This past weekend Franklin Academy took two plays to North Carolina Theatre Conference’s High School Festival, where they performed excellently.
The school’s play Body Body, which tackled the problem of bulimia, won awards for both “Best Ensemble” and “Best Play Dealing with Teen Issues.”
The lead in Tuna Fish Eulogy, a difficult play consisting of overlapping dialogue for an interesting choral display, senior Michael Hammett received an Outstanding Acting Award, following in the Franklin Academy alumnus John Lewis’s steps who was presented the same award last year.
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High School Playwrights in the South East States! Here’s a playwriting contest for you…
Are you a high school student who writes? Or perhaps you’re a teacher who works with aspiring playwrights?
The SETC Playwriting Committee has created a new playwriting contest just for high school students. The winning student playwright receives a $250 prize and an invitation to attend the SETC Spring Convention. The winning script will be presented in a staged reading and receive a response from a distinguished panel of critics.
Who’s Eligible: Only high school student playwrights who are currently residing in the ten state SETC member region are eligible for consideration. These states include Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
Entry Window: Submissions accepted between October 1 and December 1
Entry Requirements: The script should be a one-act play that has not been published and has not been professionally produced. Only one play may be submitted by each playwright, and plays must be written by a single playwright - no collaborations.
Submission Format: All scripts must be typed. Hard copies sent via postal mail are preferred, although electronic submissions will be accepted. Scripts will not be returned.
Complete Guidelines and Application: http://www.setc.org/scholarship/hsnewplay.php
Send mail entries to:
Todd Ristau, Director
Graduate Program in Playwriting
Hollins University
PO Box 9602
Roanoke, VA 24020-1602
Questions: Contact Todd Ristau at tristau@hollins.edu or (540) 362-6386.
I rarely feel like Superman. Ok, let’s be honest. I never feel like wearing tights and a red cape, leaping off tall buildings or stopping runaway trains with my bare hands.
In my ordinary Clark Kent life, I’m just a playwright. I put words on a page, I move them around, I try to decide between a period or a question mark. I create characters with issues, I don’t have the issues myself. I create characters of strengths and weaknesses that I can only imagine.
Not exactly superhero stuff. But sometimes the material I create takes on super strength. The metaphorical power of theatre, the ability to use theatre for good can be overwhelming. It can leap tall buildings. It can allow people to throw on tights and a red cape and stop a train. I guess that makes me the enthusiastic sidekick. The happy supporter of my material and those who use it.
I am the sidekick to the teenager who read a monologue from Tick Talk, who then went to his teacher and said, “I thought I was the only one who felt like this. I thought I was alone. This makes me feel, that it’s ok to feel this way. That I might get through it.”
I am the sidekick to the IB class from Sebastian River High School who formed an organization called ‘Art for All.’ Senior Jeffrey Liguori told me about their performance project where they performed the plays from Ten/Two with special needs students. In each play there was one senior, and one special needs student. Most of these students had no theatrical experience. They performed the plays as a fundraiser and the project worked so well, they’re doing it again.
I am the sidekick to the 12-year-old who came to my Beginner’s playwriting workshop and then stayed for the Advanced workshop. Or the teenager who came to my playwriting workshop at FTC, who hasn’t written a play since grade eight and has started something.
Sometimes, there’s really no better position to be in than the sidekick…
“Serious arts education will help them–to understand civilization… to develop creativity, to learn the tools of communication…and to make wiser choices among the products of the arts.”
Alexandra Holtzman’s blog Artistic Circuit is focused on how theatre affects specific communities. I recently read a post where she muses on how arts-ed can and should be used with the community of at risk teenagers. She talks about one company in England, The Geese Theatre Company, who use masks in their work with youth in prisons and on probation. Click here to read.
There’s a group out of California called The Usual Suspects that works with similar youth. They recently initiated a playwriting program, which I think is absoultely - to use the word in the archaic sense - awesome. This is where theatre changes lives.
The Plays / Drama section of About.com is honouring Drama Teachers everywhere with the designation of “Drama Teacher of the Month.”
Is there a special teacher in your life? Someone who inspired your love of the theater? Someone who has nurtured your skills in the dramatic arts? Well, now is your chance to show your appreciation.
Read more about it here, and please nominate your drama teacher today!
Hat tip to David Warlick for sharing this inspirational story about the Seattle Academy of Arts & Sciences
…the arts and physical education were considered to be equal in all ways to the core academic subjects. All students are required to take art (drama, music, visual arts) and PE every day. I managed to finagle extra time in the arts sections of the building, where I met a drama teacher, who, with a colleague is writing a text book, an art teacher, the film teacher, and I waved to a dance instructor through a huge window.
The Seattle Academy creates what they call a “Culture of Performance”. From their mission statement:
Central to a Seattle Academy education is the culture of performance. Students are asked to demonstrate over and over–often reaching for professional standards–what they are learning. Students discover the thrill of achievement and the lessons of failure, and they come to understand that the greater the risk, the greater the reward.
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