TOWAMENCIN – Amid an atmosphere of both fierce competition and good-natured fun, eleventh grade honors English students enjoyed an afternoon of dramatic readings, trivia questions, and overall literature enjoyment at North Penn’s third annual Lit Fest. Buoyed by the excitement of their teachers, participants cheered on their classmates as they showed off their knowledge of works such as Macbeth, Moby Dick, and The Scarlet Letter in hopes of winning the coveted Lit Fest trophy.

“It takes a lot of work to plan,” said junior honors English teacher Elizabeth Weizer.  “The first thing we have to do is create the questions for the Knowledge Bowl. And then we try to get our students really excited about it, have them sign up for the dramatic readings and create pieces of artwork for the art contest.”

Junior honors teachers Megan Schmidt, Danielle O’Reilly, Elizabeth Weizer, and Kevin Manero spent months preparing their students for this event, ensuring that the competition between classes would be hard-fought.

“[To prepare in class] we just read the literature and make sure that we cover everything thoroughly and have good discussions,” Weizer said. “But really, the main preparation for my students was just getting them interested.”

The third installment of Lit Fest started off with dramatic readings from all participating teachers and a few students. Student readings, which included Jamie Devine’s masterful delivery of a passage from The Scarlet Letter, Jake Bell’s theatrical reading of The Raven, and a series of group readings from Macbeth, had participants enthusiastically cheering on their classmates. Meanwhile, student art projects were showcased and looked over by a cabal of judges, which included English Department chair Luke Henry and AP English teacher Janet Kratz. In the end, Liz Jebran won first place in the speech category for her presentation of an excerpt from Macbeth, while first place in the art contest was awarded to Tyler Foulke.

The main excitement of Lit Fest occurred during the Knowledge Bowl, as students proudly rooted for their friends while puzzling over the questions amongst their classmates.

“I enjoyed the competitiveness of the trivia,” said junior honors English student Katie Kratz. “I liked getting to see how much I actually remembered what we learned in class this year.”

Between rounds of trivia, ebullient emcee Kevin Manero passed out gift cards to students who volunteered the correct answers to bonus questions, often seeking out students who showed the most “Lit Fest spirit.” Excitement for Lit Fest was not hard to find, as many students proudly wore t-shirts created for the event.

As the event drew to a close, breaths were bated and tensions were high as the enthusiastic mastermind behind Lit Fest, English teacher Ellen McKee, calculated the scores from the Knowledge Bowl. Helping to relieve the tension was former Lit Fest participant and current North Penn senior Max Munoz, who presented a rap about Lit Fest to a captive audience.

The announcement of the winners had multiple classes celebrating: in third place was Danielle O’Reilly’s fourth period period class, with all of Elizabeth Weizer’s classes and O’Reilly’s first and third period classes tying for second place. However, the Lit Fest trophy will continue its reign in Kevin Manero’s room, as his sixth period class was crowned winner of Lit Fest 2015.

Even for those who didn’t win, the excitement of Lit Fest created a great memory for students who participated.

“I think [the best part for students] is just being in the auditorium with 300 of their peers, and trash-talking other teachers and saying ‘oh, we’re gonna win,’ and seeing all of the talent that their fellow students have, with the dramatic readings and the paintings,” explained Weizer. “So I think it’s just that air of excitement when you walk into the auditorium.”

As the third annual Lit Fest drew to a close, it was clear that students also felt that ambience of excitement. As they return back to the daily classroom grind of their junior year, students will surely continue to feel the excitement of the event.