Like many 12-year-olds, New Haven resident Anisa Turay, is starting to think about what friendship actually means. But unlike others her age, she wrote a play about it, performed by professional actors at the Off-Broadway Theater in downtown New Haven.
Anisa titled it, “I really, really, want to stay at your house.” And like many playwrights, Anisa’s work is a bit autobiographical.
“I guess the frog would be me,” she said. “And then I guess the goldfish would be like my friend, friends.”
Anisa is part of the Dwight/Edgewood Project. The collaborative effort partners students from the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale, and 12 students at the Barnard Environmental Science and Technology School in New Haven.
The project which has been around since 1995, gives children the tools to not only improve their writing but also gives them the chance to be their authentic selves.
The audience packed into the theater on Saturday night and watched as actors Surrey Houlker and Aaron Magloire walked, and ran around the stage, in overalls.
Houlker wore a hat shaped like a frog, while Magloire wore one shaped like a goldfish.
Anisa gave the actors notes. She wanted Houlker, who portrayed the frog in her play, to speak with a British accent, but later decided it would be better with an Australian accent instead.
Houlker said teaching a small group of students meant she ended up developing relationships with them, and that meant dropping her guard.
“The more I tried to mask any sort of feeling I had coming into the work day just felt disingenuous, I think, because they see you and you see them, “ Houlker said.
Aaron Magloire, who portrayed the goldfish, and was Turay’s writing mentor said Turay had grown.
“I think one of the most rewarding things about this summer was seeing those moments where she was really in the zone and didn't want to stop writing, even when we were running out of time, and I think she produced a beautiful play as a result,” Magloire said.
Teaching Artist Francisco Morandi Zerpa, a recent graduate of the school, said the plays do not have human characters, but can deal with weighty subjects, from self identity, to a coming out story.
The plays also take place in fantasy settings.
“It gives students an opportunity to explore the thing without saying the thing outright, and that is the kind of space that helps a young person really talk about things without feeling self conscious about what people might say,” Morandi said.
The pandemic hurt participation in the program due to the shutdowns. And the sudden death of Emalie A. Mayo in 2024, who had long run the program, was particularly difficult, according to Morandi.
The project has not only recovered, but is now active in other schools.
“This year we're also working with two new schools, Edgewood and Morrow Sheridan, both in the Dwight and Edgewood neighborhoods,” Morandi said.
The audience laughed at the play, and cheered as Anisa walked to the stage to bow with her actors.
“The actors made it,” “I feel like when I was writing it, it was deflated, but like my actors aired it up,” Turay said.
