To Whom It May Concern...

Role (Lead): Argo

Let me start off by saying that we wrote this play. The concept was created in our first semester, we had a prompt of cancelling books and from that point we went and developed ideas to the point of creating "To Whom It May Concern..." This project was made in thanks of The Chesapeake Fine Arts Commission. 

"To Whom It may Concern..." is a student written devised theatre piece. It was written by a large group of students (including myself). We went through writing our stories as students and creating characters from those experiences that we can empathise with, in other words relate to. We could not write characters that we didn't have experience with, for example I couldn't write about the experiences of an Asian American, because I didn't experience that. Simple! We are telling our honest stories. 

The story is about high school students in detention for absurd reasons. This is the space where they get together, interact, begin talking about their experiences, some tension, some drama, love, friends, it's got everything. It's been called a "zesty drama" by some of the students who have watched it. Which pretty much explains it. 

Moreover, what makes this project so dear to the writers and actors is that, we have first hand experience and can relate to it straight to heart and mind. Because the topics discussed in this play directly affects us everyday, it talks about LITERAL CURRENT EVENTS (at the time of this writing) such as Florida's "Don't Say Gay," book bannings, the cute but BANNED book "And Tango Makes Three," it mentions "Beloved" by Toni Morrison, furthermore it talks about activism, student involvement, racism, sexuality (LGBTQ+), fighting ignorance with knowledge, it's got a taste of everything. 

It's an excellent play, I'm not just saying that myself (I'm a bit biased), but adult audience members have been saying how incredible the play was. It made a grown man become emotional (at the very end, we called up a volunteer from the audience to be the "President of the Parent and Teachers Association" and read to the rest of the audience the letter we left them on their desk and that is when that happened). Some said it needs to be put on tour or at least publish the play. Fun Fact: "To Whom It May Concern..." is actually a published play, making the writers of the piece PUBLISHED PLAYWRIGHTS. 

This experience of writing and putting on a this show that means so much to us was wonderful. I am, as I'm sure many others are, grateful to have had this experience. Not only to write it, but to bring it to life!

The set was created by the magnificent Sean Blue and the GSA Theater & Film Tech Department of 2023. Props to everyone involved and a special thanks to Steve Earle, Ricardo Melendez, Deborah Thorpe, Dr. Shelly, and The Chesapeake Fine Arts Commision for allowing us to tell our story.