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From Issue #16, Spring 2007
Students
Bring Novel to Life
(Reprinted with permission)
Author and filmmaker e. E. Charlton-Trujillo is working with Finneytown
High School students to develop a new concept in author book signings. Charlton-Trujillo
will co-direct a reading of excerpts from her two novels Prizefighter en
Mi Casa and the recently published Feels Like Home. The event will premiere
at the Ink Tank world headquarters in downtown Cincinnati (1311 Main Street)
on Friday, May 11 at 8 p.m.
Wanting to see her books performed by young people, Charlton-Trujillo contacted
Finneytown Theatre director Shawn Maus for help in casting the Readers Theater
Hybrid. “Right from the start, to see it realized, it shows me all the many
ways the novels can be interpreted,” she says. Erin Howett, Zach Gaines,
Dan Hess, Andrew Jenkins, Haley Cator, Evan Samad and Sam Gaines, students
ranging from 7th grade to senior year, bring to life the characters of both
books.
“It’s different from standard theatre,” says sophomore Dan Hess who handles
the role of Danny from Feels Like Home. “You have to stay active in the
story, concentrating and ready to see what your character is doing. It’s
not set up like a play script.” Hess and his fellow castmates have just
completed two major productions with the Finneytown Theater season and rolled
quickly into this project.
“The Readers Theater Hybrid, as we’ve coined it, is an exciting artistic
expression,” says Charlton-Trujillo. The students will read from the book,
like a radio play, while acting out the scenes staged like a theatrical
play. “Having experience in theater then writing for theater is one thing.
But throw the filmmaking aspect of my life into it and it allows me to bring
a unique history to the work.”
“It’s been fun and exhausting since we only have three weeks to prepare,”
adds Hess. The cast and directors work the three chapter selections for
one hour each every day after school.
Senior Zach Gaines, who has been with the Finneytown theater program since
8th grade, adds, “It’s been a learning process. I have to be patient. Since
we’re creating something new the structure of theater isn’t there, so we
have to be patient while we work things out.”
Erin Howett, 7th grade, has participated in three Finneytown productions
and is taking theater classes through the College-Conservatory of Music.
“Playing a mom and yelling at an adult, because E. is playing Chula, is
weird. But I love playing Christina in Home.”
Haley Cator, a freshman who portrays Mickey from Feels Like Home, says the
experience is a once-in-a-lifetime event. “To be the first people to bring
these characters to life and with this kind of staging, it’s such an honor.”
“It’s different coming from a show with full sets, costumes and props, to
a small performance where there are minimal props and you have to improv
the items,” says Gaines. “Plus it’s a small space at the Ink Tank. I’m a
little more comfortable with lots of people in the theater.”
Bringing the novels to the stage, not as adapted stage plays but as novels,
presented challenges such as what to do with cast members – just stand around
and read (like an old radio show) or move around? When do the characters
freeze while another is talking? How do you transition between two completely
different books? Three different settings? All in a space 22 1/2 feet long
and 9 feet deep?
“We rely on the text and the actors to transition the audience. Shawn Maus
has been really great in the collaboration of staging the piece,” says Charlton-Trujillo.
“ All the while maintaining the original intent of the text. And with only
three weeks of prep time, it’s a lot!”
“The impact of this whole experience is that I’m hoping people recognize
that people with disabilities, like Chula, aren’t different from us,” says
Erin Howett. “I look around my school and hope to bring an awareness to
my classmates.”
Prizefighter en Mi Casa is the story of 12-year-old Chula who has “flashes”
(as she calls her epileptic seizures) as a result of a car accident. Her
father has brought his childhood fiend, El Jefe, from Mexico and risks the
family savings on a black market fight against the Golden Gloves champion.
Chula, who feels she needs to be brave, finds strength in the legend of
El Jefe, but most importantly herself.
Feels Like Home is a story about Mickey, a teenage girl growing up in a
dead-end South Texas town. Mickey had two things she could count on: her
big brother Danny – the football hero everyone loved – and a beat-up copy
of The Outsiders. After Danny abandoned her and her father dies, Mickey
is determined to get out of town for good. But
Danny is back. No matter how hard she tries, Mickey can’t remember what
happened that night 6 years ago – and she’s starting to realize that remembering
is the only way she can move on.
Charlton-Trujillo hopes that this experience with Readers Theater Hybrid
will begin the next step of the evolution of Feels Like Home and Prizefighter.
“I’d love to adapt them for both film and the stage,” she says. “A good
story can on many faces. But I’m just someone who loves telling stories
in whatever form they come.”
Hess adds, “I want people to come away from this knowing they saw something
new.”
Hess picks up his book and heads back to rehearsal, “Oh, yeah, and buy the
book.”
Members of the Finneytown community were invited to a special presentation
where the cast performed for the English classes. Please call 728-3712 for
reservations for the Thursday screening ONLY.
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