By Dan Aznoff, Jewish Sound Correspondent
Watch out, Oscar Wilde. Move aside, George Bernard Shaw. Here comes Danielle Kohorn.
A short play written by the 12-year-old Jewish Day School middle school student has been selected by the Washington Ensemble Theater and will be staged this spring during the annual Young Playwrights Festival at the ACT Theater in Seattle.
The effort of the young playwright from Issaquah was selected from hundreds of submissions from high school and middle school students in the theater’s annual Young Playwrights Program (YPP).
The aspiring author penned her award-winning script as part of the Journey and Growth elective program at JDS. Danielle’s play, “When It All Fell Apart,” is the story of a strained relationship between two teenage girls.
“I felt really good about my play and my teachers gave me positive feedback, but I never expected that my play would be selected in a competition against high school students from all over Seattle,” said Kohorn. “My parents received an email that my play had been selected, but I had no idea what to expect when they sat me down to tell the good news.”
The elective program is part of the inquiry-based education at the private school in Bellevue. Students in the course have dedicated two days each week to the study of plays and script writing. Kohorn said her teacher, Rachel Atkins, instructed students in her class how to construct a “story mountain” built upon character development, establishing challenges for the main characters, and setting up the turning point that leads to a logical conclusion.
Danielle’s play follows the emotional journey of Sky and her friend Mavis as the girls struggle to maintain the innocence of their relationship after it has been strained by sarcasm and hurt feelings. The turning point for Sky, said Kohorn, was an epiphany about the relationship after a dream sequence after the two girls have stopped speaking to each other.
Spoiler alert: “When It All Fell Apart” has a happy ending.
The JDS student admitted the play was not based on anything in her own life, but stressed her attraction to what she describes as “realistic fiction.”
ACT Theater sends working professionals to local school each year to help students explore the various opportunities in the theater that go beyond performing on stage. Educators have praised the 10-week program for providing students with the self-confidence to explore more about themselves, their own community, and the challenges they may encounter in the world.
Danielle’s father, Adam Kohorn, is obviously proud of his daughter. He is also thankful to his daughter’s school for helping her experience the backstage efforts that go into a production.
“The elective program at JDS has helped Danielle understand her dreams and ambitions,” the older Kohorn explained. “Nobody knows if this will be the first step of a professional career for my 12-year-old daughter, but the recognition is nice. It helps bring even more value to the stories that Danielle has created for her mother and me over the years.”
Adam Kohorn said his daughter has always been an avid reader, but the creation of a storyline with a conclusion was something he had not expected from the pre-teen.
Danielle expects to be excited — and more than a little nervous — when she watches her words come to life on stage in March. But she also admits to some concern about whether the actors will read their lines with the proper inflection or have the appropriate facial expressions she had in mind when she wrote the play.
Michelle Kohorn, Danielle’s mother, said her daughter may decide to study the role of a director the next time she enrolls in a theater class.