Middletown High School South Teacher’s
Play to be Performed in Toronto
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Alexis Kozak, who teaches theatre arts at Middletown High School South,
will have his new Zoom play, “And All You Can Is Fresno,” performed at
Cardinal Carter Academy for the Arts in Toronto, Ontario. Kozak wrote the
short play early on during teaching in quarantine. He sent the play to Project
Y Theatre in New York, which included it in its educational virtual theatre database.
Last month, he was contacted by Cardinal Carter Academy, which found
the piece online, and was asked for permission to perform it.
“I am so excited to be contributing to high school theatre not just
locally, but now, internationally,” said Kozak, who has been teaching
at South for 17 years. “I was watching a lot of ‘Homeland,’ and I sort of
wrote these two roles for Claire Danes and me to play,” he joked.
The story centers on a brilliant young woman who begins to crumble
under the stress of quarantine and, through a Zoom confrontation
with her boss, realizes what is truly important in her life.
Kozak, who has a Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting from
Boston University, credits a rigid schedule of writing with keeping him
focused during the pandemic.
“I write every single day for at least 20 minutes, sometimes
more,” he said. “I used the time not so much to write new things, but
at Middletown South, including the Basie-Award winner for Outstanding
Drama, an adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Diamond
as Big as the Ritz.” He is currently directing a student-written
one-act jukebox musical which will premiere later this spring at the
school. Last year, Kozak was named Middletown High School South’s
Teacher of the Year.
For more information or to read “And All You Can Say Is Fresno,”
visit AlexisKozak.com.
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