Kids Write

Last Friday night, before the ice cream and cupcake tasting, we spent two and a half enjoyable hours at Burning Coal Theatre in Raleigh watching four one-act plays. What made the plays unusual was the ages of their authors: all were students who had not yet started college. Burning Coal was performing the plays as part of the local Kids Write program, in which a group of judges considers a large number of plays from local students and chooses four for production.

We went because, as I've mentioned earlier, Sarah's friend, Katharine, was one of the writers. Though I must admit to being biased, I honestly feel that Katharine's play was the best, most complex, and most interesting of the group. A drawing-room set piece that examined the effects of guilt, it featured well-delivered, rapid-fire dialog that both gradually illuminated the main character and constantly maintained your interest.

All of the plays were worth watching, and all had at least some points of cleverness and interest. Though one had no real plot and another was perhaps too predictable, I'm glad I got to see them and would recommend them to others--had the run not been for only a single weekend.

The actors, directors, and everyone involved at Burning Coal also deserve a special note for giving the work their best. At every point in the production, from the introduction, through the plays themselves, and into the Q&A with the writers and cast, it was clear that the Burning Coal actors and staff cared about the material and worked hard to create the best possible productions in the time available to them. One of these days, I'm going to write a play, and I now know that Burning Coal is a place I will want to shop it.

If you're in this area for next year's Kids Write, you could do far worse with a weekend night than to watch the work of talented young writers and a solid theater company bringing their written words to life.