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| Alexa Derman 12th grade, Westfield High School |
Hurricane Season was initially part of a series of
short plays by a number of playwrights called SOS: Stories of
Sandy performed by Contagious Drama Workshop. When I was offered the chance
to write for the production, I knew immediately I was going to write something
about mortality. Sandy was a crazy experience for me because of the same reason
as Kim, in the play -- it burst the illusion of invincibility provide by
growing up in the suburbs. I was actually assigned my actors in advance,
before I wrote it, and when I met with the pair, a (relatively shy) boy and a
(relatively outgoing) girl, they both said they wanted to play roles that
challenged them. Thus, for the boy I created the boisterous Joey and for the
girl, the more reserved Kim.
2. You have won multiple awards for your
writing in a variety of genres. How does your writing process differ between
forms?
I think my writing process doesn't differ so much between
forms as between types. What I mean is, I have stories that are very
dialogue-based the way Hurricane Season is, and the process for
those works are similar: usually some argument just explodes out of me around 2
am and then I refine it. But I also have plays and prose pieces that are more
"involved," more focused around a single character, and more
collage-based -- right now I'm writing a play that collapses into a Shakespeare
one at its climax. For those pieces, I usually end up doing a lot of research
and planning.
3. You have also won awards for your work
as a hair and make-up artist. Please tell us more about that work!
I'm the hair and makeup artist in my school theatre department, and it was definitely a happy accident -- my director asked me out
of the blue to take over my sophomore year, and I jumped in despite having zero
experience. Many hours of YouTube videos and practice later, it's become
something I really love to do. We did Bat Boy last year, in 2013, and
creating a half-bat half-boy mutant was one of my favorite projects. Every day
it took about an hour to get him ready, but it was worth it!
4. What has been your most memorable theatre
experience to date?
It's a tie. This past fall, my high school did a production
of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses, based on the Ovid of the same name.
It's a beautiful show about myth and transformation -- and it also took place
in a massive pool we built in our pit! The cast and crew was very small, and
the show was gorgeous and emotional. It was a great final fall play. (And then
we were lucky enough to win Outstanding Overall Production at the MSU Theatre
Night Awards!) On the flip side, four or five years ago I was Dorothy an
all-girls cast of The Wiz at my hippie drama sleepaway camp, and even
though it wasn't of the highest "quality" I had such a fun time
jammin' to "Ease on Down" and bopping with the eight-year-old
munchkins. Just a really, really fun time.
5. If you could have any super-human power,
what would it be and why?
Definitely super-human memory. Not only would it save me
time on Calculus homework, but also because it would be really cool to just be
able to launch into page-long speeches and poems whenever they feel
relevant.
See Alexa's play Hurricane Season at the 2014 New Jersey Young Playwrights Festival on Tuesday, June 3 beginning at 7:00 p.m. Performances will be held in the University Center Little Theatre on the campus of Kean University. Please reserve your space by contacting us at njypf@ptnj.org. See you there!
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