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Glenwood Springs High School student wins Theater Masters competition
His work to be performed on stage tonight, Tuesday
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Glenwood senior Lance Tsosie recently won a playwright award for his original play, “Another Day on the Job.” Tsosie is also involved in football and wrestling at GSHS.
Kara K. Pearson/Post Independent
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By Stina Sieg
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
January 28, 2008
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GLENWOOD SPRINGS — When asked about his “tough guy” persona, Lance Tsosie smiled, embarrassed.
He put it simply. If you’re born on a reservation, and if you move to a town where no one looks like you, sometimes you’ve got to be tough.
Being Navajo, and the captain of the football and wrestling teams, also means people put you in a category, he went on. Low-key and polite, the 18-year-old Glenwood Springs High School senior doesn’t seem to fit into his.
And that feels just fine to the unexpected playwright.
“I guess it’s kind of time to start a new image,” he said, smiling again, sitting in his school’s library.
Reserved, he had a bit of teenaged awkwardness about him. But a strong dedication showed through the quiet. He described his ideal future, of going to Dartmouth, helping others, of being a new person.
| Take 10 |
What: “Take 10,” an evening of 10-minute plays, directed and performed by professionals. Nine of the pieces were submitted by students in university playwriting programs across the country. The tenth is Lance Tsosie’s, a Glenwood Springs High School senior and winner of the Aspiring Playwrights Competition. The event is sponsored by Theater Masters, a nonprofit organization out of Aspen.
When: 7:30 tonight and Tuesday
Where: The Black Box Theater in Aspen High School, 235 High School Road |
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Ask anyone who really knows him, however, and their answers are the same. He’s been creating that new life for years.
Tonight and Tuesday, some of that fresh self will be on display when his play “Another Day on the Job,” is performed at Aspen High School. Though he had never written for the stage before, Tsosie is the winner of this year’s Aspiring Playwrights Competition, sponsored by Theater Masters. His piece beat out 50 or so others, submitted by high school students around the valley. Directed and acted by professionals, the work will be presented alongside that of nine graduate students.
| Another Day on the Job |
By Lance Tsosie
Editor’s note: There are adult themes and language that some people could find offensive.
It’s the year 2007 in the very busy, hectic Times Square, New York City.
Matilda Fairbanks is walking through the crowds of the city and does not realize that there is an open manhole, and she falls in. She is around 65 years old and roughly 5 feet 4 inches. She is considered a very bitchy woman, considerably fat, and she is at the moment wearing “small” underwear. Nathan Striker is the leading NYC Rescue member. He is the type of man who is by the book. He is around 22 years old, fairly good-looking. Andrew Baker is a young good-looking news reporter, and he loves to be in the center of attention. Jamaal Jackson is a African American “gangsta,” around 19 years old and witnesses what goes down.
MATILDA: There are too many people in New York.
(Looks around disappointed; as she is walking she accidentally bumps into some stranger) Watch it ***hole! I’m walking here! Ahhhhh!
(She trips and falls into an open sewer hole in the middle of the street, head first, legs sticking out and kicking)
JAMAAL: Oh, snap! Hey fool, let me borrow your cell phone.
(He grabs a random person and takes his cell phone) Hey 911? Y’all should come on down here, and help this old-a** lady out. She fell in some sewer thing or something, and now she’s stuck. (Continues to talk to the operator)
NATHAN: OK, what happened here? (He takes off his dark sunglasses, but they have no real use, because it is dark out)
JAMAAL: I dunno man, I was struttin’ my stuff an I see this lady stuck wit’ her legs kickin’ around. That s*** is nasty. Somebody should cover her a** up.
(Matilda is kicking, and apparently she has a dress on.)
NATHAN: All right, I’ll call in my crew.
(The NYC Rescue Crew show up in a matter of minutes.)
(They tie one ankle with a rope and use a tow truck to try and pull her out, but as they were making progress, the rope breaks and she falls further in the hole.)
MATILDA: Ahhh! Be careful you stupid-- (Her cries are muffed by her position.)
JAMAAL: What da heck she say man?
NATHAN: You don’t want to know. Please step back sir.
(Nathan’s crew continues to work.)
