Everything’s Different: From Page to Stage, Theater Students Unleashed their Inner Playwright

By: Cory Gennari Pratt '23

It was the spring show of my senior year, so, unsurprisingly, I was excited, but it was more than that. We performed Everything’s Different, an original play written by Mike Cimino, our Performing Arts teacher. 

We, the Seattle Academy acting program, had the chance to collaborate with our very own teacher and director on a brand-new show; it was an amazing experience to be the first cast working with the playwright ourselves. We edited the script, helped shape our characters and the story, and worked with the author to discover his exact intent. It was an incredible experience and opportunity. 

Micheal Cruz, Performing Arts Department Chair and the director of this show, said, “It’s rare to work with a playwright on a new play, especially on a high school production. To be able to do that with this group of collaborators is fun, and super important because post-pandemic it’s super clear that we need new plays”. 

I completely agree. Mike Cimino’s play is witty and incredibly relevant. It’s the kind of show that makes you think; creating it together was a powerful, insightful and joyful process. 

It started last year with just two people involved: Mike and Sophia. Sophia Watt ’23 had worked with Mike throughout her years at SAAS and was curious about the playwriting process. She’s been in the school’s musicals since Middle School, starred in RENT this past school year and has been a passionate and hard-working member of our Advanced Acting class for the last two years. 

Mike needed some external motivation. He has tried to adapt novels in the past, combining his passion for playwriting and his obsession with old feminist novels, but ran out of steam before he could finish the lengthy process. Fortunately, Sophia was happy to help. 

Over the summer of 2022, Mike wrote an adaptation of J.D. Beresford’s 1913 novel: A World of Women, and Sophia read each of Mike’s updates, sending her feedback over email. Unfortunately, Mike set aside the fledgling show as school started back up, only pages away from a complete draft. That’s the ending most stories meet. I’ve got my own set of unfinished drafts, dozens of short stories, plays, or books that I just got too busy to continue. It’s a writer’s life, but thankfully was not the end of the road for this script. 

Mike brought his almost-finished production to our advanced acting class. We spent three periods reading it together and by the time we got through his draft, our whole class was hooked. We discussed the play in class and outside of it. Cassandra Clemons ’23, an advanced actor and professional voice actor, whose been acting with SAAS since she joined during freshman year, was very excited to see where Mike would go with this draft. She talked with Mike about characterization, themes and everything that excited her about this play.

Sage Kunins (Grade 12) who is an advanced actor and talented singer, had more worries. “It’s an interesting play, but it’s rough and slow to start,” I remember Sage telling me while we walked to class together. “I’m worried there’s not enough time to get it polished.” 

I was skeptical too; it was a first draft and unfinished. Could Mike get it polished and finished in time? Sage, myself, and another Advanced Acting student Maya Boswell (Grade 12) met with Mike during lunch. We came with notes, copies of the script, and a determination to make this work. We proposed edits that Mike would need to make over mid-winter break and we helped him narrow down his own editing ideas. That’s when I stepped up. 

I like editing. I’ve had some writing experience and I was curious about what Mike’s plan was. I talked with him about it after class, several times in fact. I pestered him and it paid off. As Mike returned to the script over the break, he sent his edits to me and I sent my feedback. It was such a unique experience seeing the process of a playwright, and I feel so lucky to have been able to help. 

I learned a lot about characterization. Actors may define characters by their performance but writers define them through dialogue. As a playwright, one must know so much about the characters they are writing about – more than will ever be written. 

I talked a lot with Mike about the characters, particularly Thrale. In Everything’s Different a man-killing plague hits the world, and, facing the death of men, London collapses. Thrale is a progressive man, called an anarchist before the plague, who manages to survive. As Mike, Cassandra, Sage, Maya, and I looked at Thrale, we had some questions.

Why does Thrale believe what he does? Why does he survive the plague? Together we realized that Thrale was transgender. With this idea in mind, Mike and I rewrote the ending and changed some of the dialogue. The idea is never explicitly stated; instead, we hint at it in just a few lines. However, this understanding shaped the character into a new person.

As Mike wrote the ending and edited the script, the fears of our class faded. Instead, we were excited. We started practicing British accents, betting on who would get cast as who, and continuing to discuss the backstories of different characters. We counted the days until auditions even before Mike confirmed we were doing his show. 

