Drama Lesson -How a young playwright's work turned Homophobes into a tizzy

[Quetzal]

Drama Lesson
How a Playwright Learned Improvisation

It's a high school Saturday night, and "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," the spring musical at Stone Bridge High in Ashburn, has just ended. The scene turns to shrieks of "Omigod!" and happy weeping as 60-plus cast members and numerous crew people spill into the auditorium for flowers and hugs with family and friends.

The show's producer and assistant director, 17-year-old senior Sabrina Audrey Jess, figures she has about half an hour before the cast party begins. With an actor friend to keep her company -- a friend who will come and go, leaving at one point to get out of costume -- she scrunches in one of the back rows, pressing her feet against the seat in front of her. This is where Sabrina begins to explain how "Offsides," her one-act drama about a high school football player who realizes he's gay, landed her in an ugly political brawl.

"I had a lot of senior friends last year who went through a really hard time," she says. "Some of them didn't tell anybody because of how scared they were. There were some who told people, and their parents said they were going to get kicked out of their house, or they had to go to counseling, and if they didn't go to counseling they would be forced to leave the house -- it was just a lot of stuff. And it didn't make sense to me."

So Sabrina wrote "Offsides" -- but only because she needed something to direct for the school's annual one-act festival and couldn't find what she was looking for. She didn't have a particular topic in mind. She was just hunting for a comedy.

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/15/AR2005051501060.html

I couldn't help but laugh at the immature reaction of the intolerant parents.

Luckily, this girl has a bright future ahead.

[im10ashus]

1. WOW!

Great post! Bless her heart. She has the courage of her convictions that a lot of people, teens and adults, lack.

[rodeodance]

2. yes, immature parents/elders. you got it. Good luck to the playwrite.

[chalky]

3. And then there was that statement of hers at the school board meeting:

"I try to promote tolerance in a school where there is not enough among teenagers and am in turn flooded with the intolerance of their parents. People who are negatively commenting on my play are proving my point."

BRAVO!

:applause:

[Democrats_win]

4. Immature indeed.

The one-act play about football, "Offsides" resembles the baseball play, "Take Me Out," whose main character is a gay baseball player.

These parents need to get a grip. We've been there, done that, get over it.

This gay baiting is getting old. Why don't they do something creative like start an International Baccalaureate program at the school since our education system is falling further behind?

This is urgent and needs their attention. As a mater of fact, given the urgent education crisis, the distraction of gay baiting, should be equivalent to being a traitor.

[xchrom]

5. you see parents -- that's the problem with life

people have them, teenagers have them -- and people want to explore, comment, reveal their lives.

isn't it funny that parents who've lived long enough to know there are all kinds of people in the world have such a negative reaction to a young lady's exploration of one well known corner of it.