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| Cast and playwrights onstage at Torey J. Sabatini School. |
Today (March 20) I had the pleasure of directing four delightful
scripts written by student playwrights who attend Torey J. Sabatini Elementary
School in Madison. The staged readings were presented as part of the 2014 Madison Young Playwrights Program.
For those of you unfamiliar with how a Playwrights Theatre assembly works, here’s a quick run down. A director and a company of
four to six actors are given the students’ scripts a few days before the
performance. We meet the morning of the readings for about four hours of
rehearsal. Then we show up at the school in the afternoon and the actors
perform script-in-hand readings for the student playwrights, their classmates,
teachers, and parents. No props. No costumes. No set.
The scripts featured in today’s assembly had a nice
balance of humor and poignancy. In Rising
From the Pitts by Charlotte Sullivan, a girl unexpectedly bonds with her
grandmother after learning she was once a contestant on Star Search. In Benji van der Hulst’s untitled script, three
brothers anxiously await the arrival of a special package in the mail. Sassyfrass Sisters by Keira Munter shows
high drama between three girls at summer camp. Finally, in The Stapler’s Revenge by Artha Abeysignhe, a pair of staple
removers, an exotic pen, and a ruler work together to defeat an evil stapler.
Today was the first Madison Young Playwrights Program
cast to be comprised of only women. Natalie Bailey, Rosemary Glennon, Brittany
Goodwin, and Summer Hortillosa are all versatile, generous actresses with a
sincere enthusiasm for performing material by and for children.
People familiar with the New Jersey Young PlaywrightsContest might recognize Summer Hortillosa as a winner of the 2007 New Jersey
Young Playwrights Contest in the High School Division. I remember watching (and
loving) the reading of her script seven years ago. It was moving to watch
Summer take the stage today and offer a new generation of young writers the
opportunity to see their work come to life.
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| Recognizing the playwrights after the performance. |
Perhaps my favorite moment of directing a Playwrights
Theatre assembly is meeting the playwrights after the readings. It’s always fun
to match a student’s face to script and to see each of their reactions when an
entire auditorium applauds their hard work and creativity.
My
Favorite Lines
Rising From the Pitts by
Charlotte Sullivan
EMILY: Star Search, what the heck is that?
SOPHIE: It was sort of like American Idol back in the olden days.
Untitled by Benji van der Hulst
DOODLE: No…maybe…possibly…ok!
Fine! It was me!
Sassyfrass Sisters by Keira
Munter
LUCY: Let’s get you cleaned up. Not everyone gets a
dress from Paris.
CAROLINE: You mean, a
specially-designed dress from Paris.
The Stapler’s Revenge by Artha
Abeysignhe
JERSLISS: Rulers, because of
their name, are rulers. It’s kind of unfair, but that’s just how it is.
Dania Ramos is a writer and a theatre professional. She has directed student
work for the NJPAC’s Young Writers Workshop and PTNJ’s Young Playwrights
Festivals and Language-in-Motion Assemblies. She's also a program coordinator
for Montclair State University’s College of the Arts, Office of Education and
Community Outreach. Dania's play Hielo (developed through PTNJ's New
Jersey Emerging Women's Project) was recently named runner-up in Repertorio
Espa ñol's 2013 MetLife Nuestras Voces Competition. She
holds an MA in Creative Writing from Wilkes University and a BFA in Theatre
Performance from Montclair State University. 
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