In 2008 I drafted a play about a militiaman on the US/Mexico border and a young man who tries to infiltrate the group for reasons that aren’t immediately apparent. The script won the UK International Student Drama Festival competition in 2011, and I got to go over to the festival in Hull that year. Later it saw a production in Dallas, and the play’s life ended there.
Since then a lot has changed on the border, and obviously it’s re-captured the media’s attention in the current climate. Over the years I’ve stayed in touch with London-based producer Frazer Brown, and he’s always had an interest in the script. Earlier this year he prompted me to re-conceptualize it, to bring it closer to the present and to work out issues in the earlier draft. Over the summer I completely rewrote the play, to the point where I consider it a new play – the remaining elements are the characters and the location, but everything else is new and updated to reflect our current situation.
This July Frazer and I organized a table read in Manhattan with a talented group of actors. From there, and from some notes from a writers’ group I belong to, I rewrote, and now we’re looking at options for a production.
Here are some images from the reading. More to come.
In these photos: Frazer Brown, Tanya Everett, Arielle Haller-Silverstone, Oskar Owens and Harry Wood.
