The US premiere at Anchorage East High School in Anchorage, AK. Photo by Jill Bess Neimeyer.
In ASHES, four teenagers, lost in the remains of a forest after a devastating fire, search for the former camp site of their friend who started the blaze - but find that memories, secrets, and guilt endure long after the flames have died.
It's a spooky, classic ghost story in the gothic tradition.
Why this play?
The inspiration for the locale was probably subconscious anxiety after the Camp Fire and the Woolsey Fire caused such devastation in California in the fall of 2018. I had friends who lost their homes, some literally escaping through the flames… but after the initial concept of setting a story in a burned out forest, the rest of the play flowed organically, without referencing real people or particular places. I think the forest rapidly became metaphor in my mind: the sense that ghosts - if they exist - are like wood ashes after a fire. The life has gone, leaving something insubstantial but persistent.
The play is published by YouthPLAYS, Inc, and will also be included in their upcoming anthology of horror plays for teens. Perfect for your Halloween productions this fall!
Upcoming production.
Ashes will be produced at the Academy of Tucson High School, in Tucson, AZ on February 29th, 2024.
The play premiered in at Art in Motion Theatre in Thornlie, Western Australia, and had its US premiere in Alaska, at the East Anchorage High School.
Sample Dialogue...
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