Tori and Mabelle talk with Ashleigh Akilah Rucker & Samantha Miller, two of the inaugural grantees of the 2021 ReImagine: New Plays in TYA program.
Prompt #1 (courtesy of Samantha Miller)
Inspired by a playwriting class with Octavio Solis – this prompt helped Sam unlock her writing. Close your eyes and in front of you there is a cabin. It’s familiar. You go inside. You look around. The fireplace is going. What else do you see? There’s stairs on the left. They head to the attic. You go up the stairs and open the door. You’re in the attic. You turn to the corner and someone is sitting there. They look up at you and start talking. Who are they and what do they say?
Prompt #2 (courtesy of Ashleigh Akilah Rucker)
Inspired by Valarie Kaur’s Revolutionary Love Project, “See No Stranger”: Let’s look at things that can heal us, how we stand in resilience, and how we stand in connection. What does it look like to love yourself? What does it look like to love others? And what does it take to love your opponent?
Ashleigh’s bio:
Ashleigh Akilah Rucker is an award winning Theatre and Film Director, Producer, and Playwright based in Los Angeles. For over a decade, she has used theater arts to educate under-resourced communities throughout Southern California for Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre. She is a recent recipient of the ReImagine Playwright grant for her play Kaleidoscope Crown.
Connect with Ashleigh: www.AshleighAkilah.com
- IG: @AshleighAkilah
- FB: Ashleigh Akilah Rucker
- Spotlight LA Interview with Ashleigh
- Check out the Center of Creative Arts (COCA) in St. Louis, MO, where Ashleigh workshopped her play, “Kaleidoscope Crown”: https://www.cocastl.org
Samantha’s bio:
Samantha Miller is a youth entertainment writer and performer based in Los Angeles. She is currently in the Writer’s Room of the Bay Area Children’s Theatre writing and composing for the upcoming premiere of their latest original musical: The Imaginaries. Simultaneously, Samantha is touring as an actor-educator in 2 productions with Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre in Southern California.
Connect with Samantha: https://www.samanthawmiller.com/
- Check out the StageOne Family Theatre in Louiseville, KY, where Sam workshopped her play, “DragonSoul Offline”: https://stageone.org
- Check out The Imaginaries, featuring Sam at: https://bactheatre.org
ReImagine: New Plays in TYA
Register for the TYA/USA Virtual Conference, December 6-10, 2021: https://www.tyausa.org/reimagine/
Learn about all of the 2021 ReImagine Grantees: http://writenow.co/2021-reimagine-grantees/
Kaiser Permanente Educational Theatre