When Open Dream Ensemble announced a script competition last summer, we did not know what to anticipate.
To our delight, we had a number of quality submissions and one that really stood out as a potential production for Open Dream Ensemble.
Through the next months we got to know Gordy Burton Brown, the Triplets Ish, Emily, Robber, Cobbler and a host of characters in addition to Venn diagrams, mapping, travel up Mount Blackmore, and how important it is to have shoes that you fit! We also got to know Michaela Morton, a young playwright with big ideas, a huge imagination and an enormous smile.
Michaela, a graduate of the UNCSA High School Drama program, had her initial visit from Gordy in the Dallas Airport, where in her own words, “I took out my laptop and started writing. The first sentence was 'In Gordy's world, everything was just Gordy's size.' The idea was a kid whose whole life fit him to a T, but all he could see was his brother's world, which was bigger than his.” Her idea grew into the play Big Shoes or, in full, Big Shoes: The Abbreviated but None-the-less Epic Tale of a Journey of the Soles of Gordy Brown
The next step for Gordy is a reading from the UNCSA high school drama students under the leadership of Kelly Maxner, former co-Artistic Director of Open Dream Ensemble. From there we’ll see if Gordy develops legs, but as for now, we are just happy to have him coming off the page and into a studio!
Congratulations to Michaela for her winning submission!
