'Writes of Spring': bringing stories to life on stage

'Writes of Spring' is a yearly collaboration between graduate students in Theater for Young Audiences at the University of Central Florida, the Orlando Repertory Theatre and 1000+ students in grades K-12, who submit poems, essays or short stories around a theme.  This year, following the prompt "When I put on .....", over a hundred pieces were selected to be woven into a play by Amanda Hill.  The production, titled "if not now, when" will perform May 1 and 2, with UCF students as actors and directed by Courtney Grile.

Read the article in UCF Today

'Gender Identity, Empathy, and a Trilingual Goat': interview with US playwright Gabriel Jason Dean by Abra Chusid

It’s a story about about two young boys who become friends, despite their differences.  It takes place in Southern California, on Halloween; the Santa Ana Winds are blowing very hard.--which is funny because they were actually causing a lot of havoc when we did this play at UT: an added bonus. Doodle is the new kid in the quad, and he meets Reno, a boy dressed as a Vaudeville Vampire.  Reno is wearing a ballet tutu, and reveals that he not only wears ballet tutus on Halloween, but sometimes at home as well.  It’s really the story of Doodle coming to understand Reno, and to accept Reno for who he is.   Doodle actually ends up transforming Reno’s grandfather’s views and beliefs about his grandson as well.  And there’s a talking goat; an imaginary talking goat.  Did I mention that part?

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'12 Miles From Nowhere On Tour' (Freddie Machin, UK)

November 2011

In 2009 Action Transport Theatre Company invited four actor-writers to research, compose and ultimately perform a play for the rural youth community of Cheshire. During the two-year process, we have met and workshopped ideas with those young people, workshopped together as writers, written collaboratively, presented readings across Cheshire and finally toured the play – 12 MILES FROM NOWHERE – back to the communities where it was formed. The tour comprises of a mixture of venues including school performances at lunchtime, evening performances at village halls and a week of matinee, morning matinee and evenings at Whitby Hall, Action Transport’s theatre in Ellesmere Port.

It was always intended that the writers of the play would perform in the inevitable tour and I am one of the three who have completed that journey. It was therefore thought possible to schedule an intensive, two-week rehearsal process rather than the relative luxury of the usual three. Action Transport like the majority of arts organisations in the UK suffered a cut in their funding in the last spending review. This in part led to the postponement of our tour and redundancies within the company, so a two-week rehearsal seemed to suit everyone.

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'How Theater for Young People Could Save the World' (Lauren Gunderson, USA)

March 20th is World Theater for Children and Young People Day. Some of you might be thinking, "Oh lord, why do we need a day to celebrate actors being silly, wearing bright colors and singing obnoxiously at squirming kiddos and bored parents?"

But if you think that's what Theatre for Young People is, you're missing out on truly powerful, hilarious, bold, engaging, surprising theater that might just save the world.

Around the world artists are creating a new stripe of Theatre for Young People that combines the elegance of dance, the innovation of devised theater, the freshness of new plays, the magnetism of puppetry and the inciting energy of new musicals. Kids have access to more and more mature theatrical visions premiering from Washington, D.C.'s Kennedy Center to Atlanta's Synchronicity Theatre to San Francisco's Handful Players to Ireland to Adelaide to Kosovo to Cape Town.

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'Don't Call It Sweet' (Sarah Coleman, USA)

(Originally published by HowlRound on March 10, 2012.)

Recently, I told a well-respected artistic leader in the theater community about the MFA graduate program I am currently enrolled in—Drama and Theatre for Youth and Communities at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). He responded in a dismissive tone, “that is sweet.” A few weeks later, I sat in the lobby after The Transition of Doodle Pequeño—a play for all ages produced by UT’s Department of Theatre and Dance—and listened in as fellow theater students praised, “that show was so cute!” I don’t think that a play with themes of gender identity and bullying is cute, I think it is critical. I don’t think theater with and for young people is sweet, I think it is essential.

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