The Play's the Thing:" at YMCA
By BERNADETTE JOHNSON
Staff Writer
Westfield Evening News
WESTFIELD — Four Westfield middle-school students have ambitious, atypical plans for the weekend.
Ally Morin, Elizabeth Beaulieu, Nina Rodriguez and Abby Wang are aspiring playwrights and will spend this weekend at the YMCA Goyette Camp Shepard Outdoor Center honing their craft. The youths are participating in the first-ever Camp Shepard Playwright’s Project, a joint effort among the YMCA of Greater Westfield, Chester Theatre Company and Westfield State College.
The young students have been meeting at the Y with professional actress and educator Robin Tilghman twice a week since September 14, immersed in character development. I’ve done a lot of acting, but only paid attention to my own specific character before,” said 12-year-old Nina Rodriguez, a student at South Middle School. “Now, I’m learning to look at all the characters, take it apart, deconstruct it and see what makes it all happen. But this isn’t just another writing class. During the marathon weekend play-writing experience, each student will be paired with a professional director, who will guide them through the process.
“We have two directors coming in from New York and two from Northampton,” said Chester Theatre Company Artistic Director Byam Stevens, who will also be directing the students.
“They’ve built character profiles. Thursday (October 8), they’ll meet and interview the actors (Westfield State College students), and they’ll write their plays this weekend,” said Stevens.
“This is the biggest writing project any of them have ever done, working on character, conflict, structure, setting, conflict resolution. It’s challenging, but fun, and the payoff is huge.
When the one-act plays are complete, the students and their respective directors will be joined by a team of actors, designers, stage managers and technicians from Westfield State College to mount full productions of their works to be presented at the Westfield State College Ely Studio Theatre the evenings of October 23 and 24.
“It’s a valuable educational experience for everyone involved,” said Jack Shea, theater professor at WSC.
“Kids’ plays demand different skills from an actor,” said Stevens. “This is serious work. Our approach is very serious. This is not children’s theater.”The directors, actors and everyone involved in the production is on payroll.“To be taken this seriously by a group of adults is an unusual experience for a young person to have,” said Stevens.
“It has a pretty profound impact,” said YMCA Program Operations Director Rosann Scalise. “It’s such a small group of kids and they get an incredible amount of attention, working one-on-one with professional directors. It’s a real confidence booster.
“I believe that the children need to have a venue to express themselves through writing,” said Tilghman, who has been involved with a similar program at Gateway Regional the past five years. “I was an actress for many years and it’s always my joy to be able to pass that on and do it through writing.
“We’re really becoming a company together. I treat them as professionals. They are the playwrights and I’m their guide.”
“These kids’ plays won’t be done by other kids, but by adults, said Stevens.
“They’re used to sitting in a classroom with 25 other kids and one teacher. Here, they’re one kid matched up with a team of adults. It changes the experience totally. They’re seeing their works performed by paid actors before a paying audience at Westfield State College rather than by other students at a school assembly. It gives them a very different sense of the value of what they’ve created.”
Tickets for the evening of one-acts are $5 for adults and $3 for students.The Playwright Project is made possible through a Writer’s Voice grant from the YMCA of the USA (the national Y in Chicago) and a grant from Shurtleff Children’s Services, Inc. of Westfield.
Reprinted from The Westfield Evening News, Thursday, October 8, 2009.
