The 2017 Scenesters: Abby Meyer and Nic Rhodes

Scenesters. Abby Meyer Nic Rhodes. Today at the DCPA NewsCenter, we continue our daily countdown of the 10 Colorado student playwrights who have been named semifinalists for our fourth annual statewide playwriting competition. On Jan. 13, we will announce the three scripts that will be read at the 2017 Colorado New Play Summit. (Details below.) Tomorrow: Scenester profile No. 5.

SCENESTER NO. 4: ABBY MEYER AND NIC RHODES

  • School: Fossil Ridge High School in Fort Collins
  • Class: Juniors
  • Teacher: Kristin Rust
  • Your play title: Imaginary Friends
  • What is your play about? This play takes the audience through the mind of schizophrenic high school boy. Unaware of his own disorder, he can’t distinguish between reality and his mind. As he drifts further into himself and away from reality, we meet his only sense of comfort: His imaginary friends. 
  • What was your inspiration for writing your play? In our sophomore yearScenesters Abby Meyer Nic Rhodes Casting, we were both cast in a one-act play about a suicidal teen girl, which inspired us to write this story together. We both have people in our lives affected by mental disorders, and we wrote it to honor them and raise awareness in a previously untold way.
  • Favorite word that appears in your script: “Babe.” 
  • Killer casting: We would cast Sarah Hyland of Modern Family (pictured right) as Hazel/Hannah because Hazel is the comedic relief of the show. Sarah could be that bubbly personality the play needs without compromising the serious overall tone.
  • What did you learn from writing this play? We both discovered a passion for playwriting, along with learning how all-consuming it is to create a world.


Scenesters Abby Meyer Nic Rhodes Quote

Our countdown of the 2017 ‘Scenesters’ (to date):
No. 1: Sarah Shapard, Overland High School
No. 2: Ryan Patrick McCormick, Fort Collins High School
No. 3: Jasmin A. Hernandez Lozano, Vista Peak High School


About the 2017 Regional High-School Playwriting Workshop and Competition:

What: A one-act playwriting competition designed for area high schools. Local playwrights and DCPA Education faculty taught 138 playwriting workshops in 46 Colorado high schools. More than 2,823 high-school students participated in those workshops, which were held in every school district in the Denver-metro area and in 15 counties around the state, including Gunnison, Garfield, El Paso, Chaffee and Ouray.

Why: To nurture Colorado’s young playwrights; develop theatre artists and audiences; develop new plays; and advance literacy, creativity, writing and communication through playwriting.

How: A total of 132 submissions were judged blindly by DCPA artistic, literary and education professionals. Ten semifinalists are being identified through this rolling daily countdown. At the end of the countdown, three winners will be named. They will receive a cash scholarship of $250 each AND a staged reading in the 2016 Colorado New Play Summit next month. In addition, each teacher of the three finalists will receive a $250 gift certificate for books, supplies or other teaching tools for their classrooms. One play also will be presented as a fully staged performance exercise for DCPA Education students in the summer of 2017.

Sponsors: Robert and Judi Newman/Newman Family Foundation with matching gifts from The Ross Foundation, June Travis and Transamerica.

Video: We talked with the three 2016 student playwriting finalists and looked in as their plays were read by professional actors at the 2016 Colorado New Play Summit in February. Video by John Moore and David Lenk for the DCPA NewsCenter.

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