We recently held a short story contest called "Exactly!" They Said. As a prize, the authors' stories are given a professional, staged reading in the Word for Word style. The contest was meant for adults, but we received so many teen entries that we created a separate teen category. Six stories won the teen competition.
We are doing staged readings of all 6 stories on Thursday, November 7 at 7:30 pm at the Children's Creativity Museum in SF. There will be rehearsals earlier in the week, as well.
To participate in the Festival, students need to be available for rehearsals from 4:30 – 8:30 pm on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, November 4 – 6, as well as from 1 pm – 10 pm on Thursday, November 7 for the tech rehearsal and performance. We won't necessarily need them for all those dates and times, but students will need to keep them open until they know their exact rehearsal schedules.
The actors in the teen stories will be a mix of professional adult actors and teen actors from Jewish Community High School, SF School of the Arts, Oakland School for the Arts, A.C.T., and other schools and organizations. So, they'll will be working with both adults and other teens. It's a wonderful opportunity to have a professional theatre experience.
If you have students who would like to be considered for the festival, could you please ask them to email me (aprosser@zspace.org) a photo of themselves, as well as some video of them (could be footage from a play, a monologue, a film clip - just something so we can get a sense of them). And ask them to please let me know if they can make all the rehearsals and the performance.
Deadline for submissions is Friday, October 11.
Here are our needs:
1 Male teen, Asian - lead role (teen looking back on his middle school years with bitterness)
1 Male teen, Asian - ensemble role (plays a variety of middle school boys) 2 Male teens, any ethnicity - lead roles (1 is best friend of the teen looking back on his middle school years, 1 is a young man in treatment for an addiction)
1 Male teen, any ethnicity, gymnast - ensemble role (plays a variety of middle school boys including one who can do a backflip)3 Male teens, any ethnicity - ensemble roles (play a variety of middle school boys) 1 Female teen, any ethnicity - lead role (co-dependent young woman involved with an addicted young man)
1 Female older teen, any ethnicity - larger ensemble role (mother of a small boy)1 Female teen, any ethnicity, red hair - ensemble role (plays a variety of middle school girls and boys)
1 Female teen, any ethnicity - ensemble role (plays a variety of middle school girls and boys)
1 Female teen, any ethnicity - ensemble role (plays a variety of characters in a treatment center for addicts) 2 Teens (any gender identity, any ethnicity) - ensemble roles (1 plays a variety of characters in a treatment center for addicts, 1 plays a variety of characters in a story about a grandfather dying of cancer in Israel)
Students will most likely be cast in 2 pieces. The roles above + an additional ensemble role. We encourage trans and non-binary/gender non-conforming actors to apply for the roles they are most comfortable in.
Thanks for your help, Kate!
Warmly, Amy