Warden, Ephrata students part of Wash. State University play
High school students from Warden, Ephrata, Pateros and Mabton will present an original play, Los Memorias 2012, tonight at Wallenstein Theater on the Big Benc Community College campus.
WARDEN - Students from Warden and two 2012 graduates from Ephrata will be among the performers in a play based on incidents from their lives tonight at the Wallenstein Theater at Big Bend Community College. Students from Mabton and Pateros also are part of the cast.
Los Memorias 2012 will premiere locally at 7:30 p.m.; an encore is scheduled for Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. at the theater. The play will be performed in Pullman, Yakima, Tacoma and Wenatchee as well. The Wenatchee performance will be Sept. 14 at 11 a.m. at the Stanley Civic Center.
Sophomores and juniors from the three high schools apply to attend the workshop on the WSU campus in Pullman. Students stay in the dorms and form the cast of the play, said John Fraire, who originated the project three years ago. Fraire also is the university's vice-president for student affairs and enrollment.
The students take incidents from their lives and write an essay detailing them.
Fraire helps turn them into a play, and the students work with a professional director from New York, AnaMarie Correa, to bring the play to life.
The program is designed to improve writing and public speaking skills, and show kids how to set priorities and work in teams.
It's also designed to encourage kids to think about college, and in that way it seems to be working, according to WSU officials.
"I've seen a profound change in these students," said Darin Watkins, the college's executive director of external communications. Watkins said high school students tend to be cautious on their first exposure to college campuses, but not the kids involved in Los Memorias.
Those students are very dynamic when it comes to confronting college, he said.
Participants include Daniela Ramos, Alexys Jolley, Brenda DeLeon and Victoria Martinez, Warden; Magdelena Hernandez and Yesenia Rodriquez, Ephrata; Jessi Dowers, TyRae Tisdale, Beatriz Morales and Meliza Sanchez, Pateros; and Edson Rivera, Jesenia Meza, Jose Cruz and Tracy Vargas, Mabton.