Teen playwrights going through a stage

By Wayne Harada
Advertiser Entertainment Writer

Teen students Eliot St. John and Emily Lau have written plays that will be performed in this weekend's Theatrefest, which presents the works of young writers. Deborah Booker • The Honolulu Advertiser Theatrefest Honolulu Theatre for Youth's annual slate of one-acts by young playwrights. 7:30 p.m. today, Saturday. Tenney Theatre, St. Andrew's Cathedral. Admission is free, but reservations are required. 839-9885. Featuring: "S-W-A-S-H-B-U-C-K-L-E-D," by Lauren Hanley, directed by Tony Pisculli. Cast: Liam Mueller, Jennifer Saepae, Caitlin King, Christina Nolan. "Out of Orbit," by Emily Lau, directed by Daniel A. Kelin II. Cast: Mikhail Christman Ford, Corelle Nakamura, Abigail Baltensperger. "Pedestrian Traffic," by Eliot St. John, directed by Harry Wong III. Cast: Lindsay Fox, Izumie Minato, Dixie Wiggins.

Do it regularly; the more you work at it, the better you become at honing your craft.

Don't get intimidated or discouraged by your limitations.

These sage bits of advice, on how best to approach playwriting, come from a trio of upstart authors, ages 13, 16 and 17.

Eliot St. John, 13, is an eighth-grader at Le Jardin Academy; Emily Lau, 16, is a home-schooled junior. Lauren Hanley, 17, is a Maryknoll senior.

As pupils in the Honolulu Theatre for Youth's Pacific Young Playwrights workshop, Eliot, Emily and Lauren will have their plays performed in the 2003 Theatrefest this weekend at Tenney Theatre.

Not surprisingly, the prevailing theme is friendship and its role in real life situations, though set in the world of theatrical fantasy.

"It's really exciting," said Eliot, the youngest to have submitted a work for production by peers, with professional adults directing. His work is "Pedestrian Traffic," about the essence of loyalty among buddies.

"It starts in the workshop, but you create at home; it's easier for me to work on the computer, and the inspiration, really, comes from everyday things that occur around me. There are elements of self, friends and

people I know would recognize (some traits), but by the end, the characters and the play took a life of their own."

Emily's work, "Out of Orbit," also has an underlying theme of friendship, with a focus on muffins and a treehouse. It combines elements of a space fantasy with some silly effects, but is grounded on real life issues.

"I write on the computer and until you see ... (the play) being formed, with audience reacting, it's a great feeling," said Emily. "I write poetry, too, but with that kind of writing, like a novel, you can't get people's immediate reaction." Her work zooms in on a trio of gal pals, whose bond is jeopardized when one can't decide with the others on what to do. Like, bake muffins for the needy children in Antartica.

Lauren, 17, created "S-W-A-S-H-B-U-C-K-L-E-D," her third Theatrefest play, borrowing the imagery of "Pirates of the Caribbean" months before Johnny Depp's summer film hit the screens, so she was ahead of the interest curve — by months.

"I write by hand first, because I find it easier to just do it in script, and then put it all in my computer," said Lauren. "At one point, I had all this paper covering the floor."

Her high school theme, tapping campus romance with a swashbuckler twist, evolved over eight months. "I think pirates are pretty cool," she said. "I like to write fiction and poetry, too, but when you do a play, and make it all your own, every time you see it on stage, it changes. There's always something different, and that's what I like."

It is a Sunday afternoon. Daniel A Kelin II, an HTY director, has gathered his actors at Tenney Theatre for a seven-hour rehearsal, on the stage where the school and public performances will be held.

"We're done practicing," says Kelin of the earlier get-togethers. "We're gonna go for it and dinner will be provided. (The kids applaud). And I will pay for it." (More hurrahs).

He cues the performers about reaching out, involving the audience, connecting their words and movements with the spectators.

"You're not speaking in real life ... it's another world on stage," he said. "If you mumble, (if) you slur — what happens when adolescents aren't watching what you're trying to do?"

"They stop listening," one performer responds.

Eliot said that in his day-to-day routine, there's little control over what he does. "But when you write a play, you have some sort of control and order in your life."

His play, pitting friends against friends, mirrors his student life and that of his peers.

"One of the characters tries to destroy a friendship, turn friend against friend," he said.

Emily, who earlier had a script produced by Theatrefest, had a personal mission of trying to better her previous effort ("Captsized Romance"). She said she learned to be flexible this year.

"My play was supposed to be with a cast of all boys," she said. "But there were way more girls (who tried out) and we ended up casting one boy and changed ... (the other roles to) two girls. I actually like my play a lot better now."

Lauren, too, has discovered the need to tweak and alter characters as part of the writing experience.

"You have to remain open-minded and flexible to change," she said of her current play, which is her third. "That's something Dan (Kelin) teaches us — change can come to characters and plots. Actually, I think the changes I made for my play were perfection."

The actors move from seats to stage, then spread out in the two aisles as Kelin runs through an orientation of sorts.

"Since our plays deal with relationships and friendships, we're going to create 'frozen images' of friendships," he says.

There's an informal moment when each actor and techie gets a chance to identify themselves, share their ages and school link, simply offer a quickie snapshot of who they are and what they do.

The in-the-house motif for a post-show Q&A lets the youths "act" out of character, to bring a bit of their own selves into relating to the audience.

The exercise is to get them to loosen up, earn confidence, enable them to anticipate crowd reaction.

"Communicate," Kelin shouts.

"When a play goes badly, whose fault is it? Ours," says Kelin, taking on the role of a morale-boosting cheerleader.

"In theater, if you're not getting through to the audience, it can be because you're not doing your job. They feed us; we feed them."

Reach Wayne Harada at wharada@honoluluadvertiser.com, 525-8067 or fax 525-8055.