“You do not write me love notes,” an Emerson Theatre Education Graduate Student-Written and Run Production

​By: Emily Goodridge, M.A. Theatre Education, '14

When Brit Hawkins, Theatre Education graduate student, MA’ 14 and playwright, sent Samantha Gambaccini, a peer and a friend, one of her plays just for fun, Gambaccini’s response was, “I want to direct this.” In a shockingly short period of time, the two of them had decided on six of Hawkins’ plays to put on, found a theatre and a stage manager (Kim Heymann, also a graduate student in the Theatre Education program) and put out a casting call. Soon, the plays were fully cast and a crew found: a combination of Theatre Education graduate students, undergraduates in the Performing Arts department, and a few community members.​
 

Hawkins wrote all six plays over an extended period of time, between 2007 and 2011. One of them, “Sidewalk Cracks,” won numerous awards, including Best Playwright, in the Winter 2011 Forum at The Looking Glass Theater in New York City (http://lookingglasstheatrenyc.com). The plays range from 10 minutes to half an hour, and the overarching theme of the night is love and relationships. They are both comedic and dramatic, addressing the ins and outs and power dynamics that come with both friendships and romantic relationships—“basically all the challenges that come with love,” according to Hawkins. Asked to describe her writing process, Hawkins replies that she “hammers it all out” in one sitting then goes back to gradually and extensively edit and tweak. Her characters evolve naturally, and she traditionally makes them up rather than drawing from life but recently has been feeling more and more inspired by those around her for character material. She also “used to draw from situation but now works more from character perspective.” She isn’t sure why exactly this change is taking place; “perhaps it’s just a part of my growth as a playwright,” she says reflectively. 
 

Hawkins and Gambaccini work well together -  Hawkins taking more of a passive role as the playwright, sitting in on rehearsals occasionally but leaving all major decisions to Gambaccini, who has directed quite a bit of community theatre in and around Boston and is a clear and confident director. She saw wit, humor, humanity, and passion in Hawkins’ work and heard her voice in the lines: “I heard Brit’s voice and I saw these plays as a show,” she says, “a show that I could put on its feet with the right people. And I was lucky enough to have found them." And a show there will be, put on by Little Dinos Productions, the production company founded by Gambaccini and Hawkins. The name, along with the name of the show, “you do write me love notes,” are lines from the last and longest play of the night, “Sidewalk Cracks.”
 

With everything from love driving an individual to despair and madness, to a couple visiting an eccentric doctor for a consultation on their sex life, “you do not write me love notes” will, no doubt, be an evening to remember.
The performance will take place at 7:30 on March 22nd and 23rd, 2013 at the Griffen Theatre in Salem, MA. All proceeds will be donated to a local charity, most likely a shelter for victims of domestic abuse; the details on this are still being finalized.
 

For questions about purchasing tickets and/or any questions about the show, please email Gambaccini at  Samantha_gambaccini@emerson.edu.