by Drew Chappell
Drew Chappell developed two plays at Highland High School. He devised an original piece of theatre for younger audiences titled The Breeze at Dawn, based on his own children’s book text Brother Stephen and the Bells and a poem by Rumi. He also created the first stage adaptation of Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Egypt Game. Newman left Highland before he was able to produce The Egypt Game, but he later produced it at Utah Valley University as a youth production for the Noorda Theatre Summer Camp.
Dr. Chappell and Dr. Newman earned their masters degrees together at the University of Texas at Austin. Since working together in Austin, they have both earned their PhD’s, Newman at New York University at Chappell at Arizona State University in Tempe. Chappell was living in Tempe when he began working with Highland. Chappell now teaches at California State University in Fullerton.
The Breeze at Dawn is unpublished but available for productions. Those interested should contact the playwright.
The adaptation rights to The Egypt Game were only for a single production. However, the playwright is interested in partnering with schools or theatres to seek permission and adapt other children’s novels to the stage.
Contact the playwright at drewrchappell@gmail.com.
Drew’s youth play Time Mirrors was developed for the 2017 and 2018 Noorda Theatre Summer Camp youth company, and is published by Leicester Bay Theatricals. In the play, the town of Shoreville is situated close to a dam that was built in the past, 1918, when a war had just ended. In the present, the participants have ties to the past, and through the time Mirror found at the City Hall, they can see their descendants in the future. At first glance, these descendants appear to be living in a water environment. Slowly the truth is revealed — that some accident in the near present causes a catastrophe. Problem: the Time Mirrors only operate one-way from present to past, or from present to future. They allow no interaction between time periods, just observation of those times that are not the present. So, how can the future be saved?
Follow this link for more information about Time Mirrors.
Newman Plays 
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