Franklin’s Drama Club won a spot at the Dramafest semifinals for the first time in 10 years for its production of Rebel Without a Cause last Sunday.

Dramafest is an annual threatre competition hosted by the Massachusetts Educational Theatre Guild featuring one-act plays from various local high schools.

Seniors Grant Spinella, Ryan Glynn, and Tara Lambert each won individual acting awards. Seniors Kristen Kinney, Shannon Kinney, Chris Cloutier, and Devin Burns, and freshman Cam Angliss, won an ensemble award. Junior Kalen Hughes won an award for music composition, and the entire Franklin Arts Academy won a set award.

Tara, who plays Judy, said, “The whole cast worked so so so great together considering how much pressure we were under and I could not be prouder to call us all a big theatre family.”

Marushka Waters, Franklin High’s theatre teacher, said she had not been expecting the huge win. She expressed her gratitude for her large, hard-working cast, and commended the students who pared down the script to fit into the Dramafest time slot. She attributed the win partly to the new school, saying, “It’s like driving a nice car, having a new pair of shoes, it almost gives you an illusion of goodness and greatness.. Before we had a theatre with tape on the walls, and now we have state-of-the-art sound and light [equipment].”

Drama Club will now perform at the semifinal competition on Saturday, March 14.