Teen West: Year 6
Him Her Them Us
featuring Red Sky at Morning by Claire Willett
and LOST_FOR_WORDS by Jeffrey Denight
In its sixth year collaborating with SouthWest
StageWorks at Wilson High School, Playwrights West company members Claire
Willett and Jeffrey Denight have each penned a one-act, investigating the
themes and challenges associated with gender and coming of age in the 21st Century. The
plays will be presented as an evening of theatre with an intermission
separating them. One play is more comedic in tone, the other more
tragic.
Red Sky at Morning
by Claire Willett
(synopsis)
Since
freshman year, Marcus and his friends have been getting together once a month
to play a pirate-themed role-playing game called “Red Sky at
Morning.” But chaos strikes the group after one member’s sexist
comment ends up posted on their high school’s anonymous insult blog, where
anyone can say anything about anybody. To clear his sister Zoe, who
is falsely accused of making the post, Marcus attempts to track down the real
culprit; but soon everyone’s anonymous internet identities begin to collide
with real life, leading them all to question the ways in which our
understanding of what it means to “be a man” and “be a woman” in the world are
shaped, complicated, and challenged by the online communities we live in.
L O S T_F O R_W O R D S
by Jeffrey Denight
(synopsis)
As
language is policed between and within groups-- at first casually and then with
mounting severity-- words begin to lose their power and meaning to the result
of a quickly deteriorating world. L O S T_F O R_W O R D S is a modernist
drama exploring themes of coming out, self-identifying, role expectations and
perfection, and gendered spaces.
The
thematic choice for this season is based largely on observations at Wilson High
School and in schools across the city and country. More and
more, the definitions and expectations of gender are being challenged and
redefined. The emerging generation is front and center in confronting what
may be a paradigm shift in how gender and identity are both claimed and
perceived.
The show
will be directed by Playwrights West founding member Matthew B. Zrebski. Him Her Them Us will open
on February 15, 2018.
On Tuesday 9/19/17 at 7:00p:
You are invited to come hear the first drafts of these plays. The readings will take place in the drama room. We are asking that students take roles and read cold. THIS IS NOT AN AUDITION!!! This is just about having fun, taking parts, and hearing the plays out loud. The playwrights will be in attendance and may have some questions afterwards to help them in their rewrite process.
A sign-up sheet will go up soon on the call board. Please sign up if you would like to attend and/or read a part.
