Write on the Edge (WrOTE) provides opportunities for students to develop original scripts inspired by the MTC production they have studied and attended. The WrOTE program empowers students to create complex, polished works because the collaboration between the MTC teaching artist, the classroom teacher, and the students lasts up to nine weeks; this extended time frame provides ample opportunity for students to revise their work and the trust that develops allows the educators to provide frank and thorough feedback, ongoing evaluation of the students’ work and provides time for the students to write and revise their play. The high value that schools placed on this type of in-depth learning experience can be seen by the increase in the program during the 2007-08 school year; of the sixteen schools that took part in the program, five were participating in WrOTE for the first time.

Flushing High School and Flushing YABC (an evening program for older teens whose schedules make it difficult to attend traditional high school) were among the first-time participants. Teachers Julie Grant and Katherine Hatzigiannakis found the hands-on playwriting experience to be a fantastic tool for engaging otherwise reluctant students. Ms. Grant enthused, “The students in my class performed above and beyond their normal levels. They had great rapport with the teaching artist and were able to really engage in the material. This is an excellent program and really reaches those students that have been labeled ‘unreachable’.” Ms. Hatzigiannakis agrees, “21 out of 22 students passed the class as a result of the program.”

On Monday June 2, 2008, the two teachers, their students, and the playwrights’ friends came to NY City Center to see five original works by Flushing students receive their off-Broadway premiere as part of the Write on the Edge Festival. The students’ plays ranged from a broad comedy about two gossipy women chatting about their lives and their neighbors on Christmas Eve to a moving drama about a young man who, in an effort to do right by his infant son, decides to check into rehab but is killed on his way to the facility. As the students basked in their success, Ms. Hatzigiannakis marveled at the transformation in her students from the beginning of the school year, “Students who were against learning how to write plays ended up gaining the most from this experience.”

For the 2008-09 school year, the Education Department has again seen an increase in the number of schools that are requesting WrOTE units. Director of Education David Shookhoff hypothesizes, “High schools are increasingly emphasizing the development of students’ writing skills as well as their ability to think critically about their work. Write on the Edge provides opportunities to do both.”