Tuesday, November 25, 2014

The butler forms a family


Just came across this article on the recent production of The Butler Did It! at Selah High School in Selah, WA. It's one of the best I've read, with vivid details and lots of interesting quotes. What's more, it was written for the Yakima Herald-Republic by a sophomore at the school.

Well done, Colton. You've got a bright future ahead of you as a journalist, if you choose to go that route.

The best part of the story? Learning how the cast became a close-knit family through the three-month (!) rehearsal process. As Aleksandra Pawlak, a foreign exchange student Poland who played Edwina Corry, said: “Being with all these people shows that I have a place here.”

That's theatre in a nutshell: providing a place--a family, a home--for those who may not fit in anywhere else.

Warning: The article does includes a spoiler, revealing the name of the murderer. If you don't want to know, you may not want to read the article.

Monday, November 10, 2014

A new playwriting workshop

I'm excited to be part of the Colorado High School Thespian Conference again this year. I'm even more excited to be unveiling a brand new workshop: Five Ways to Punch Up Your Playwriting.

This workshop is more practical that the one I led last year. It assumes that you're past the beginner stage and are ready to write scenes that grab your audience by the throat. In it, you'll learn how to give your play a hook, the one thing every character needs and the secret to subtext.

So if you're heading to the conference and you'd like to develop a more hard-hitting approach to playwriting, look me up. The workshop is at 2:15pm and 3:45pm on Friday, December 5 in Room 108.