My old friend and colleague, SANDY ASHER, was featured the other day by Dramatic Publishing in their Author Spotlight and I don’t want to rush by that honor too quickly. It has meaning because it’s based on a lifetime of outstanding work. Here’s a link about the spotlight: Here’s a link to see the announcement. https://mailchi.mp/dpcplays.com/sandra_asher?e=9a4b9c5daAndhere’s a sample of her recognitions listed in the opening lines of her honor.
Sandra Fenichel Asher's plays have been produced nationally and abroad. A Woman Called Truth, In the Garden of the Selfish Giant and Jesse and Grace: A Best Friends Story have all been honored with the AATE Distinguished Play Award. Across the Plains was selected for the Kennedy Center's New Visions/New Voices Symposium. Walking Toward America and Mariposa/Butterfly were chosen for development at New York University's New Plays for Young Audiences workshop and symposium at the Provincetown Playhouse.
AATE stands for American Alliance for Theater and Education and I’m always proud to know that one of Sandy’s three AATE Distinguished Play Awards was for JESSE AND GRACE, based on the verse novel that she and I wrote together. We have yet to find a home for it with a book publisher but given the story’s success as a play, we know it’s a matter of time before we find the write book editor.
Congratulations, Sandy. Proud to know you, Sent with love and admiration
I received my royalty statement from Dramatic Publishing the other day. I have two entries in their catalog, both thanks to my multi-talented friend SANDY ASHER. In 2004, she wrote SOMEBODY CATCH MY HOMEWORK, a play inspired by various poems from my work, both published and un-. A few years later she and I teamed to write a long story in free verse, JESSE AND GRACE, A BEST FRIENDS STORY, also published by Dramatic.
JESSE AND GRACE has done well and Sandy won two coveted awards for it — AATE Distinguished Play Award and The Charlotte B. Chorpenning Playwright Award. It wasn’t produced during the past six reporting months but SOMEBODY CATCH MY HOMEWORK was. I was pleased to see in this new statement that it has recently appeared in Missoula Children’s Theatre (Missoula, Montana), Oak Farm Montessori School (Avilla, Indiana), and Saint Thomas More High School (Milwaukee, Wisconsin).
Think of a story about a new girl in a 4th grade class that has a lot going on. It’s sort of like a musical (really does have music) but when kids stop to perform, my poems come out of their mouths instead of songs.Is that cool? I think so!
The week has been busy and pleasant. Made good progress on the manuscripts I’m tweaking. Had an excellent meeting yesterday with my editor for one of them. May have found a publisher for my autobiography, which I’ve nearly finished writing.
If nothing happens, I expect to finish the last of the revisions by the end of next week. By then I hope to see some sketches from an old friend and widely known artist with whom I may collaborate on a new, speculative book.
Tonight at 5:00 CST, 6:00 EST, Sandy Asher and I are reading our story in verse about two best friends 4th graders: Jesse and Grace, a Best Friends Story. Some of you have heard us before but this time we’re on radio and the broadcast goes out worldwide. Apple users may have problems, which are adaptable if you have the right app I’m told, but everyone else should be okay. To listen all you should need to do is go to www.wioxradio.org. and the show will be streamed there.
For those of you in other parts of the world, I made a short list and attempted to look up the differences between our time here in Central Standard Time and your time. I don’t promise that these are all correct so you’d better double-check me if you are interested in hearing the reading.
+10’30” hours later for you: Rama Dixit, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Here’s part of the press release.
OPEN EYE THEATER AIRS PLAY FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES ON WIOX
“Jesse and Grace: A Best Friends Story” a radio play for young audiences by Sandy Asher and David L. Harrison. will air on “The Open Eye Theater Playtime” on WIOX Radio in the Catskills 91.3 FM, Tuesday, May 11, at 6:00 p.m. ET. Children in grades 2-5 and their families will especially appreciate this play about two children who have been friends since birth, almost 10 years. It has never mattered that Jesse is a boy and Grace is a girl. They have always understood each other, protected each other, comforted each other, and shared their jokes, toys, dreams, and love of poetry and basketball. But now they’re in the fourth grade and about to celebrate their 10th birthdays. When Grace writes a birthday poem and gives it to Jesse, their classmates begin teasing: “Jesse’s got a girlfriend! Grace’s got a boyfriend!” Confused and hurt, humiliated and angry, they stop speaking to each other, and do everything they can to avoid each other. Secretly, they long to forgive and forget, and in time learn that a best friend is the best kind of friend of all.
Winner of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s Distinguished Play Award, “Jessse and Grace, a Best Friends Story” was developed from a cycle of poems co-written by Sandy Asher and David L. Harrison. Sandy and David will perform a two-character radio version of the play live on “The Open Eye Theater Playtime,” Tuesday, May 11, at 6:00 p.m. ET, and will share their creative process with Playtime co-hosts Carol and Arnie Schwartz and Amie Brockway.
Sandy Asher and I are thrilled that next Tuesday, May 11, at 5:00 CST time, we’ll give a reading of our story in verse of two fourth graders, Jesse and Grace. We’ve been asked to read this story before, but this time we’ll be on radio and will be heard worldwide. The press release went out today from Amie Brockway, Producing Artistic Director for Open Eye Theater. For most of you, wherever you live in the world, it will be as simple as click on the radio link the evening of the 11th and there we’ll be. More details when we get closer.
OPEN EYE THEATER AIRS PLAY FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES ON WIOX
“Jesse and Grace: A Best Friends Story” a radio play for young audiences by Sandy Asher and David L. Harrison. will air on “The Open Eye Theater Playtime” on WIOX Radio in the Catskills 91.3 FM, Tuesday, May 11, at 6:00 p.m. ET. Children in grades 2-5 and their families will especially appreciate this play about two children who have been friends since birth, almost 10 years. It has never mattered that Jesse is a boy and Grace is a girl. They have always understood each other, protected each other, comforted each other, and shared their jokes, toys, dreams, and love of poetry and basketball. But now they’re in the fourth grade and about to celebrate their 10th birthdays. When Grace writes a birthday poem and gives it to Jesse, their classmates begin teasing: “Jesse’s got a girlfriend! Grace’s got a boyfriend!” Confused and hurt, humiliated and angry, they stop speaking to each other, and do everything they can to avoid each other. Secretly, they long to forgive and forget, and in time learn that a best friend is the best kind of friend of all.
Winner of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education’s Distinguished Play Award, “Jessse and Grace, a Best Friends Story” was developed from a cycle of poems co-written by Sandy Asher and David L. Harrison. Sandy and David will perform a two-character radio version of the play live on “The Open Eye Theater Playtime,” Tuesday, May 11, at 6:00 p.m. ET, and will share their creative process with Playtime co-hosts Carol and Arnie Schwartz and Amie Brockway.
The Open Eye Theater Playtime is your front-row, on-the-air seat to plays for kids, plays for grown-ups, and all things theater, hosted by Open Eye Artists Amie Brockway, Erwin Karl, Carol Schwartz, and Elizabeth Sherr.
“Jesse and Grace: a Best Friends Story” may be heard Tuesday, May 11, 6:00 p.m. ET, on WIOX Radio in the Catskills 91.3 FM, http://www.wioxradio.org, and on MTC’s Channel 20 Television.
Amie Brockway, Producing Artistic Director
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Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog 