Girl in the Other Room - The Play
Posted: 24 Apr 2014, 17:49This is so random... and so great!
http://www.stowetoday.com/this_week/theater/article_c77b416e-cbbb-11e3-8347-0019bb2963f4.html
Vt. playwright brings show to Spruce Peak
By Thomas Benton
The new play “The Girl in the Other Room” started with Diana Krall. Vermont writer and director Sarah Jo Willey came up with the idea while listening to Krall’s album in her car.
“One of my favorite albums is ‘The Girl in the Other Room,’ by Diana Krall,” Willey said by email recently. “During the summer of 2012, it was in my car and I listened to it every day. One day in July, I realized there was a story that played through my mind every time I listened to the album from start to finish.”
Willey knew that story was destined to be a play. “One night I sat down and started writing it down. Within a few weeks, and with the help of a copy of Will Dunne’s ‘The Dramatic Writer’s Companion,’ the skeletal play was on paper,” she said.
The finished product will be staged at the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe on Saturday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m.
The play revolves around Alora, a woman whose mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Alora decides to make an important career move. That decision includes putting her mother in a nursing home.
“There are many of my personal experiences woven into the story,” Willey said. “Most of them are subtle details. The central conflict with the main character and her mother was inspired in part by my own mom’s work with people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Through her work, I have witnessed the devastation this disease brings to those afflicted, and the challenges faced by families.”
All proceeds from the play will benefit the Vermont chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Playwriting was one of the few ventures on which Willey hadn’t previously embarked. She owns Creative Muse Floral Design in Bakersfield; manages Dan Marcotte AirShows, showcasing biplane aerobatics; is a certified trainer for Dale Carnegie Training in Essex; and teaches business leadership at the Cold Hollow Career Center in Enosburg Falls. She’s also a mother and has written two books.
Additionally, Willey is vice chair of the Friends of the Opera House of Enosburg Falls, so she knew she had a stage on which to perform her newborn play.
“As I developed the characters, I had specific people in mind to play the parts,” Willey said. “I didn’t want the acting to be a stretch — rather, an extension or exaggeration of the personalities of people I knew.”
The cast includes Wendy Maquera, Rebecca Anne Bennett, Sarah Mitiguy, Britain Paquette and Carol Ann Jones. Robert Willey, Anthony Modungo, Joey Modungo, Anna Willey and Sarah Jo Willey, herself, play supporting roles.
Jones, a Vermont singer-songwriter, has also composed music for the play.
“I refer to the show as a stage drama,” Willey said. “The storyline is certainly a serious one, but there are wonderful moments of humor and musical performance that bring plenty of levity.”
http://www.stowetoday.com/this_week/theater/article_c77b416e-cbbb-11e3-8347-0019bb2963f4.html
Vt. playwright brings show to Spruce Peak
By Thomas Benton
The new play “The Girl in the Other Room” started with Diana Krall. Vermont writer and director Sarah Jo Willey came up with the idea while listening to Krall’s album in her car.
“One of my favorite albums is ‘The Girl in the Other Room,’ by Diana Krall,” Willey said by email recently. “During the summer of 2012, it was in my car and I listened to it every day. One day in July, I realized there was a story that played through my mind every time I listened to the album from start to finish.”
Willey knew that story was destined to be a play. “One night I sat down and started writing it down. Within a few weeks, and with the help of a copy of Will Dunne’s ‘The Dramatic Writer’s Companion,’ the skeletal play was on paper,” she said.
The finished product will be staged at the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center in Stowe on Saturday, April 26, at 7:30 p.m.
The play revolves around Alora, a woman whose mother is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Alora decides to make an important career move. That decision includes putting her mother in a nursing home.
“There are many of my personal experiences woven into the story,” Willey said. “Most of them are subtle details. The central conflict with the main character and her mother was inspired in part by my own mom’s work with people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Through her work, I have witnessed the devastation this disease brings to those afflicted, and the challenges faced by families.”
All proceeds from the play will benefit the Vermont chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association.
Playwriting was one of the few ventures on which Willey hadn’t previously embarked. She owns Creative Muse Floral Design in Bakersfield; manages Dan Marcotte AirShows, showcasing biplane aerobatics; is a certified trainer for Dale Carnegie Training in Essex; and teaches business leadership at the Cold Hollow Career Center in Enosburg Falls. She’s also a mother and has written two books.
Additionally, Willey is vice chair of the Friends of the Opera House of Enosburg Falls, so she knew she had a stage on which to perform her newborn play.
“As I developed the characters, I had specific people in mind to play the parts,” Willey said. “I didn’t want the acting to be a stretch — rather, an extension or exaggeration of the personalities of people I knew.”
The cast includes Wendy Maquera, Rebecca Anne Bennett, Sarah Mitiguy, Britain Paquette and Carol Ann Jones. Robert Willey, Anthony Modungo, Joey Modungo, Anna Willey and Sarah Jo Willey, herself, play supporting roles.
Jones, a Vermont singer-songwriter, has also composed music for the play.
“I refer to the show as a stage drama,” Willey said. “The storyline is certainly a serious one, but there are wonderful moments of humor and musical performance that bring plenty of levity.”