“…And This Little Piggy Helped the Hungry Wolf” Wins 2nd Prize at The Write Stuff Playwriting Competition By Renata Lumanau, grade 8
Renata with friends and actors: (L to R): Celine Rosa Tan, Dwayne Tan Yeung-Hsen, Shane Mardjuki, Cynthia Lee MacQuarrie, Renata, Pavan Baloo, Julie Natalia Wee, Jessica Smart, Nandita Baloo, Alita
M
y experience as a playwright began when my 7th grade RLA teacher, Ms. Antonowicz, told us that we could write a 15-minute script for extra credit and could turn it into The Write Stuff playwriting competition. The competition was organized by Singapore Repertory Theatre’s (SRT) Little Company for 11- and 12-yearolds with sponsorship from, among others, Singapore Press Holdings Foundation, Peugeot, Exxon Mobil, M1 and Kinokuniya. I wrote about rising food prices and made a story based loosely on the fairytale, Three Little Pigs. My script contained only one pig named Paul and his best friend Wally, the wolf. Wally was frustrated by the rising meat prices and turned to his best friend Paul
for a source of meat. In the end Paul were staged for three weeks from cooked Wally a tofu casserole and August 12 to 30. My play was staged from August 25 to 30 to turned the wolf into a vegetarian. a fully packed theater and was After a while, I forgot about the performed by professional actors competition, since I had to juggle Shane Mardjuki as Paul and James attending a tennis tournament, art Shubert as Wally. Ms. Boyer, the and school. I still remember that MS Drama teacher, organized a fateful day – on May 21, 2008 field trip for MS students to see the production manager of SRT my show for free. Then at the gala informed me that out of the 300 performance on August 30, the scripts turned in, I made it to the three top winners were announced. top 15! I needed to attend three I couldn’t believe it when I won three-hour workshops to perfect second prize! I received $300 my script. Michael Corbidge, the worth of Kinokuniya vouchers SRT associate artistic director, was and SAS received a $3,000 check the instructor. He challenged us to from the sponsors. Mr. Pratt told think about how to translate our me that he would ask Miss Boyer to meet with me to discuss how scripts into stage productions. best to use the prize money. I was Soon enough, the top 12 scripts glad that Mr. Pratt, Mr. Combes, were announced, and my script my friends, my teachers and my was one of them! The 12 scripts family were there to support me.
Renata with MS Drama Teacher, Kyra Boyer and HS Drama Teacher, Tracy Meyer
Renata with MS Principals: Devin Pratt and Brian Combes SAS NewsFlash – October 2008
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