The past few weeks have been filled with writing my first new play in two years. Really, I’ve not written a new full length play in almost four years. There’s many reasons for that, not the least of which has been my focus shift toward curating and producing others’ work. It’s been great producing, but I’m extremely happy to return to the creative. A couple weeks back, I spoke to an artistic director/producer friend of mine at another NYC theatre company, and I asked her what she is doing these days. She said she is getting back to acting and directing, which was what she originally got into the business to do. We laughed that we started our companies so we could create our own work, but the administrative rigors of producing and fundraising have kept us from creating original work of our own. She was very happy to be back in the creative saddle again.

So am I. Recently, I received a commissioned from a high school in Elburn, IL to write a play for their students. It was doubly exciting to have this request come from none other than my own mother, Ilene Carter. For eight years she’s taught theatre at Kaneland High School and she’s directed the fall play and spring musical. She has her Masters in Theatre Education from NYU, and she’s been inspiring teenagers to enter the business of theatre for over ten years. She spearheaded a campaign to build a new 750 seat auditorium at the high school, and the referendum passed, which afforded the district to build a beautiful palace of a theater. It’s larger than most Broadway stages, has state of the art sound and lighting (better than that in most professional New York theaters) and a hydraulic lift on which an entire orchestra can lower down and up into the pit. It’s pretty sweet. And my mom was a big part of it coming to pass. She’s retiring from teaching this year, and after saying we were going to do this year after year, it’s finally happening. You can imagine my anticipation as I prepare to fly to Chicago today and work for three days with her students.

My biggest concern on writing a play for students (aside from certain “moral” restrictions…read: no swearing) was writing something distinctly for their voices. I didn’t want to write some glossed over After School Special issue play, and I didn’t want to write a play where teenagers were playing adults. It had to be about them…for them. How to do this? Easy. Create a world in which adults don’t exist. I devised a story that takes place in the not-to-distant future where everyone aged 9 years and older was wiped out by a world-wide pandemic. The play, itself, unfolds 10 years after all adults were wiped from Earth, and the children, who are now teenagers, live at outposts created by their parents who hope by leaving the few remaining children video lessons (they use power from solar panels for power to view the videos, but don’t have enough real electricity to run much other than small household appliances) hopefully, they will learn what they need to rebuild humanity.

At the top of the play, the tribe receives an S.O.S. distress signal from another outpost in Old Chicago. Nothing else. No audio, no video, no written communication. Only S.O.S. After much debate, the tribe sends a band of seven out to determine who or what may be on the other end. Through the trials of their quest, they learn more about themselves and humanity itself.

Mom cast the play last night with all 31 students who auditioned. I wrote it with large group scenes so as to include as many students as possible, so I’m glad she was able to incorporate everyone who wanted to participate in this unique experience. I’m heading off to catch a plane now, and tonight we’ll have our first read through of the script. I hear they are very excited to be working on a new play. Some are hypothesizing how the play ends. Some are science fiction freaks geeked about the future setting. Some are aspiring playwrights and will just be sitting in to learn about process. It’s very cool.

Boarding the plane now. More on the first read through tomorrow…