When rehearsals finally started, the script was in its third draft and unfinished. The actors sat down and read through it again. The days passed, and the script changed even more. As Mike listened to the words spoken by the actor who would play each role, he noticed some problems he hadn’t seen before. However, the more significant changes came after talking with the actors.

Mike had already spent over a year thinking about these characters but seeing them on stage and talking with the actors, he rethought his ideas. He added new pieces of dialogue, rewrote other sections and we were left with fully formed complex characters. More than that, we were portraying dynamic characters– characters that change to suit the actors and our world. 

When working with an original script, we, the actors, get to define the roles. More than that, the playwright can tailor the show to the actors and tweak the characters to fit just right. Mike Cimino, our brilliant playwright, said, “I think the best thing about working on new plays, and this one is no different, is that characters get molded to the first people that play them, and the first way they were directed. Crafting this play with these people, it was beautiful how this play will stay indelibly marked by their creativity and how their personalities entwined with the words.”

Maggie Johnson ’23, a wonderful actress that I’ve been in shows with since 7th grade, plays Blanche, the main character of Mike’s show. Blanche was born in London as a reasonably rich and sheltered young girl, but she finds confidence and strength when the plague hits. It’s a beautiful feminist journey showing the power that women could have if society didn’t hold them back. It’s poignant, but Maggie pointed out it’s one-dimensional. 

Blanche travels straight from powerless to powerful, winning every challenge thrown at her and never stopping for tears. It’s inaccurate and worse, it’s not believable. Mike listened to Maggie’s feedback and decided to change the script by adding in a moment of vulnerability, a bump in Blanche’s trail. Together, he and Maggie reshaped Blanche by shifting lines to fit Maggie and making Blanche more believable to both Maggie and the modern-day audience. 

“It was nice that I could contribute to who she was as a character,” said Maggie. “Seeing the playwright so excited about these characters and this world has given a level of importance and personal connection to the characters that would be hard to find if we couldn’t work with the playwright.” 

Together, Mike and Maggie crafted a powerful and vulnerable woman who will capture your attention the moment she walks on stage. 

Similarly, Max Milios (Grade 12) brought his character, Mr. G., to Mike’s attention. Mr. G. is your classic patriarch, unlikeable and frankly ridiculous, holding absolute power over his family. It’s also one-dimensional, and with Max’s help, Mike shifted that. Mr. G. is still an absurd power figure and you’ll still end up hating his guts, but maybe you’ll be able to see his complexities. Perhaps you’ll have a little smidge of sympathy for him. 

Sometimes, however, Mike and the actor had different ideas. 

Sage and Mike were discussing their opinions on Millie’s final scene. What are her feelings? What should be the last line she gets to say? Sage wanted some evolution for Millie. Sage thought Millie might be disappointed in herself and hurt by her own actions in the end. Mike was intrigued but thought it was too much and didn’t quite fit the character. They reached a compromise and Mike rewrote the scene to explore Millie’s emotions more. There’s plenty of disappointment, a bit of repentance, but still a lot of Millie’s sassy attitude. 

Of all the characters in the story, Gurney was changed the most by his actor. As Jackson Lehtinen ’23 took the role of Gurney, Mike immediately realized the character needed tweaking. Gurney didn’t feel like a lovable character and that wouldn’t do at all. After hearing from Jackson, Mike realized Gurney could be someone a little flamboyant and fun; someone a little funnier and more lovable. 

At the end of all these weeks of rehearsal and editing, the collaboration between the actors and the playwright has changed this production for the better. We have shifted the dialogue, discovered our characters and worked together to craft a play perfect for our cast. 

Cassandra told me that “being able to see the creative process behind the lines written, gives me, the actor, a lot of insight on how to play the character.” We’ve created a piece of art together. We are the first cast of Everything’s Different and we were able to shape its future. We have worked together, learned together, and defined this show. 

Our theater program is filled with talented actors and writers, and I am so grateful to have been a part of this beautiful community throughout my high school years. Our collaboration to create Everything’s Different has been an incredible experience, and I’m so proud of how the show turned out. While our run of Everything’s Different is now over, I encourage you to come check out our future plays, or catch a look at Everything’s Different wherever its journey takes it next. You never know, maybe by then, everything will be different.