Struthers will produce work of young playwrights

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

STRUTHERS

Struthers High School theater department will premiere a play written by two local students.

Titled “Meet Me at the Corner of Robinson and Crusoe,” the comic drama was written over Christmas break by Sarah Gage and Mario Ricciardi. Gage is a 2015 graduate of Struthers High and an art education major at Youngstown State University. Boardman native Ricciardi is a 2015 graduate of Cardinal Mooney High and a film major at YSU.

Richard Gage, Sarah’s father, is an English teacher and the drama director of Struthers High, and will direct the play, which will be staged March 18 and 19 at the school.

“Robinson and Crusoe” is about teen relationships over the course of the four seasons, said Sarah Gage. “The seasons are actually characters on stage,” she said. “They give monologues.”

Ricciardi said the script picks up where most movies usually end. “Most stories end with the couple ending up together,” he said. “But the real story starts after they get together.”

Both of the young playwrights said their characters are based on composites of students in a typical high school – including themselves. There are jocks, theater types and others.

The two have teamed up to make short films in the past, but “Robinson and Crusoe” is the first full-length piece they have done. Both admitted to being trepidatious as to how it would play on a stage, but they said their fears were allayed at the first table reading.

“We were worried at first, but then people started laughing,” said Gage. “That gave us high hopes.”

Ricciardi said the director and cast took the script in their own direction. “As I heard it, I thought, ‘I am entertained,’” he said.

Most of the action takes place outside the school building. There is a corner of Robinson and Crusoe, but the pair were mum as to what happens there.

The 90-minute play has a cast of 20. Gage said it easily could be adapted by other schools.