TA News

Thetford Academy recently hosted its 17th annual Poetry Out Loud (POL) recitation contest featuring poetry performances from nine talented TA students: Eleora Santor, Lucca Huling, Maddie Piecuch, Camren Murray, Anna Ferrier, Evelyn Hayden, Twyla Weinstein, Ranee Hall, and Jay Hill.

Each student recited personally selected poems for the team of community judges, who evaluated students’ physical presence, voice and articulation, interpretation, evidence of understanding, and overall performance. This year, the team of judges included alumna and Upper Valley actor and director Kay Morton ’76, alumna and former Poetry Out Loud standout Grace Solsaa ’24, and poet and editor Jim Schley.

It was a tight contest that ended in a three-way tie among Maddie Piecuch, Ranee Hall, and Twyla Weinstein. In the event of a tie, the POL rule book calls for organizers to look at one particular part of the judges’ scores, and in doing so, Maddie emerged as the school champion. However, as she knew going into the contest, the poem she had recited was not one from the official 2026 POL list, so she was ineligible to advance. Twyla was the next in line, but she opted not to advance, ceding her spot to Ranee.

Representing Thetford Academy in the semifinals at the Barre Opera House, Ranee shone in her performances. She recited Evening Song by Willa Cather and A Lady by Amy Lowell and was among ten students from the event selected to advance to Vermont’s Poetry Out Loud finals, scheduled for March 5 at the Flynn Theater in Burlington. View Ranee’s performances at 1:38 and 2:23 in this video by the Flynn Theater,

Congratulations to all and a heartfelt thank you to our three judges, accuracy judge Kate Owen, sound tech Abby MacGregor, and lighting tech Lucca Huling, for making Thetford Academy’s Poetry Out Loud event a success.