Dawn Brody, a 2001 University graduate, waited nervously in the back row of the Stoll Thrust Theatre in the West Bank’s Rarig Center last July. It was Friday the 13th, and the first act of her first play, Cross Bones, was about to begin. Brody and five other students from various disciplines displayed their creations onstage that weekend. It was the final project for a new summer theater class called First Stage, a playwriting course unlike any other in the country.

"It’s rare at this level that a class offers a professional component, which is to work with professional people that help you see the play," says Kira Obolensky, a Kesselring Prize–winning playwright based in Minneapolis, who taught the class. To enroll, about 20 students submitted scripts, and Obolensky selected the six playwrights-to-be.

Students spent six weeks developing their ideas with Obolensky and putting it onstage with professional actors from the Twin Cities. Under the direction of Minneapolis theater veterans Bill Corbett of Mystery Science Theatre 3000, Casey Stangl of Eye of the Storm Theatre, and Steve Busa of Red Eye Collaboration, students received professional tutelage through every step of each play’s production. For the final productions, volunteer actors donned costumes and (with scripts in hand, just in case) performed for audiences of approximately 100 people—mostly family and friends of the playwrights. "Without doing this workshop, I never would have known the exhilaration of watching people watch your play, listening to actors speak your words, and suddenly having this phantom thing become real," says Brody.

Obolensky and the University’s theater department plan to repeat the class next summer. Meanwhile, Brody and other First Stage graduates look forward to publishing their refined creations.

—Katheryn Howard