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Bring a Playwright to the Classroom

By Charlie Lovett 

Charlie Lovett got his first big writing break when his play Twinderella won the 2004 Shubert Fendrich Playwriting Award.  His plays with Pioneer Drama have been seen in nearly 5000 productions worldwide.  His 2013 novel The Bookman’s Tale was a New York Times Bestseller and was featured in People, Parade, and USA Today.  It has been translated into a dozen languages. 

I can’t tell you how pleased I am that schools are producing plays again.  One of the things I love most about being a Pioneer playwright is the opportunity to visit schools that are presenting my plays and talk with young actors.  Their questions keep me on my toes, and their intelligence and commitment to their work remind me of why I love writing for children.  When I started writing novels, I retired from children’s playwriting (for the time being at least), but I always felt that pull to create stories for kids — adventures that would give them that same look in their eyes that I see when I visit with student actors.

A few years ago, I could no longer ignore that pull and I started working on a trilogy of books for middle grade students.  The first volume of The Book of the Seven Spells was published in September, and there is so much about this book that is inspired by the students who have performed my plays over the past twenty years.  Watching them, I saw groups of diverse children with different strengths and weaknesses coming together to accomplish something none of them could have done on their own.  I’ve seen students who might never have spoken to one another become best friends.  I’ve seen them work hard, help one another, and put the needs of the group ahead of their own.  I’ve seen children (and adults) move outside their comfort zones to develop new talents and skills, all in the service of something bigger than themselves.  All of that became part of The Book of the Seven Spells.

There’s one other thing about my new book that reminds me of watching children perform one of my plays — magic.  As soon as I started writing, I knew my book needed to be about magic, because that’s what happens in the theatre.  Watching a group of children perform a play, each contributing the best of themselves, is nothing short of a magical experience, and I wanted readers of my book to feel that magic.

So, thank you — thank you for two decades of amazing performances, thank you for allowing me to visit your schools to see your plays, and to talk with your students.  Thank you for your hard work and your great questions.  Thank you for making the kind of magic that inspired me to try a new kind a writing, a magical adventure about four very different characters thrown together in a situation as challenging and rewarding as putting on a play.

One good thing did come out of that year when I didn’t visit a single school, didn’t hear a single one of your questions, or watch a single production of one of my plays.  We all discovered Zoom.  Now I am back out on the road, visiting schools to talk about both my plays and my new book.  In the past, my school visits have been limited to my general geographic area — the piedmont of North Carolina.  Outside one memorable visit to a school in Massachusetts while on a college tour with my younger child, I’ve mostly visited schools within a couple hours’ drive of home.  But Zoom has opened up a whole new range of possibilities for us all.  I’ve been able to make author visits to places across the country and around the world.

So, if you’re performing a Charlie Lovett play this year (and there are more than 20 to choose from!), let me know by contacting Pioneer and asking them to forward your contact information to me.  I’d love the chance to chat with your cast, field their questions, and tell them a little about writing both plays and books.  I’d love to tell them about The Book of the Seven Spells, or talk about the career of a writer, or chat about blocking or memorizing lines or whatever is on their minds.  Because their minds are the best — and whether I’m writing for the stage or the page, I always try to remember that.  If I pop in for a Zoom visit, your students may learn a thing or two from me; but I promise you, I’ll learn even more from them.