Youth Ink!
Posted by Carrie Hughes on June 5th, 2008 Cast members of Echo In Silence: Things Left Unsaid |
Usually, when you blog readers get an update on what’s going on in rehearsal from the literary office, you get it from the lovely Elizabeth, the blog’s usual literary correspondent. But this time around, you have to make due with an update from me because Elizabeth is, at this very moment, simultaneously dramaturging FIVE plays in our Youth Ink! Festival! (They are each 10-ish minutes long, but still—FIVE. I am in awe.)
“But wait,” you say, if you are a blog reader who hasn’t been deeply immersed in McCarter culture for years. “What is this Youth Ink! Festival that has spirited away our intern?” The Youth Ink! (which, if you put the space elsewhere reads You Think! Clever, no? I worked here for over a year before I figured that out.) Festival is the culmination of our Youth Ink! residencies, in which McCarter education staff and guest teaching artists go into high schools (five this year) and, over the course of several weeks, introduce the students to the principles of playwriting. (Principle #1: Action=what a character wants. If you want more you, have to do Youth Ink or be very, very nice to Paula Alekson, our high school residency coordinator and Youth Ink! guru. Paula enjoys Bent Spoon ice cream if you are looking for bribes.) Over the course of the residency the students work on writing a 10-minute play. Once those plays are complete, McCarter brings in a crack team of actors, who give EVERY play a reading, so the playwright can hear what it sounds like performed.
All those plays are also submitted for consideration for the final Youth Ink! Festival. In April, a committee of McCarter artistic and education staff members sits down and reads them. The top play from each school is selected for a workshop production, here at McCarter, using professional actors. The playwrights are encouraged to continue revising their plays incorporating the feedback they get from their director and dramaturg (this is where Elizabeth gets busy) and what they learn during the rehearsal process.
The plays were performed last weekend for friends and family, and this week we have student matinees all week, so that all the kids who participated in the program can come see their peers’ work. The plays are intense, passionate, and creative. It’s also amazing—having read drafts back in April—to see how they’ve evolved. Things are tighter, character journeys more complete, ideas fully fleshed out…it reminded me just how much of good writing is in the rewriting.
As a McCarter staff member, I also have to say that I love that Youth Ink, in addition to bringing really cool teenagers in to the theater, is also both a graduation and a reunion for our junior staff. Both our directing/producing interns are directing pieces in the festival, and the other three directors are all former directing interns, now moved on to careers in theater. Plus, of course, the lovely Elizabeth (FIVE PLAYS, people. FIVE NEW plays.) It’s great to have them all back and to know that our playwrights are being well taken care of by artists who share McCarter’s approach to new play development.
We love Youth Ink!
This year the winning plays are:
Contents of a Book
By Nisherrah De’Yone Greene of Willingboro High School
Directed by Jade King Carroll
Facing charges of burglary and murder, Maleeka Mitchell takes the stand to answer for the choices she has made. In retelling the story of her life, she explores the way her present actions are a product of her past.
A Part of Me Missing
by Shanae Terrell of New Brunswick High School
Directed by Michael Grayman
Melinda never knew her father, and the few happy memories she has of him may all have been lies. Now he’s dead, and she’ll never know if he really loved her. At least Jordan is there, as always, to talk things through.
Echo in Silence: Things Left Unsaid
by Phoebe Rose Sandford of West Windsor-Plainsboro High School South
Directed by Marisol Rosa-Shapiro
In a surreal world, five people are finally given the chance to say the one thing they’ve never been able to speak aloud. But what effect does this have on Robbie, who is forced to play the role of everyone else’s listener?
If the Cushion Fits, Sit
by Brandy H. of South Hunterdon Regional High School
Directed by Larissa Lury
Ezra wakes up in a strange new world, in which Africa is the only continent warm enough to support human life. The survival of an entire village depends on his ability to prove his own worthiness and potential.
Interaction
by Alexandra Pike of Princeton Day School
Directed by Alexis Williams
Harry and Hallie can’t seem to move past the car crash that caused their lives to momentarily collide, until an imagined interaction sets them both finally free.
Posted by Carrie Hughes, Literary Manager at McCarter Theatre Center.
