Young CA Playwrights Showcase Their Work
21 students, more than 30 of Denver's best actors and directors, 2 nights, 4 1/2 hours of dramatic readings. Those are the statistics behind what happened at the Curious Theatre on March 18 and 19. But the numbers don't begin to capture the full impact of the evening. For the seventh year CA student writers had the opportunity to develop short plays under the watchful eye of Dee Covington, Curious Theatre's education director and one of its founding members and education director. After weeks of writing and re-writing, they then turned their plays over to professional actors and directors who staged informal readings of the work last Sunday and Monday nights.
This year's theme was "Blindsided" and students all wrote 10-15 minute pieces that captured a moment of total surprise or revelation for one or more characters. The theme was inspired by the Curious Theatre production of Becky Shaw by Gina Gionfriddo (playing now through April 14). As I am every year, I was quite impressed with the quality and intensity of the students' work. While some featured teenage characters, most of them did not, as students stretched themselves to inhabit the world views of older characters in some sort of conflict. Most of all, I was amazed at the high level of empathy and intellectual sophistication in all the pieces. As a playwright myself, I am a strong believer that giving voice to characters is an important and meaningful way for students (or adults for that matter) to express themselves. They must step inside the minds of their characters thereby coming to realize deeper truths about the human condition.
I can also attest that all 5 C's were on strong display throughout the process and production of these pieces. Critical thinking, communication, character, collaboration and, of course, creativity came together impressively. The program is part of Curious New Voices (CNV), a Denver-area program for writers ages 15-21. Seven years ago Betsey Coleman and I met with Dee to inquire about a possible collaboration; now CNV has become one of our signature programs.
The young playwrights this year are an eclectic and creative group, including five seniors: Alyssa Miller (in her fourth year of participation), Samantha Schonberger, Raquel DeSantis, Jared Jolton and Tessa Bell. All 21 students were nominated for participation by their freshman-year English teachers. Most who enter the program have not written dramatic scenes of this kind before but showed creative writing promise.
One of the plays from the second night was a monologue about a lion-tamer, entitled "Dying Embers," written by junior Emma Grueskin. I have included an excerpt below.
"It was night and I couldn’t sleep for some reason that I still haven’t quite figured out. I’m used to sleeping on that train, we all are. But I couldn’t fall asleep. The night was dark and endless and the train’s groaning was muffled to me, somehow. I got out of bed and walked 2, 3, 4, 5 cars back to the animals. I went into Daniel’s car. Ironic, I know. Daniel the lion. I didn’t come up with it, one of my father’s jokes that’s meaning only dawned on me later in life (hesitates before returning to his story). Anyway, he whipped around, my fellow insomniac. But I felt no spark, no lightning, no instinctual flight response. I was rooted to the floor. He moved towards me, silently, almost gliding across the train car. The next thing I knew, he was right next to me, body against body, looking at me. Daring to make eye contact with me. This was the first time that he had ever truly been in control. I’m not sure how, if he pushed me, or if I moved, but somehow I came to be sitting in the corner of the car, on a large pile of straw. The air smelled like hay and the wild, musky scent he always had. I closed my eyes, sleep coming to me at the worst time, my guard completely lowered. Like a dull pain, I felt, for the first time all night, the urge to leave. To run from this den, this lair of danger. For the first time, my instincts kicked into gear and my heart rate accelerated. Then, I felt an enormous weight slump down beside me. It leaned against me and something tickled my nose. I opened my eyes to see something I had never seen before in my whole life, and would never have dreamed of attempting. But no alarm bells went off. That urge to flee ebbed and disintegrated until I felt elation and calm."
© 2023 Colorado Academy
