BWW Blog: Clarissa Moon - UCF Celebrates the Arts: Meet the Female Playwrights Panel

This Friday, April 7, marks the beginning of "UCF Celebrates the Arts," a week-long showcase of student art and pieces that demonstrate the vital role of the arts. On Sunday, UCF faculty members will hold a female playwrights panel. I talked with two of the playwrights, Belinda (Be) Boyd and Sybil St. Claire, about their inspiration to become playwrights, their start in playwriting and what to expect at the panel.

BWW: What inspired you to become a playwright?

Belinda Boyd: Two things: I am fascinated with people and how they are put together - also I have always enjoyed the power of story. A story can change a life. That's power!

Sybil St. Claire: I came in as a storyteller and finding the medicine in our stories is a common theme in my work. I remember giving stories as gifts even as a young child, and with time, playwriting just became a different way to wrap the present. I think we're born with an instrument and our environment teaches us how to play it, so in that respect, I feel writing chose me, not the other way around.

BWW: How did you get your start in playwriting?

Boyd: My first play was titled In Focus: A Recollection of Black Thought. I wrote it when I was eighteen because I wanted to say something about the magnificence of the African American race. It was a play that honored our survival, our courage and our strength - it was inspired by my father, mother and grandmother who taught me not only to be proud of who I am but to celebrate it, in spite of ignorant racists. I watched the audience listen to what I wrote and recognized that it was a way that my individual voice could be heard. I didn't have to speak it, I could write it and impact people in a positive way. I really liked that feeling.

St. Claire: I started writing plays in my 20s while serving as the Founding Artistic Director of a children's theatre for the deaf. I was having difficulty finding the kind of material I wanted to produce so, like most necessity is the mother of invention stories, I started writing my own shows and producing them.

BWW: What should those coming to the panel expect?

Boyd: A candid and broad discussion about playwriting - everything from what it's like to be a female playwright, to our own playwriting process, to a discussion of playwrights we admire. There will also be lots of opportunity to ask questions.

St. Claire: I think they can expect to be in the company of caring, informed Teaching Artists who enjoy sharing their knowledge and experiences in beneficial (and hopefully), inspirational ways.

BWW: What are you most excited to share at the panel?

Boyd: I am most excited by the possibility of sharing something that will inspire young playwrights. I am one of the Faculty Advisors for Project Spotlight - a student theatre organization at UCF. The organization puts up two festivals a year - one at the end of each semester. Typically we produce four to six plays and all of the plays are written by UCF students. Not just theatre students, but we receive plays from the entire student body. In fact the play that is going up Sunday night, Force of Gravity - started out as a one act play and premiered in our Spring 16 Festival. Project Spotlight is a safe space where students can tell their personal stories or as I did, honor the stories of the past. That's extremely exciting to me because I think the more we get people to tell their own stories, the more we come closer to understanding each other.

St. Claire: That having fun, making art, and lifting others up can be a career choice! :)

The "Female Playwrights Panel" will be held on Sunday, April 9 from 1-2:30 p.m. in the DeVos Family Room at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts. "UCF Celebrates the Arts" begins April 7, and continues through April 14. For the schedule of events and other information, visit arts.cah.ucf.edu.