(A crowd big gathers around the scene and starts to ask questions, and all of the traffic is stopped.)
(Nathan goes to the crowd and kindly asks them to give him room.)
JAMAAL: Man that old lady is wacked. I hope her mean a** thanks me for calling a rescue team.
NATHAN: I am a professional, and I said STEP BACK.
(A news van rolls up behind Nathan, and a cameraman jumps out with a reporter following while fixing his hair.)
ANDREW: (holds his hand out to shake Nathan’s) Andrew Baker.
NATHAN: You’re not allowed to be here. Now, please step back and let me do my job!
(He doesn’t bother to shake Andrews hand and gives him a little shove.)
JAMAAL: (He grabs Andrews hand and shakes it.) I’m the brotha who reported this in.
ANDREW: Do you mind if I interviewed you?—
NATHAN: May you please step away from the scene? My only priority is to get this woman out safely.
JAMAAL: (Jamaal turns back to Andrew,) Hell nah, I don’t mind. S***, I’d be glad to do it, foo.
ANDREW: Alright, great, lets just stand over here, away from pissy pants. OK, right there’s perfect.
(They set up the camera right in front of Matilda.)
JAMAAL: Right here?
ANDREW: Perfect. OK. Three..two..one.. Hello, I’m Andrew Baker coming to you live from the middle of Times Square where an elderly woman who has not been identified fell into an open manhole and is stuck. (He turns to Jamaal.) So I understand that you were the one who called in this horrendous accident?
JAMAAL: Yeah, man. I was walkin’ and I see these old-a** legs kickin’ around an’ I was like- Oh, snap! And I grabbed some fool’s phone an’ called for help, now.. Is there reward money?
ANDREW: Um, no, I don’t believe there is reward money.
JAMAAL: Well, damn, that sucks man.
ANDREW: OK! Now here is the man who responded to the call.
(He walks over to Nathan) Excuse me, what seems to be the “situation”?
NATHAN: Please, sir, step back and let me do my job.
ANDREW: Can you please answer a couple questions so the people of New York can get a better understanding of what is happening?
NATHAN: No, not right now. I am too busy.
ANDREW: But you are just standing around while your crew is doing all the work!
(The camera man looks behind Nathan, and shows the crew working.)
NATHAN: (Looks very angry) My crew is doing what they are supposed to do. And I overlook the entire operation to make sure that we do our job correctly and successfully. Now please STEP BACK!
ANDREW: OK, you could’ve asked politely. Now we’ll take a quick commercial break.
(As the camera turns off he turns to Nathan.) What is your problem?!
NATHAN: I am trying to do my job. And you are interfering. Now for the last time, please step back.
JAMAAL: Hey! I think she’s ready to come out!
(Both Andrew and Nathan turn around.)
(Andrew tells the cameraman to turn the camera on and start filming.)
ANDREW: We’re back and it appears that the rescue men have done their job successfully! (In the background the team pulls Matilda out and Andrew starts to walk over to her.) Hello ma’am, might I ask your name?
MATILDA: (Wrapped in a blanket) My name is Matilda Fairbanks.
ANDREW: Can you please tell us about what happened?
MATILDA: Well they took too damn long, in my opinion! It was awful, it smelled bad, I was losing oxygen, my a** was exposed! I’m telling you right now it was awful. I am going to sue the city for leaving that hole open and for humiliating me on TV, and you! (She points at Andrew.) How dare you use me like that, I’m going to sue you along with the company you work for-
ANDREW: But ma’am my intentions were to inform the—
MATILDA: Rubbish!!
(Jamaal walks over.)
JAMAAL: Hello Ms. … whatever, I was the one who called for help.
MATILDA: You want some glory, do you?! Well you can kiss my a**! I don’t care who got me out or called for help! It took too damn long.
(Nathan comes over.)
NATHAN: Hello ma’am. I’m the leader of the rescue team.
MATILDA: Oh really? You want a medal of honor? What took you and your team so long? I was halfway dead before you pulled me out……!
(Nathan, Jamaal and Andrew all look at each other, and push Matilda and she falls back into the hole.)
