2017-18 Resident Playwrights
|
Olivia Bartrand
Grade 11, Strath Haven Residency play: THE PLANETS The Great War has just begun and Gustav Holst is a sad little man who can write music. His daughter is an old maid in a young girl's eye, and his wife is a young girl in the body of an old maid. People are dying far away, and the Holst family is isolated from the world and from each other, and all the while, the planets loom over their heads and circle around in their minds. Chronicling the conception, creation, and presentation of Gustav Holst's famous suite of the same name, The Planets tells of family, war, and things millions of miles away. |
|
Katrina Conklin
Grade 10, The Baldwin School Residency play: YEARS FROM NOW It's the summer of 1914, and Frederick Godfrey's life is miserable. Trapped within the walls of his sprawling, extravagant edwardian mansion; constantly pestered by his rich, doting mother; and semi-aware of the fact his country is on the brink of war; the handsome, young Count is desperate for an escape from the toils of daily life. That escape arrives in the form of an oddly-dressed visitor who appears in Frederick's garden one evening— and quickly turns his world upside down. Frederick finds himself torn between two different realities— suddenly, the life of an idle heir seems less unappealing... |
|
Brenden Dahl
Grade 10, Germantown Friends School www.brendendahl.com Residency play: VOICELESS Fletcher Robinson, a successful documentary filmmaker, has just come up with his next brilliant idea. He wants to visit a homeless shelter and spend time interviewing people, filming their lives and documenting their circumstances. His motives are based on truths, but his ethics when it comes to the process are questionable and verge on exploitative. When Robinson gets snowed in and is forced to spend a day at the shelter, his subjects soon realize that he is using them for another healthy dose of poverty porn designed to bait the Academy, invoke White Guilt, and skyrocket himself onto TIME Magazine’s 100 most influential people. But the unusual circumstances nevertheless allow Fletcher to become privy to a vivid mosaic of stories that outline his subject’s lives, represented through monologues and originally devised movement, and as he begins to see the people behind his ideals, his views shift. Under the guidance of his subjects, Fletcher learns what it is really like to be part of an oppressed population, live in the shadows below people, and feel voiceless. |
|
Dinah Day-Booth
Grade 9, Harriton High School Residency play: FALLING NORTH When Dr. Summers tested his new cancer preventatives on children, he expected to make some mistakes, but instead, he created something else entirely: North, a teenage girl who is extremely powerful, and in more ways than one. North and her outlaw friends, all living off the grid in their radical new country, but they can’t stay that way forever. As the death of one of her friends brings out the worst in her, North goes on a journey that will change everything, and not just for her. |
|
Dan Dwyer
Grade 10, Lower Merion High School Residency play: THE SCARS OF YESTERDAY After pirates seize an Australian luxury liner, an ex-pirate with a change of heart helps an Australian medical student attempt to rescue her family. Meanwhile, a Navy SEAL has gone rogue from her command to save 500 hostages. |
|
Raina Farmer
Grade 9, Upper Darby High School Residency play: THE SWEET PEA SOCIETY After New Yorkers Glenn and Sage move to New Canaan Connecticut, Glenn is approached by the neighborhood gardening club, and pulled into their toxic “friendship”. Things go wrong when Glenn is invited to their swanky garden party, leaving him clueless. |
|
Maya Jennings
Grade 8, Springfield Middle School Residency play: BLUE LIGHTS Taye views her father as darkness. Lee views his aid as an (actual) dummy. Frank sees worlds around him; builds worlds around himself. It seems that only Isa looks around at her life without metaphor. In this experimental piece, the resolve, tether, and perspective of several young adults growing up amongst financial trouble, mental illness, parental illness, disability, and more-as they struggle to find connection in a sea of isolating issues plaguing today's youth. |
|
Esther Kardos
Grade 11, Council Rock High School North Residency play: MEN WHO PLAY GOD Fresh out of a poli sci major and ready to save the world, Carter thinks of himself as everything a rising politician should be - brilliant and fresh, like spring after a bitter winter. As DC's most coveted political manager who has seen this story play out a million times before, Irina thinks of him as everything a rising politician actually is - unimpressive, overly idealistic, brave in the way men usually are before they die in war. Carter's determined to prove her wrong, but the closer to the top he gets, the harder it is for him to ignore the fact that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Irina may be the best in the game at turning a person from a nobody to a somebody, but perhaps the problem lies in Carter not knowing if that somebody is who he wants to become after all. |
|
Jesheidi Laporte
Grade 11, The Arts Academy at Benjamin Rush Residency play: THE LAST SUPPER (LITERALLY) Family events are already awkward and full of fights but imagine hearing that on top of that it's also the last day on earth. Now is the time that they can say everything they hadn't dared to before. Will they be able to die with a clear conscious or waste their last moments with people they'll never truly love? |
|
Alise Mackey
Grade 10, Strath Haven High School Residency play: OUT OF TUNE Breaking news: James Henderson, an African-American man who was a danger to the public with his broken tail-light, was shot and killed by police. Spurred into action, his wife, Valerie, decides to run in the upcoming race for city council. Who will win—the experienced lawyer who is dedicated to the progress of her community, or the chief of police who wants to save the image of his force? |
|
Guillermo Santos
Residency play: LOSERS Leroy has the world’s most creative and groundbreaking lifestory: he’s an angsty high school student with a wise-crackin’ best friend bullied by an annoying cheerleader and her football playing jock boyfriend. He’s lonely and sad and confused, and he has voices in his head that torture him endlessly. But there is one thing that is different about Leroy, one thing that separates him from all the other losers in the world: he has a gun. |
|
Elena Webber
Grade 10, Science Leadership Academy at Beeber Campus More info to come... |
|
Kira Weiner
Grade 9, Springfield Township High School Residency play: MAGENTA INSIDE There is a world inside Genna's head. In Haven, an imaginary city created by Genna as an escape from real life, several personifications of her thoughts live. Things aren't perfect, but Indigo, who personifies childhood innocence, always wins out over Violet, the personification of worry and sadness. But all that changes when a new one appears: Mauveine, who insists on Genna confronting the bad things in the real world. Haven is slowly becoming twisted, filled with shadows and fear. Will Genna face the darkness in the world—and in herself? |
