2023 Playmaking Performances at Circle in the Square

We’re back!

I’ll get to who “we” are in just a moment.

The past three years have offered all of us new twists and turns that we may never have expected. I’ll share a bit about my journey at Circle in the Square through the pandemic.

My work at Circle shifted during COVID from mostly teaching arts, arts outreach, and directing to mostly grants along with my regular administrative jobs while schools were closed to visiting artists. Broadway, too, was shut down, as we know. Our Executive Director of 40+ years at Circle retired, and I took on all of the city and state grants that he used to manage. For those of you not familiar with the grant process, each one includes an application and report. You apply for the upcoming year in detail predicting what you expect will happen, and then you document in the report what actually took place, and update the budget numbers previously projected. If I make it sound simple and quick, I’m sparing you some 100+ pages of excruciatingly boring details. Doing grants feels like a non-CPA doing a multi-estate owner’s taxes…year round. But I’m extremely grateful for these city and state funds and support! Each year during COVID, I hoped that we would be coming back to all of our Arts Outreach teaching and performances, and each year I elaborated on what didn’t happen, explaining how everything was mostly still on hold due to mandates. …until this past year.

At the beginning of last summer PS 11’s principal reached out saying they were ready and eager for us to come back in the fall to teach their students Playmaking—a form of Playwriting created by Daniel Judah Sklar. This was incredibly exciting because we at Circle also had mandates dropping and were ready, too!

Outside of COVID each year our work with PS 11 starts with Arts Education for Actors—an annual alumni program that I direct at Circle in the Square, which teaches a new group of our Theatre School graduates how to be teaching artists. You can learn more about our program here: https://circlesquare.org/outreach/

I then have a planning meeting with the PS 11 teachers to organize the residency with all the 3rd-grade classes at their school in Chelsea, Manhattan. I rewrite the Playmaking curricula to cater to the current season, students, and classes…then our playwriting residency begins!

My Arts Ed team and I go to PS 11 every Tuesday and Thursday winter morning.

Daniel Judah Sklar—my friend and colleague who created Playmaking and used to teach half the classes—retired during COVID; so now I teach all the classes, and my alumni team mentors a group of their own kids in each class as the students write their scripts. This gives the kids more 1-on-1 guidance, and offers the alumni hands-on experience in a NYC public school arts residency. I meet with my team every day after classes to discuss and reflect on the work, kids, scripts, and how they feel.

The Playmaking writing process starts on the first day with what’s called a Scribble Scrabble. It’s a blank page, and the budding playwrights scribble without thought for 20 seconds—then pencils down. Similar to a Rorschach test but without analyzing any of the kids’ answers, I ask them to see what they can find in their own scribbles. They choose two of their favorite things that they see, then create character profiles on those two things. The students learn play structure, script format, and how to bring feelings into character dialogue. One of the artistic challenges each playwright faces is incorporating aspects of their character profiles into their script subtly, while creating a story that speaks from their own heart.

After about three months of working with all the 3rd-grade classes, every student finishes their script, and my team and I start rehearsing all the plays at Circle in the Square.

Each class at PS 11 has their own performance at Circle in the Square’s Broadway Theatre. My team of professional actors perform every student’s play. This year, those shows started last Monday, and will continue for two more weeks. Adults acting in plays written from kids’ perspectives invokes its own very special type of joy, depth of feeling, and boundless laughter.

A new challenge I faced this year with the help of PS 11 teachers was accommodating and communicating with multiple ENL Spanish speaking students in three of our classes. 17 of these kids spoke no English, and we spoke no Spanish. We strive to make sure every student creates a play, whether it’s written or drawn in pictures, with character profiles translated. The latter is what happened with these new ENL students. Two talented Spanish speaking actors (also Circle in the Square Theatre School alumni) rehearsed with me. I was so touched by their beautiful translations, knowing that every student will be able to understand their play when it’s performed, that tears came to my eyes when the actors finished the first play in Spanish. It was an emotional moment for me after trying to figure out how it could all work.

I will have an assessment meeting with PS 11 after their performances to celebrate what worked, work on what can improve next school year, and decompress after a season of working together. It always takes a village to serve students in healthy ways and make sure every child is respected, heard, and reached.

I will also have 1-on-1 meetings with my Arts Ed team members to discuss our work together; and celebrate and support them and their future careers.

Teaching arts focuses a lot on community, and how individuals and the whole can gain more tools to thrive together with acceptance, encouragement, healthy artistic expression, honest communication, and support. For those called to this work, it can be a rewarding career that compliments our professional acting gigs.

You would be amazed how talented these actors are! I wish you all could see the performances. Watching each young playwright watch them perform their play on Broadway is priceless, and I can feel my face glued in a surely ridiculous-looking but beyond-grateful ear-to-ear smile.

Circle in the Square and PS 11 have been in collaboration doing this Arts Education for Actors alumni program and Playmaking residency for over 20 years now. I still feel so honored and thrilled to be doing this work. After a few years of COVID hiatus, being back in the classrooms and on Broadway with the kids and my Arts Ed team is deeply fulfilling.

And thankfully, now, I can report in all city and state grants that Playmaking, Arts Education for Actors, Arts Outreach, and Circle in the Square’s live student Broadway performances are back!

Thank you to PS 11 and their PTA, Principal Bender, all the 3rd-grade teachers and students, paras, and translators; Circle in the Square; our Arts Ed team and actors; the DCLA; City Council; and NYSCA!

