ISBN #1-933159-65-0
JAC#2006-0015

The Cast

• DONOVAN: A young man of 28
• HERO: A young girl of 14
• CHARLIE: A man in his late 30s
• ENSEMBLE (3 Men, 2 Women): CITIZENS: two soldiers, Buddy, young woman, young man, Lisa Rose, ACTORS: Balthazar, Cassie, William, Matthew

Synopsis

In 1944 Boston, an arrogant, anti-social and alcoholic telegram writer finds himself the unwilling guardian of a 14-year-old girl while her soldier father fights overseas. When her father mysteriously stops writing letters from the European front lines, the telegram writer, torn between obligation and sympathy, starts writing back in his place.

Playwright Biography

At 17, Aleks Merilo submitted an entry to a short story contest and won. It was the same story for which he'd received a B- in his creative writing class at Gunn High School. He went back to the teacher and asked for a higher grade but the teacher wouldn't budge.  Since, Merilo has achieved some professional success, having had his plays produced in theaters around the country.  He credits his teachers at El Carmelo, JLS and Gunn as well as the Palo Alto community in general for supporting institutions like the Children's Theatre and TheatreWorks, where artistic spirits, including his own, are respected and nurtured.  Merilo said he's often found inspiration from the children he teaches in school theater programs. "Their imagination is so constant. The part adults dedicate to logic the kids dedicate to imagination and they come up with the most fascinating stuff."  With undergraduate and MFA degrees in theater and playwriting from UCLA, Merilo calls himself a "professional vagabond," having done a bit of everything to support his writing habit. He was an assistant on the television show "Smallville," and spent two years teaching poetry and theater in elementary schools through TheatreWorks. He produced and directed a one-act play festival at Eastside Prep in East Palo Alto, and has traveled to work on plays in Alaska, Utah, Nebraska and Oregon.  Merilo is working on obtaining his California teaching credential so that he might find employment with benefits and follow in the footsteps of two of his treasured mentors at Gunn, drama teacher Jim Shelby and Paul Dunlap, the guy who gave him the B-.

BUZZ: Palo Alto Weekly 23rd Annual Short Story Contest First Place Adult: Aleks Merilo's "Little Moscow"

$TBD/package
$35/performance royalty