THE END |
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To hear Tsosie tell it, no one was more surprised than he when the news was announced. The play was an assignment in his creative writing class, something he took just for the English credit. The piece tells the story of Matilda, a crotchety old woman who gets stuck, face first, in a New York City manhole. Tsosie liked the piece, but didn’t think of it as special. But something about the off-the-wall idea made his teacher, Charlie De Ford, laugh out loud.
After De Ford encouraged him to submit it to the contest, Tsosie assumed it wouldn’t go far. All the same, it sailed through the anonymous judging process, first humoring dramatists in the valley before moving onto a final round. It was then critiqued by a bicoastal, three-person panel, whose judges included John Lithgow (yes, that John Lithgow).
In the end, his words were deemed to have the most “promise” of the bunch. On top of the prestige and the $250 scholarship, Tsosie was given access to a professional dramaturge, who helped him tweak the piece even more into form.
In his friendly way, he downplayed all of this.
“I just thought it was something funny,” he said, of the work. “I said I’d just play along with it, and the next thing I know, I get this call, saying I won.”
Despite his shrugging attitude, he stressed that writing has given him something new, something he hadn’t quite gotten from years of sports.
“You can express yourself,” he said. “You can say what you wouldn’t normally say, in a different way.”
Even now, he isn’t sure where the comedy came from. He’s never been to New York, and the characters aren’t based on people he knows. But when he sat down to write, there the words were, bubbling to the surface. To him, creating a new world, that was freedom.
“No one can really judge you for it (your writing),” he said. “You can be yourself.”
From the plain way he delivered the words, it was obvious how much he believed in them — and in himself, actually. He continued, talking about his plan to come back to Red Mesa, Ariz., the reservation he left eight years ago. There, he said, the mentality is all about survival. Upon his return, as the first college graduate of his family, he hopes to inspire, counsel and teach teens. He wants them to know they can succeed — but first, he has to.
“I can’t screw up,” he said, “I’ve got to lead by example, for them.”
And, though he might not know it, there’s a whole community here rooting for him.
“He’s so genuine and so helpful and so kind,” said Adriana Ayala-Hire, the Pre-Collegiate director at his high school.
Ayala-Hire, who heads a program for first-generation college students, had a real caring about her voice as she described the teen. A member since his junior year, he’s been an integral part of the program, she said. Recently, he and other members spent a few weeks living and attending class at the University of Colorado at Boulder. On the closing night, Tsosie gave speech to a banquet hall full of participants and sponsors. He opened up about his dreams, his past and his heritage. By the end, he had moved the room, and himself, to tears.
“He’s just so humble,” Ayala-Hire said, “Definitely a role model.”
Though she doesn’t know him well, Chip Winn Wells was oh-so-enthusiastic about Tsosie, too. Literary manager for the competition, Wells had no hand in choosing his piece, but felt inspired by it, all the same. There’s a bit of cosmic symmetry at work, she said, as his director, Wes Savage, is an alumnus of Dartmouth, Tsosie’s dream school. It’s “pretty cool,” she added, that such an inexperienced writer from Glenwood would beat out so many others.
“One of the things that is so exciting is that talent can never be dismissed,” she said.
“It (the play) is performable because other people want to see people share their stories and their sorrow and their humanity. That’s what makes the world happen, I do believe.”
Tsosie’s most important critic, however, didn’t have any long explanation of his work. In fact, his mother, Jessie Grey, said he hasn’t even let her read it. He wants it to be a surprise. But that didn’t seem to matter to her. She’s so proud.
A single parent of four, Grey, 42, recounted why she uprooted her family from Arizona. She didn’t say much, but her few words were heart-wrenching. She came here for a “better life,” she explained, and she thinks Lance has found it.
“I feel good,” she said. “He’s going to learn more. He’s going to educate for himself. But I’m going to miss him.”
Tsosie, no doubt, is going to miss her. But he is also clear that he wants more than his family had. In his culture, he said, you learn about a “blessed road,” a charmed path you can either take or ignore. Right now, he feels he’s on it.
“I want to be someone people look up to and say, ‘He’s a good guy,’” he said. “I want to make a difference.”
And, like those who know him, you can’t help but wish him the best.
Contact Stina Sieg: 384-9111
ssieg@postindependent.com
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