Cast and production members Sophia Scott, Kayla Cruz, Annalise Garnett, and Elias Bassett listen as Eli Melanson answers a question during the Q&A session after the premiere of Getting Along at the Lincoln Theater on Monday, June 10. The film was a collaboration between Lincoln Academy students, Heartwood Theater, and David Martinez, of Maine Media. (Dylan Burmeister photo)
Community members and local students turned out in force to watch the premiere of “Getting Along,” the Lincoln Academy–Heartwood Theater collaboration film produced during this academic year, on Monday, June 10 at the Lincoln Theater.
Showings were at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. A Q&A session with cast and crew members followed both showings, and cast and production members walked the red carpet on the Lincoln Theater stage in a variety of outfits, ranging from tweed to electric red. Tickets were free for students and $15 for all others.
Heartwood Theater and LA Performing Arts Director Griff Braley directed for the project. David Martinez, of Maine Media, worked alongside LA students Eli Melanson and Annalise Garnett on cinematography. LA junior Elias Bassett wrote the script and was assistant director for the project, and fellow LA student Sophia Scott wrote an original score.
Running roughly 90 minutes and starring LA students Scott, Kayla Cruz, and Benno Hennig, “Getting Along” plays on comedic high school tropes while also highlighting more serious themes that infiltrate the halls of high school.
The premise – a friendship torn apart by a student government election – is simple enough. Yet the competition that prompts quiet, passive Ava, played by Cruz, to run against her type-A, high-achieving best friend, Willow, portrayed by Cruz, for the position of student body president invites reflection on the complicated dynamics between friends and students when one person feels as though they are living in another’s shadow.
The extremely relatable challenges of homework stress, concern for friends, tensions at home, and fear for the future are sprinkled throughout the film. Watching the film, it is evident that the writers and producers had an eye for the realities of high school, which makes sense, considering that the script was written by Bassett during the summer and fall of 2023.
When drafting the script, Bassett wanted to write about something that he could speak to from his own experiences, which encouraged the idea of the high school dramedy that the plot became.
“When we were trying to figure out how we could do it practically, we had the resources of a big high school so we tried to incorporate that,” he said.
There is comedic relief in moments featuring Willow’s typically uninterested older brother, played by LA senior Mitchell Straus, as well as the eccentric scenes in set in the jewelry-making, propaganda poster-producing lair of Bella, portrayed by Anna Lupien, who led a crew of sunglasses wearing minions.
The task of writing, filming, and editing a full-length film was at times challenging, said Bassett.
“The biggest challenge for me was realizing that as artists, we can’t make everything perfect,” he said. “We want to picture everything perfect, but we have to accept that we make mistakes, and then learn from them.”
Cast and production members also spoke to how much they had learned during the film’s creation, whether it was practicing different styles of acting or improving on cooperation and streamlining the filming process.
“The moment for me when I realized how much I’d learned was when I was working on the camera all by myself,” Garnett said. “It was the day when we filmed the walk into the lair and Ava’s escape, and there’s some complicated shots when they go down the stairs, all in one take. At the beginning of the project, I definitely could not have done that shot. So I’ve just learned so much along the way.”
The creative team hopes to release “Getting Along” through a streaming platform in the near future, Bassett said.
