Nancy Churnin:
‘Wrestling Season’ pins down real issues
Ten years ago, the oldest of Laurie Brooks’ three girls was 16. And Ms. Brooks, who had already written several well-received children’s plays, couldn’t find theater that would engage Joanna. So she decided to write it: The Wrestling Season.
Inspired by conversations with hundreds of teens, the play tackles the issue of rumors and the way kids struggle when people make up stuff about them. The rumors, which fly over the course of several wrestling matches, get pretty nasty, too. There are accusations of one girl being loose, another having an eating disorder and a couple of boys being homosexual. Some lead to violence.
“When I wrote this play, I didn’t think anyone would be brave enough to produce it, “says Ms. Brooks. “I thought I was going to write this play because I had to. No one was more surprised than I when it won national prizes.”
The Dallas Children’s Theater, which staged the acclaimed national premiere of a later Brooks play, Deadly Weapons, in 2002, will present The Wrestling Season from Friday through May 22 at the Rosewood Center for Family Arts.
The show, for ages 13 and older, kicks off the company’s first Young Adult Festival of Dramatic Works, which will include readings of plays aimed at teens, including Everyday Heroes, another work by Ms. Brooks.
Ms. Brooks, who lives in Long Island, N.Y., and is in residence at the Coterie Theatre in Kansas City, Mo., will come to Dallas to launch the opening of the show. On Sunday she will inaugurate the Dallas Theater Leagues’ new series, Conversation With the Artist. She will speak from 3 to 4:30 p.m. at the Rosewood Center.
Robyn Flatt, DCT’s executive artistic director, says she was impressed by how Deadly Weapons reached teen audiences and looks forward to The Wrestling Season continuing that.
“Teens are beyond fairy tales, “she says. “They want to see something that addresses the issues that trouble them. They want a safe place where they can bring some of their questions into the daylight.”
At the Coterie, Ms. Brooks is developing an idea she introduced with The Wrestling Season. She is designing guided discussion forums that follow the plays. “The point is to avoid drive-by theater, “she says. “When you raise big issues, there’s a big responsibility to process them.”
Her plays and the discussions that follow are purposefully open-ended, she says. During the play, she never tells the audience if the rumors that cause so much trouble are true. During the forum, she doesn’t tell kids who was right and who was wrong or why. She has the actors, who stay in character, ask questions that get the audience thinking.
“Young people are so sick of being told what to do. They’ve got to find their own way. … All you’ve got to do is give them material that lives in their world, and they’ll respond to it.”
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