoats' actions in the streets that night: the soldiers and colonists out after curfew; bells that usually warned of fire ringing out and bringing hundreds of Bostonians into the streets; colonists pelting the Redcoats with stones, shouting "fire, fire" as the British stood with muskets drawn awaiting the order to fire their guns.
In the end, five colonists lay dead, and anger toward the British grew.
Seamlessly moving from one event to the next, the actors then depicted a meeting at the Old South Meeting House where colonists were chafing under a heavy tea tax imposed by the British King.
Gundy, as Sam Adams, asked the "Bostonians" what should be done to the tea on board ship in the harbor. The students threw out their suggestions: "hide it, bury it, drink it." To each suggestion, the actors offered a counter argument, adding that these were treasonous acts for which they could be hanged. Waldron, portraying a colonist added, "I'm allergic to being hanged."
They settled on dumping the tea in the harbor, and carried out the deed under cloak of darkness, dressed as Mohawk Indians.
The final event, the Ride of Paul Revere, ended in Concord where the Revolution began with "the shot heard round the world."
Out came Mrs. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to read her husband's famous poem. But she was interrupted again and again, whenever a "fact" in the poem was called into question: first by William Dawes who also rode to Concord that night on a longer route than Paul Revere, and later by Samuel Prescott, another rider and the only one to reach Concord.
Assisting the actors in front of the assembly were three boys, Conor Dearborn, Andrew Frisbie and Brandon Hannouche who portrayed British soldiers. "It was fun to be a part of it," Hannouche said; and three girls portraying colonists, Gianna Piemonte, Shelby Reed and Lilli Mantoni.
Piemonte was a little nervous beforehand, "because I have to scream," she said. But after the performance she admitted, "It was really fun because I got to do actions."
Students and teachers alike asked the actors to come back again.
For more information about the Foundation's programs, call Angie Jepson Marks, program director, at (617) 357-8300, or contact her by email at angie@thefreedomtrail.org