Ollie waiting for our ride to Lehi for the Arts Express Conference.
We had the best time presenting Zombie Thoughts at the Arts Express conference in Lehi yesterday. Our actors, Katie and Brenda, did a wonderful job of reading the play for the 20 or so teachers present (and Sharah helped them out with the stage directions). After the reading, Oliver, Jerry Rapier (the artistic director of Plan-B), and I talked to the teachers about the process of creating the piece, of writing with kids, and about anxiety. Oliver was understandably nervous about presenting to a room full of adults (and teachers!). He always worries that they will think I wrote the whole play and he didn’t carry his weight. It’s the opposite of my worries, in some ways, that people will dismiss the play as a real piece of writing because it’s a collaboration with a kid. But they were an excellent and admirable audience and he was thoughtful and articulate in addressing how the play came to be and how anxiety has made school a challenge for him. Two great things happened after the reading. One, a teacher came up and asked Ollie how he could make his classroom a safer and better space for students with anxiety disorders. And two, Ollie said to me that the experience was a huge self esteem boost. While the largest goal for us was always to write an excellent play that is funny, true, and causes empathy, it’s not a terrible side effect at all that this has had such a positive impact on Ollie. I created a handout for teachers on best practices for writing plays with kids that I am happy to share if you contact me. We’ll be doing a more hands on version of this workshop in October for teachers at Weber State.