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Devine, 17, of White Plains, will see her work come to life Thursday, May 29, when “Hands on the Clock” opens for one night, free of charge at 7:30 p.m. at the school. In past years, students selected plays to perform. This is the first time a student wrote the play that will be performed.
“Basically, it’s about people taking control of their time and how it slips through our fingers without us noticing,” she told Daily Voice, adding that it’s a collection of 12 vignettes. “It’s a bunch of different characters at one specific time of day doing everyday things, but talking about the significance of it.”
The final scene features Devine, who has been doing theater since the fourth grade, and her senior friends, some of whom have performed together since their freshman year. She interviewed each girl to give them the chance to reflect on the past and look ahead during their final performance on the Holy Child stage.
“Because of the relationship the students have Annie was really able to capture all of them in the scenes she created for them. It’s so genuine,” said Kim Calhoun, director of the arts at the school.
Devine wrote the play as part of her senior independent project (SIP), which led to three other students handling the production of the play as their SIP. Jolie Brakey spearheaded the program, Gus Pendergast handled costumes and Tess Flanagan did music and sound cues.
The SIP requires seniors to go out in the world for one week and do something that applies to future careers or their interests.
Calhoun, who teaches theater at the upper school, asked Devine to write the play after learning she had written two novels through the National Novel Writing Month online program. It requires people to write 50,000 words in a month and awards a certificate to those who accomplish it.
“This really gave me the focus to prove to myself that I could do it,” she said.
The second novel she wrote in 2013 was dystopian science fiction, her favorite genre to read, and she hopes to submit it to a publisher once the editing process is complete.
“I definitely hope to continue writing through college,” she said.
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