At only 20-years-old, Kelsey Amentt is by far the youngest and freshest playwright to earn her spot in the Philadelphia Theater Workshop, where her play will be funded, promoted, and performed this spring. A Philly native, Kelsey is thrilled to debut her voice and style on the main stage. Here’s what she has to say!
Her Campus: Kelsey, tell us a little about what youâre working on:
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Kelsey Amentt: Last spring semester of 2010, I took a Playwriting II course with Stephanie Fleichman in the theatre department. Her whole program is to have students write a full-fledged play. So Iâve already had this whole idea for a while, and it was one of those things where I was just waiting for an opportunity to get it down on paper, so I finally did. I had an old high school professor contact me saying that sheâd heard of this contest and thought I would do really well. So I sent in my play, and out of the 88 submitted, 8 were finalists, and then four of them were chosen to produce the actual plays, and, well, Iâm one of the four!
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HC: What do you earn for being a finalist?
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KA: Itâs a $20,000 grant that they spend on my playâreal actors, real directors, set designers, lighting, costumes, musicâbasically everything. Itâs a five-week intensive program with me writing and re-writing with all these people helping me along. Whatâs nice is that the actors know that if I change anything, theyâll have scripts in front of them for all five weeks, and weâll just rehearse according to the current scriptâso really it could be a different play every time itâs performed.
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HC: Where will the show be performed?
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KA: Itâs at the Walnut Street Theatre in Philly, which is a huge space, so itâs really exciting. Itâs hosted The Philadelphia Theatre Workshop run by Bill Felty, the artistic director. This is their fourth year hosting this program. Theyâve had a range of well-known playwrights in the Philly area to little nobodyâs such as myself, so you get to know all the Philly and New York theatre communities.
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HC: When will you start working on it?
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KA: The whole process is between April 18 and may 22 and the actual performances are May 1st, 4th, 14th, and 19th. I have a week and a half to get the first performance on its feet and then after I see how that goes, Iâll go in and make changes based on what the audience and the actors think. The best part is that after every play we have the audience do a âtalk-backâ and focus on what Iâve been changing in the script, so I get critiqued by the audience. Iâm really nervous, but really excited!
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HC: Will it be intimidating to hear the audienceâs comments?
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KA: Itâs a little nerve-wracking, but Iâm always open for change, because if the actors or audience donât understand it, then people arenât getting what Iâm trying to say, which is the whole point: to communicate this one idea.
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HC: What isthe idea?
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KA: Its about a disintegration of a marriage, between a man and his wife, and theyâre not sure why but theyâve been having issues. Then the husband gets in an accident; basically he runs out on her and gets hit by a truck, which puts him into a coma. In the coma, he sees his dead father-in-law. The father-in-law says, âOk, youâve been an awful son-in-law. Iâm going to send you back to make it up to my daughter. You have a week to do so, and itâs been seven years since youâve gone into the coma.â So everything has changed: his son who was three is now ten, his wife is dating another manâŠso he has to try and save his soul to figure out why he loved the woman he first knew.
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HC: Where did your inspiration come from?
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KA: I assure people that my parents are happily married! My parents are always asking âIs this me?â and I say âNo, no!â The inspiration is more that people in our generation are getting married so young and I just donât think they know what theyâre getting into half the time, and its so nice to imagine being with the person you love for the rest of your life, which is ideal; of course everyone wants that. But itâs just deciding when the right time is, I guess.
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HC: What do you anticipate?
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KA: Its definitely going to be difficult, but itâs more exciting than anything else, I mean, this is what I want to do with my life, so itâs like, âWow, I actually got the chance!â I was completely surprised when they first called me and said I was a finalist, I thought, âAre you kidding me!?â And of course, you go in, and itâs these adults in the âreal worldâ and they ask you all these questionsâŠIâm the youngest one there, actually; the rest are in their thirties. It was a little bit risky, because they wanted to make sure I would be available considering school, and I said, this is my dream, so worst case scenario is that I take the semester off.
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HC: What do you hope to take away from this?
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KA: I mean Iâve always liked to act, but I donât think itâs my strongest suit. I love to write and the idea of telling a story through a certain viewpoint. Also, Iâve realized that there are no good female monologues, and itâs really sad. Every time I would go out for an audition, I would have to find a monologue in my age range, without an accentâŠjust plain, good monologue. All female monologues are either the sassy friend, or âhe left me.â And thatâs it. When I auditioned people for my show, these women come in and itâs so sad because theyâve probably looked through stacks and stacks of monologues and chosen one that doesnât quite represent them, and yet, they choose it anyway because they figure thatâs the best theyâll get at this point. That was probably the one thing I remember telling myself in 9th grade, is I need to write good monologues for people.
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HC: Where will you go from here?
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KA: The whole idea is branching out and communicating with people and the fact that they understand my silly little language on this big sheet of paper just amazes me. this is the first serious thing Iâve written, everything else has been comedy, so to know that I can do serious? Itâs like Oh my God! Thereâs something just about images that really appeals to me, its like this visceral feeling you get when you see something and you say, âWow, that really hit me; that really worked.â So I think Iâm going start up a screenplayâŠI have an idea in mind but I really want to develop it more. Iâm always trying to expand my repertoire. I just love telling stories; itâs the best.
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HC: How can we see the show?
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KA: Get tickets! On Facebook, join the group called âSeven.â As soon as I have the information, Iâll be sending out mass messages to all members. Or just Google the show!
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HC: Any advice to other writers?
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KA: Just keep plugging away. You may not feel successful now, but youâll realize as you go through phases of different things, youâll find what you like and donât like in your writing and youâll find you.
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