Student's Work Featured in Festival of New Plays at Sharon Playhouse
![Blake Baumgartner '26]([{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_1/v1758315153/gunneryorg/byklr6kujwm4j8wka8jj/BlakeBaumgartner26.png","width":256},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_2/v1758315153/gunneryorg/byklr6kujwm4j8wka8jj/BlakeBaumgartner26.png","width":512},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto,t_image_size_3/v1758315153/gunneryorg/byklr6kujwm4j8wka8jj/BlakeBaumgartner26.png","width":800},{"url":"https://resources.finalsite.net/images/f_auto,q_auto/v1758315153/gunneryorg/byklr6kujwm4j8wka8jj/BlakeBaumgartner26.png","width":1080}])
Student's Work Featured in Festival of New Plays at Sharon Playhouse
This week, Sharon Playhouse will present the Writers Playground, an annual festival of new, 10-minute plays. Among the seven featured works is a short play titled “Box,” written by Gunn student Blake Baumgartner ’26. A professional actress, Baumgartner started her acting career at a young age and as a first-year student appeared in Gunn Theatre’s 2023 winter musical, Head Over Heels. She guest-starred in the film Love the Coopers, and later in Fosse/Verdon and City on a Hill. She wrote “Box” last spring for a new playwriting course taught by Kent Burnham P’29, Director of Theatre Arts at Gunn.
Students in the class wrote various plays throughout the semester and the final project was a 10-minute play that each submitted to the Writers Playground. “Over 60 plays were submitted, many by professional playwrights, and Blake was the only student playwright chosen,” Burnham said. “The play was incredibly well written. Blake has an excellent ear for dialogue, story, and character, and this was evident in all of her writing.”
“It's so exciting, especially for Blake. Sharon Playhouse is a great professional theatre, and to be selected for the Writer's Playground is impressive,” he said.
According to Baumgartner, “Box” is about three unsuspecting and unrelated people who get stuck in an elevator. Set in New York City in 2019, it centers on Nate, Ezra, and Kate, who have no prior relationship. They navigate their emotions while stuck in a contained and non-ideal environment, while also trying to set themselves free. In the short time they spend together in the elevator, tensions ease as they learn more about each other and connect based on their similarities, she said.
Baumgartner drew inspiration for the play from an improvisation course she took in her sophomore year during Highlander Term. Burnham assigned small groups of students in that class a random setting and challenged them to create and shape a scene within the boundaries of that setting. “Our setting was an elevator. I quickly learned how much fun it can be to fabricate a scene within such a limited space; it forces you to focus more on character development rather than environmental development. I thought of the elevator setting as a magnifying glass that could perfectly examine the characters,” she said.
Asked how she felt about having her play selected for the festival, Baumgartner said: “I am so incredibly grateful for this opportunity! More than anything, I love creating, sharing, and examining scripts, and I am so excited to share my play with a broader community! I hope my play can inspire others to think outside of the box when it comes to writing scripts in general, even if that means literally stepping inside of a box.”
Performances are Thursday, September 18, and Friday, September 19, at 7 p.m. in the Olsen Theatre at Sharon Playhouse. Tickets are available online. The fee is “pay what you can,” with a suggested donation of $10 to $20. All funds support the playhouse.