Bob Jones graduate goes Hollywood
Mecikalski said his writing is influenced by the works of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury, as well as the plays he experienced while in Mr. Craft’s performing arts class at BJHS.
BY ANNA DURRETT / REPORTER
For 20 years the Blank Theatre in Hollywood, Calif., has developed and produced plays and musicals by writers 19 and under.
This year was 18-year-old Nick Mecikalski’s second year in a row as one of 12 chosen to be a part of Blank Theatre’s Annual Young Playwrights Festival. Mecikalski graduated from Bob Jones High School this year.
Mecikalski said “The Grant Proposal,” his winning play this year, is “about a dystopian future in which to deal with overpopulation the government passes a law that all citizens no longer deemed to be profitable or beneficial to the country are to be terminated, and this guy has to go and tell his dad that he has been chosen to be executed.”
His play was performed four times from May 31 through June 3.
“I chose ‘The Grant Proposal’ mostly because of how benign it sounds,” Mecikalski said. “It’s not a scary name by any means. It sounds like just another congressional proposal, but I hoped that this would make it all the more unnerving that something sounding so routine could really be a terrible call to genocide.”
Blank Theatre links up young playwrights to a professional director, a mentor and professional actors. The young playwrights are pushed to journey through the creative process. “It really was nice being pushed into these revisions I wouldn’t have done myself and seeing where it went,” said Mecikalski.
“This year I was lucky enough that it was the 20th anniversary, so they had this big gala at the Avalon Theatre in Hollywood, and they had a whole bunch of pretty famous actors and actresses come to stage little scenes from various plays from over the years,” Mecikalski said.
Some of the famous performers noted by Mecikalski included Virginia Madsen, Noah Wyle, Ed Asner and Steven Webber.
Mecikalski said his writing is influenced by the works of Stephen King and Ray Bradbury, as well as the plays he experienced while in Mr. Craft’s performing arts class at BJHS.
What’s next for the young playwright? “I’m headed off to Vanderbilt in the fall,” Mecikalski said.
He hopes to major in both physics and theatre. Mecikalski plans on entering the playwright festival again next year, the last year he is eligible.
