Congratulations to senior Natalie Timmerman, whose horror-genre play “John Friendly” will be presented at the Junior/Senior High School around Memorial Day. It’s the first time in 14 years that an OH student's play or musical is being brought to life by OH Theatre.
Casting for the show (with between five and seven student actors) begins in late February. Actual dates and times for the show are still being determined. The show will run about two hours with an intermission.
Since her sophomore year, Natalie has received numerous writing awards. Most recently in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards — the most prestigious writing competition in the nation — she received eight awards. For two consecutive years, the same awards program has chosen her to represent a 40-county region as the "American Voices Nominee" — given nationally to only five recipients. From journalism to flash fiction, her works can be found in numerous publications.
Here’s the play's synopsis:
When the superstitious Ma threatens his relationship, Theo Jules, desperate, must do whatever it takes to keep his idealistic romance alive … even if it means covering the tracks that lead to his lover Mary—a golden "muse of the forest"—being something more sinister: a fiery, boy-killing spirit.
Meanwhile, after a diva of a demon traps the former opera singer Ma inside her home, a clergy member assures her it'll leave once she confesses her sins. But with a questionable story (especially around her husband’s death) that can't keep itself straight, the task may not be so simple.
A story of obsession, desperation, and the unspoken facets of anxiety, the fantastical horror JOHN FRIENDLY asks:
"What is easier: holding on or letting go?"
The play was inspired by a short story she wrote as a sophomore. That version of the story won a regional Gold Key in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. This year, she sent an excerpt of a play script (which she began working on as a junior) as part of a portfolio (a more competitive category of the Awards program); it and her other portfolio works won a Silver Key.
Original source can be found here.
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