Paris High School was one of 18 schools across the country to participate in the Manhattan Theatre Club TheatreLink Playwriting Program this semester. TheatreLink is a distance-learning project of the Manhattan Theatre Club, a not-for-profit Broadway and Off-Broadway theatre located in New York City.  It is a curriculum-based Web project that connects high schools in different regions in the U.S. for a five-month period to create and study theatre together.  Classes of students across the globe are connected to one another through the process of studying, writing, and producing a play. 

Paris High School was grouped with Mount Vernon High School in Fortville, Indiana, and Robert Morgan Educational Center in Miami, Florida.  The process was guided by TheatreLink’s teaching artist Julie Leedes who is a New York based professional actor and playwright.  Leedes conferred and collaborated with the classroom teachers and communicated with the students through the TheatreLink web site. Leedes provided the teachers with activities and students with feedback on the plays they wrote. 

Sharon Gonzales, Theatre Production teacher at Paris High School, explained that Julie Leedes guided the playwriting and play production.  Gonzales said, “We had two live videoconferences with her.  We also chatted online with her throughout the project.”  She explained, “During the production phase, students were assigned theatre jobs such as actor, stage manager, designer, etc.  The production process required regular communication as producers conferred with playwrights and teaching artist Leedes about production issues.”  PHS students participating in the project were Drew Ruthart, Paige Attebury, Jonathan Crawford, Raven Bells, Katie Hollowell, Sam Whitaker, Casey Epperson, Ariel Bickle, Samantha Mitchell, Lynsey Boss, and Emily Temple.

The PHS students wrote an original play “And We’re Back…” and sent it to Mount Vernon High School in Fortville, Indiana.  They produced and performed the play for PHS live via videoconference.  Robert Morgan Educational Center in Miami, Florida wrote “A Perfect Union” and we produced and performed their play.  As a culmination, the scenes were recorded, viewed by all three schools, and discussed on-line together.

For more information about TheatreLink, visit the Manhattan Theatre Club's website at http://www.mtc-nyc.org