Playing, Writing, Playwriting

I played hard as a kid.

I liked to write, too.

In fact, I wrote a play when I was nine, and I forced my brother and childhood friends to partake in its performance.  I took the story from a book called The Other Kitten, and renamed the play, To Think of Others First.  We still have a home video of me actively directing a group of children, ages 2-8, moving props, making announcements, and just being a generally bossy presence "on stage."

What few opportunities I had growing up to do any kind of acting, I relished--once in grade school, once in seventh grade, and in speech class/auditions in 8th/9th grades.  I was often shy in social situations, but as an actress I wasn't terrible.  With coaching and confidence, I might have actually gotten into it.

It's hard to do that when you're homeschooled for much of your life, and when most stage parts are of characters who don't look like you.

This past semester, I got to work with a playwright through a seminar at Yale Law School.  I got to write my own creative reflections and dramatic scenes, and I completed two short plays.  My plays were read aloud, even as I participated in table reads of others' plays.

Near the end of the semester, some really difficult things happened at the Divinity School.  I used playwriting as a means of processing and commenting on those things.  The final product (a 10-page play, accompanied by a 9-page reflection) became my final assignment for the seminar.

My dad, after reading the play, said, "You write things like a hen lays eggs.  I hope you continue writing always, no matter what kind of vocation you choose."

During Christmastime, friends send newsletters with pictures of their growing families.  I have no such progress of which to boast, but I have given birth to creative work that reflects family history, social movements, and cultural realities.  Our Creator has gifted us with the ability to perpetuate life, whether that is through procreation or through creative projects.