Lansing High School Sophomore, Anthony Oakley, Joins The Coterie's Young Playwrights' Roundtable
Congratulations to Lansing High School sophomore, Anthony Oakley, who was recently selected to be a member of The Coterie's 30th annual Young Playwrights' Roundtable. Anthony submitted a piece through The Coterie's "Reaching the Write Minds" program organized by English teacher, Mr. Casey Robinson.
Reaching the Write Minds was established during the Coterie Theatre Artistic Director Jeff Church’s residency at The Kennedy Center to give a voice to emerging young playwrights. Church launched Kansas City’s Reaching the Write Minds program in 1992 in an effort to encourage young writers in the Kansas City area. During the Reaching the Write Minds five-hour seminar at area high schools, students learn to create settings, build characters and, ultimately, devise a scenario for a complete play. This year's visit was funded by a grant from Lansing Educational Foundation and was held virtually by The Coterie's teaching artist, Nancy Marcy.
"We set up a Google Classroom that we both had access to and students would submit their work daily, at the beginning of the workshop, so that Nancy could watch them work and make observations," said Mr. Robinson. "It allowed her to interact even better than an in-person workshop at times."
At the end of the school year, works will be chosen by Jeff Church to be performed by young actors for the public at the Coterie's Young Playwrights' Festival. Lansing students have been selected by The Coterie to be a part of the program for well over eight years now. Lansing High School has had more students chosen for the roundtable than any other school in the Kansas City Metro Area.
"There is an immense amount of creativity within Lansing School District that we continue to find new ways to share," said Mr. Robinson. "Arts education is incredibly important for the social and emotional growth of our students."
Congratulations, Anthony! We look forward to reading one of your pieces in the near future!