My next arts outreach performance on Circle’s Broadway stage will be Talent Unlimited High School’s Shakespeare on Broadway—a program I’m in the middle of directing now. That performance will be in May. More to come!

In the meantime, I want to introduce you to our talented Circle in the Square Arts Education for Actors alumni team this year! I’ll post some photos.

For the privacy of the kids, we don’t open PS 11 performances to the general public, or post photos or videos of the students. If you’re a friend or colleague and would like to attend a performance, feel free to drop me a line and I’ll be happy to give you the details and welcome you to a show!

Wishing you all peaceful and adventurous travels on your own paths this spring!

Left to right: Gretchen Schneider, Monica Mendez, Abby Zeets, me, Quinn McKenzie, Carl Bindman

Our Arts Ed actors prepping for a PS 11 performance at Circle in the Square last week. This includes our talented ENL Spanish speaking actors, Christopher Browne Valenzuela and Alex Acosts too! Left to right top row: Gretchen, Quinn, Monica; middle row: Carl, Abby; bottom right row: Chris, Alex

Every morning before anyone arrives, I come to the Theatre to clean, prep the stage, and set the lights. Each morning so far, Quinn—one of our team members and actors—is kind enough to show up extra early to help me. I caught Quinn in the act of so kindly vacuuming the stage here. Thank you, Quinn! It takes a village!

2018/2019 Playmaking Final Performances

It’s this time of year again! We’re in the midst of our final Playmaking PS 11 performances, and all is going well.

Daniel Judah Sklar, who created this form of playwriting (called Playmaking), collaborated with Circle in the Square and Manhattan’s PS 11 (elementary school) 18 years ago, which started this program. I joined this team five years ago.

Each year, 10 Circle in the Square Theatre School alumni are accepted into the Arts Education for Actors program (at Circle in the Square), which includes, among other phases of training to be teaching artists, a five-month paid residency at PS 11. The 10 actors become Residency Assistants (RAs), and mentor students as they write their scripts.

Daniel teaches the first three classes of third-graders in the morning with five of the RAs assisting him, while I teach the last three classes, with five other RAs assisting me. There are six classes altogether. Each class gets its own performance on Broadway, and each child in each class has their own original play performed by the RAs/professional actors. After five months of working and bonding together while the kids write and edit their plays, it’s a deeply fulfilling experience for us all.

Daniel’s and my group had our first performances last week. Both of our 2nd performances were today, and both of our third performances will be on Monday. If you’d like to come to a show, let me know and I can give you details.

Watching the kids react to the actors bringing such meaningful life to their words is thrilling and heartwarming. Playmaking focuses on feelings: the kids’ and their characters’. We consider it a great responsibility to respect these young playwrights, their feelings, and the messages they intend to convey in their plays; so to finally see their joy after a lot of work put into this process means the world to us, and me. We will miss these kids!

I’m filled with gratitude for many things: my (and Daniel’s) responsible, caring, enthusiastic, and talented group of RAs; being on the team at Circle in the Square; my friend Daniel Judah Sklar; the teachers and administration at PS 11; and the students, who brought true feelings and honesty to our work every day.

Here’s a photo of my fabulous team and me taken today at Circle in the Square Theatre.

Left to right, upper row: Sara Lily, me, Bryan Songy, Robin Murray. Lower row: Alex Acosta, Molly Williams

2018/2019 First Play Readings at PS 11

Today we had our first 2018/2019 play readings of all the 3rd graders’ scripts in the library at PS 11 in Manhattan. This residency is part of the Arts Education for Actors alumni program at Circle in the Square Theatre School. 10 Circle grads per year work as Residency Assistants (RAs) in the classrooms at PS 11—five with Daniel Judah Sklar in the first three classes, and five with me in the last three classes. Daniel and I teach the classes, while the RAs mentor from 3-8 kids in each class. The RAs then type the kids’ plays, and act in them. While this first reading was done at PS 11, each child will get their final play performed on Broadway at Circle in the Square Theatre by the RAs, who are also professional actors.

This first reading is important for a few reasons: The kids get to witness their work start to come to life off of the pages. They can see and feel what they appreciate about their own scripts, and what might need editing. They can learn from seeing others’ plays, and they can support one another’s work.

We’re half-way through this season. The final performances will be at the end of March - early April.

During this reading today, each RA had a guest actor (also a Circle in the Square alum) read with them, so we had 10 actors reading plays in the library in various parts of the room, (while Daniel’s morning group did the same before we arrived). This relieves some of the pressure for the kids during their first reading. Their final plays on Broadway will be performed one-at-a-time on stage.

Circle in the Square has been in collaboration with PS 11 and Daniel Judah Sklar (who created this form of playwriting called Playmaking) for about 18 years. After starting as an RA, myself, I began teaching Playmaking five years ago. I also co-direct the annual Arts Ed program at Circle in the Square with executive director of the school, Colin O’Leary. I love this work, and am constantly grateful to be part of the team.

I’m lucky to have a talented, kind, responsible, and charismatic group of RAs. Each one of them works and relates beautifully with the students. Here we are (minus one: Molly Williams) today at the reading. We’ll take another photo at the final performances to include everyone.

Left to right: Sara Lily, Alex Acosta, me, Bryan Songy, and Robin Murray.

Left to right: Bryan Songy, Alex Acosta, me, Sara Lily, and Robin Murray.