Most theater students can expect to act in a play, but few have the opportunity to write one, let alone have it performed by professional actors. For eight lucky Theater 3/4 students, this is a reality, thanks to TheatreWorks’ outreach program “Students Speak: The Playwright’s Project.” The 28 students had four weeks to write a one-act play that was fewer than 30 minutes long. A three-member panel then reviewed the plays and selected eight of them to be performed in a “staged reading” by TheatreWorks actors Dec. 11, after the publication of this issue, at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

The reading panel, made up of theatre and English teacher Jordan Huizing, TheatreWorks playwright Robert Alexander and TheatreWorks Director of Community Engagement Mary Sutton selected the plays based on the quality of writing, character depth and workability on the stage. Alexander was impressed by the depth of the students’ work. “These writers are pretty mature for high school students,” he said. “The kids were pretty brave in terms of the subject matter they chose.”

Autobiographical roots

Most students incorporated at least some autobiographical elements into their work, either accidentally or on purpose. After all, “the best plays and the best ideas come from something that you have experienced in the past,” according to senior María Cristina Lalonde.

Lalonde’s play drew upon her own experiences, coupling memories of her years in a Catholic girls’ school with a cynical voice inspired by best-selling author David Sedaris. “Sermon” is a ten-minute monologue given by a dishonest preacher to his new congregation in New Mexico. “I was trying to get at the kind of thing that I wouldn’t want to see in a church.” Lalonde said. “He’s a really exaggerated version of me and the corrupt priests I used to know.”

Lalonde and the preacher, Father Jonathan Helmic, share a strict Catholic upbringing. “He was forced into this religion without having any say in it and I’m kind of speaking out against it,” she said.

Junior Katelyn Hempstead also drew upon religion to find inspiration for her play, “The Gospel of Martha,” which explores the relationship between Jesus and a little-known biblical character, Martha.

Developing dialogue

Hempstead incorporated aspects of her family members and friends into the play’s characters without even noticing it. “I started listening to people’s conversations, especially my family’s conversations, and putting little bits of them into the play,” she said. “It wasn’t on purpose; it just sort of happened.”

Junior Shani Chabansky found herself doing the same thing. “If somebody said something that sort of seemed like one of the characters, I would work that in,” she said. Chabansky’s play “Stretch Marks” deals with the emotional impact of long distance relationships and is based loosely upon the Death Cab for Cutie album Transatlanticism, released in 2003.

The playwrights know that stage dialogue is not the same as everyday dialogue. “You can’t have ‘like’ in every other sentence even though that’s how people speak,” Chabansky said.

Senior Maggie Cole was inspired by Neil Simon, author of “The Odd Couple,” to write her 1950s sit-com like comedy, “The Butters.“ She attributed the ease with which she wrote realistic dialogue to her theater background. “We [as actors] know what sounds awkward on a stage,” she said. “We know what can and can’t be said.”

Senior Laura Fraley agreed.“[My theatre background] helps me know what’s easier to say so that actors don’t have like a tongue twister or a really difficult line,” she said. “It helps me know what to write so they can be more expressive.” Fraley’s play “No Clowning Around,” deals with the troubles of a depressed middle-aged man, Happy the Clown, who entertains young children at birthday parties.

Letting actors be expressive in their dialogue was one of junior Ben Christel’s biggest challenges. Christel found it difficult to be true to silence when writing lines for his characters. “There were times when I wanted everyone to be silent and have time to react to what was being said non-verbally,” he said.

Christel noted the differences between theater and film. “You can’t zoom in on somebody’s face and get their expressions,” he said.

Letting go of the reins

Hopefully, having professional actors perform the staged readings helped to effectively convey the authors’ messages. Some playwrights, however, were apprehensive about seeing someone else’s interpretation of their work. Although the students had a few hours to work with the professional directors and actors, they took somewhat of a backseat role in the process.

“I know the actors will be really capable and the director will be great but I’m just nervous to see how they’re going to interpret it because I know it will be different than how it is in my head,” Hempstead said.

Chabansky was concerned about the specificity of her stage directions. “I got really worried about how in detail I could get, like if I could write, ‘cry here,’” she said. “I started thinking too hard about the actors and how they were going to act it out. I just hope the directors don’t think I’m just some crazed teenager who wants to write about love.”

Mary Sutton, coordinator of the Playwright’s Project, tries to add as much depth to the plays as possible. Sutton directed the students’ plays with the help of two other TheatreWorks directors. “We’ll block it, we’ll add in moments, we’ll try to bring the play alive as much as possible,” she said. “It’s usually pretty active.”

Sutton, who has led The Playwright’s Project since its inception eight years ago, said that the playwrights can be as involved as they want to in the direction process. “Some playwrights say nothing and the director sort of initiates the conversation and some playwrights we’ve had are really in there hands on telling the actors what to do,” she said. “Usually the playwrights can see where it’s not working and come forward.”

The playwrights have gotten much more out of the project besides a script and experience working with professional actors and directors. Almost all of the students said that they have more respect for playwrights now than before, which will undoubtedly improve their acting.

Hempstead plans to continue work on her play. “I’ve come to care a lot about the characters and I don’t want to let them go once this project is over,” she said.

Alexander was especially intrigued by Hempstead’s selection of characters. “To write about Christ as a high school student is a very interesting choice,” he said.

Hempstead chose to look at the story from a secular standpoint. “I wanted to give it a nonreligious point of view and take a step back and just look at it as a dramatic story,” she said.