Few playwrights would take criticism from a bunch of teen-agers.
Even fewer would actually change a script based on kids' suggestions.
But here is playwright Andrea Thome, sitting cross-legged on the Moorhead High School stage with a circle of teen actors. She listens intently, scribbling into the margins of her script: Their comments mean Thome has more rewrites to do.
Though labor-intensive and a bit humbling, the process makes sense to Thome. "Pandora's Box" is a play about breaking free of others' expectations, and Thome wants to do that with every aspect of Trollwood Performing Arts School's June production.
"How can I write about being a teen-age girl when I'm 30?" says Thome, a New Yorker. "The play is best realized by having actual high schoolers involved to say this rings true and this does not."
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Together, Thome, Trollwood students and director Maggie Lally have updated the Greek myth of Pandora, setting it in a modern American high school.
"The kids own it: It's their show," Lally says. "We're taking the stories and issues that are important to them and translating them on stage. This play is a true reflection of them."
For this production, thinking outside the box isn't a corporate cliché but a sincere mantra. They ran rehearsals for the first two weeks without scripts, focusing instead on strengthening the ensemble. They've also developed nonverbal characters who communicate through rhythmic movement and light.
In every way possible, Trollwood's Second Stage crew has lived the theme of the play: Other people's expectations can often become limitations, so people have to set expectations for themselves.
"Being around high school kids is like a constant injection of life and pain, they feel things so deeply and care so much," Thome says. "And I'm so impressed with this group. They're so open, so willing to take risks."
The version of the Pandora story most people know is of a curious, mischievous mortal, who opens a box and unleashes all the world's miseries.
Thome's adaptation refers to an earlier version of the myth, one where Pandora is portrayed more as a creator than a destroyer.
Lally and Thome began working on the concept this winter: Lally was Thome's professor at New York University, where Thome earned an MFA in dramatic writing.
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"Pandora's Box" happens simultaneously on a spiritual and earthly level, with gods silhouetted behind the main stage action.
Metaphorical character Courage communicates only through rhythm, a la "STOMP." The character Love communicates through changing stage lighting and dance.
"Just the idea of Courage being rhythm, this heartbeat, this really tangible source of strength you can see and hear," Lally says. "And Love being light -- it's just three- dimensionalizing it."
The teen Pandora is torn between others' expectations of her, and her desire to become an artist.
"The script is really cool," says Megan Maixner, the play's student assistant.
"It portrays how, from birth, everyone is put in a box and restricted by parents, friends, society, teachers. The story is about how Pandora tries to break free from that box."
Dialogue and scenarios have been rewritten several times using suggestions and input from the Trollwood cast.
Thome says this is the most collaborative project she's worked on to date.
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"I feel like it's not my play, but I don't feel like something's been taken from me," Thome says. "I feel like I've been given something much bigger than myself, and it's really amazing."
Readers can reach Forum reporter
Sarah Henning at (701) 241-5538
If you go:
What: "Pandora's Box," presented by Trollwood Performing Arts School's Second Stage
When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday and June 30
Where: Moorhead High School
Tickets: $7 adults, $6 seniors and students, $4 children 12 and younger. For tickets or more information, call (701) 241-6041.
