HISTORY:

After the success of "best.worst.best." I wanted to continue exploring the experience of teenagers growing up in various communities in the Bay Area--so close to each other, and yet so separate in certain ways. This was the year of the Richmond gang rape, the Oscar Grant shooting and a severe economic downturn. It was a tough time to be a young person in the Bay Area.

I began meeting with students in Sarah Samonsky's Connect class at Albany High School. Over 9 months, I visited and talked to the students about their lives being from various cities in the Bay Area, but going to Albany for the better school programs. Out of that came "ricochet." I'm still looking for ways to produce it.

SYNOPSIS:

As the teenagers in Albany struggle to define themselves against the pressures of the adult world’s expectations, Officer E, a young police officer, arrives in town ready for a fresh start. But as he struggles to connect with the local community, he unknowingly triggers a chain of events that neither his own desire to flee his past, nor the local teens’ desire to race into the future can keep from hurtling toward its disastrous conclusion. Based on interviews with teenagers, teachers and local officials in Albany, CA, “ricochet” examines the seemingly mundane moments of collision in our lives, and the unimaginable consequences that result.

AWARDS AND DEVELOPMENT:

2009 Theatre Bay Area CA$H Grant
2009 MacDowell Colony Residency
2010 Great Plains Theater Conference PlayLab reading
2011 Bay Area Playwrights Conference (semi-finalist)