PlayWrite Newsletter February 2024

Hello, PlayWrite friends!

February’s quote:

Colour is the touch of the eye, music to the deaf, a word out of the darkness.— Orhan Pamuk

We chose this quote to celebrate PlayWrite’s new website and color palette:

Check out our new History page!

Cecily Overman

This month, meet. . .

Cecily Overman, one of PlayWrite’s longest-serving coaches. Cecily is a theatre and film actor, teacher and voiceover artist. She holds bachelor’s degrees in psychology and theatre from Whitman College and is getting her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Naropa University. Theatre companies she’s worked with include Oregon Children's Theatre, Portland Center Stage, California Repertory, Profile Theatre, and Artists Repertory Theatre. She’s been a coach and actor with PlayWrite since 2004.

Q: How did you get involved with PlayWrite?

Cecily: (laughing) I don’t remember much of my adulthood without PlayWrite. After college I got a job as a treatment coordinator at a residential girls’ group home. The girls went to Clinton School, an alternative school inside Cleveland High School. Later, I was an independent living counselor, working with the same students as well as other foster youth. I got involved with the Haven Project, and met Bruce (Livingston, PlayWrite founder) there. Haven was transitioning, and Bruce started PlayWrite to serve more young people in the same population I was involved with. I think the very first workshop PlayWrite did was with Clinton School (2004). I couldn’t coach in the workshop as some of the writers were my clients, and it would have been a conflict of interest. But I could watch it as an audience member! I was part of subsequent workshops, from the very beginning of PlayWrite. Even then, in the early stages, I could see how working one-on-one with the young writers…the trust that’s developed… how that leads to transformation.

To see writers go from — crossed arms, hood over their head, I-don’t-want-to-be-here — to two weeks later: I’m gonna miss you guys so much, this has been amazing. As an independent living counselor, I was working with that same population in a different capacity and I was able to see more deep, lasting work with them, more transformation, in those two weeks they were with PlayWrite than I saw working with them for nine months.

Q: What makes the PlayWrite model work?

Cecily: The exercises and tools are good, they’re great. But it’s the one-on-one work that’s most critical. The coach isn’t their parole officer, isn’t their teacher, isn’t their foster parent. We’re not quite peers, but we’re not “above” them. It’s unconditional positive regard for these kids, and the belief that “Your ideas are worth writing down.”

A coach scribes a student’s words

I think one of the things that makes it work is that the coaches scribe. That means the kids can free associate, build any story that comes into their head. And they see their words being written down, whatever they say. They know they aren’t being edited, no one is correcting their word choices. Even incorrect grammar may be the thing that gives authentic voice to whatever character they’re expressing.

Another thing that makes it work is creating a safe container. We begin each day with gesture names and other exercises, and the writer doesn’t know what the exercise will be or what they’ll be writing about. They may say Oh, this is silly… but they know we are in this together, and they know they’re being held.

It’s not about the work that gets done, it’s not about the exercise; it’s about the belief in the writer. Sometimes a writer will just be silent for five minutes, maybe put their head down on the table, or say I just don’t want to do this. But staying in presence with them, letting them know we are not going to give up on them, brings them back. I’ve seen it from workshop to workshop, no matter what else happens. Writers begin by working with different coaches, then get paired up — having that one-on-one is magic. It creates a trust, a synergy gets built.

Q: Tell us about one of the exercises.

Coach Alyson Osborn with a writer and his map

Cecily: Okay, the map exercise. The writer has a large piece of paper in front of them, and they are to map out, in whatever way they want, the first place they remember living. We are very inclusive in the language of that; there have been apartments, shelters, the back seats of cars. Some of the writers are reticent at first, mostly because of the artistic aspect (I’m not a good drawer). The coach will say that doesn’t matter, scale doesn’t matter, you can do it however it feels to you. As the coach and the writer talk about how to do this, the coach learns more about the writer. The coach asks simple questions, maybe something like ‘What color was this?... What was the feeling of this?” The writers end up telling stories. This activity usually comes before a break, and I’ve noticed, this is the one activity they don’t want to break from. They want to keep going, keep talking, keep connecting with the coach about what they’re putting on the map and why. Having their history witnessed in this way builds trust.

Q: What keeps you with PlayWrite?

Cecily: The writers. Seeing them trust, change, transform. Using theatre as a modality for transformation and healing is part of my life mission. My work with PlayWrite has encouraged me, it’s one reason why I’m getting my master’s in counseling, and why I intend to work with youth. My degree will be a Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in Mindfulness-Based Transpersonal Counseling—body, mind, spirit. I want to bring my learnings back to PlayWrite and help develop new evolutions to enrich our programming.

Learn more about Cecily Overman

Workshops & Events Coming Up

First up: We’re doing another workshop at Mt. Scott in February.

Next: Our Board President, Jane Unger (Founding Artistic Director Emerita, Profile Theatre) is directing a staged reading of Mink River, the sweeping, spirited, beloved novel by Brian Doyle. A number of the actors reading are PlayWrite coaches and actors.

See Mink River, Part I, Monday, March 11, 7 pm; Part II on Tuesday, March 12, 7 pm at the Ellyn Bye Studio at Portland Center Stage, 128 NW 11th Ave, Portland, Oregon. Free to attend.

Then in April, we’re participating in the Fertile Ground Festival with Write. Voice. Play! It’s a showcase of student work, and we’d love to see you there and show you what our student writers can do.

PlayWrite is proud to be one of this year's recipients of a FG24 GROW Grant. Broadway World shared the news. Our thanks to Fertile Ground and PATA—and congrats to the other GROW Grant awardees. Mark your calendar for Sunday, April 14 and watch for more information about Write.Voice.Play! coming soon.

News About PlayWrite Staff, Coaches & Actors

Profile Theatre is producing a weekend festival featuring three enhanced staged readings of Lauren Yee’s plays Mother Russia, Samsara, and The Song of Summer February 23–25, at Imago Theatre. Coach/actor Cynthia Shur Petts will perform in Samsara on Sunday, February 25, at 2 pm. It’s an outlandish comedy about modern day colonialism… and what to expect when you’re expecting someone else’s child. Directed by Ajai Tripathi, with Subashini Ganesan as our Cultural Consultant. Get tickets to Samsara.

PlayWrite Coach/Actor Cynthia Shur Petts

PlayWrite Coach/Actor Chris Harder

Coach/Actor Chris Harder has been teaching "Authentic Connection," his fun, supportive acting class for 15 years. Using the Meisner technique, you'll learn to build connection through attentive observation, listening, repetition, and moment-to-moment authentic responses. Open to all levels.

Take time to explore our newly refreshed website!

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