High school groups will perform at a festival in Winthrop.

Actors from Lisbon and Gray-New Gloucester high schools will be among 18 groups from across Maine to compete Saturday in the finals of the Maine Drama Festival.

Competitions will be held simultaneously in Camden and Winthrop.

One winner will be chosen at Winthrop High School, where both of the local groups will compete among six schools. Two more winners will be chosen at Camden Hills Regional High School, where 12 schools will compete. Awards ceremonies are planned for late Saturday.

The three winners will move on to a New England-wide festival, held April 22 through 24 at Lawrence High School in Fairfield.

The state competition – in which students perform one-act plays – has been going on since 1935. The only interruption was in 1943, when World War II upstaged the event.

This year’s competition began with 80 teams in competitions at nine schools, including Poland Regional High School.

Lisbon won its competition with a play titled “The Bright, Blue Mailbox Suicide Note.” Gray-New Gloucester’s play is “Country Gothic.”