You’ve probably heard of the New York International Fringe Festival, which is now in its 19^th year.  But have you ever heard of FringeJR?   FringeJR is part of FringeNYC and features family-friendly shows specifically geared for kids ages 5 to 12.  Of the six FringeJR shows this year, one is a particularly unique offering.  Jamey Hood’s plays Haunted Holliot Hildorf Hotel and Shadow’s Unicycle, are not only shows for kids, but performed by kids.  This double feature stars a cast of 16 children from the South Bronx who are part of the Youth Ensemble at Open Hydrant Theater Company.  Many are also award winning speech/debate champions.

I recently met up with Ms. Hood, who wore a mega-watt smile as she dragged a huge suitcase (which I later found out was filled with props for the show) through a small crowd of tourists at Amy’s Bakery in midtown.  The New York-based actor/singer/writer showed no trace of exhaustion despite wearing many hats and the fact that opening night was in a matter of hours; in fact, her eyes sparkled at my first question and in between bites of peach pie, she proceeded to tell me about these plays and why she writes for kids.

Both your plays have apparitions or spirits as main characters: In your first play, Haunted Holliot Hildorf Hotel, you have an eight-year-old world-renowned ghost hunter named Helen Ivy Bunter solving mysteries, and in Shadow’s Unicycle, your heroine is a tween ghoul discovering what is needed to grow up.  Why ghosts?

I love spooky stuff.  Halloween was my favorite holiday as a child.  If I had a dream house, it would definitely be haunted.  Ghosts are where the imagination lives.  Plus it’s a powerful playwrighting device to learn about a character because it deals with the unseen, where a character’s dreams and fears live.

I was inspired to write for kids because I’m very childlike.  I naturally write for my inner child.  I live from a place of childlike wonder and getting to share this wonder is a great gift to give. These are my first plays.  Originally they started out as short stories and I hoped to get them published, but then this FringeJR opportunity presented itself and I adapted them for the stage.  Haunted Holliot Hildorf Hotel is written in rhyme, and Shadow’s Unicycle was originally written ten years ago for my niece to help her have a good attitude about her rites of passage into womanhood.

How did you and these kids from the Open Hydrant Theater Company connect up?

Sarah Rosenberg (“Rosie”) was my high school drama/speech/debate teacher in LA.  We reconnected because she saw me in a show.  She’d moved to the Bronx to teach and she and Luis Reyes Cardenas (who was a classmate of mine in LA) co-founded the Open Hydrant Theater Company.  They’re also co-directing these plays.  Their Youth Ensemble is so talented and I just knew she could get the heightened level of performance needed for this play plus how to take 7 roles and make it work for 16 cast members.

Do you want to write more for kids and if so what’s next? Would you like to write a play for adults? 

I’m not interested in writing for adults, but yes, yes!  I definitely want to write more for kids.  I feel in writing these plays that I’ve had an epiphany – this is the contribution I want to make with my life, to give the gift of stories and theater to children.  I have a whole set of adventures for Helen Ivy Bunter to take, the protagonist in Haunted Holliot Hildorf Hotel.  That would be a series for 2^nd graders.  And I’d like to writer some bigger fiction for older kids, tweens. 

What’s next for Haunted Holliot Hildorf Hotel and Shadow’s Unicycle? 

Sell these plays to youth theater companies around the country. Theater for kids performed by kids is powerful. It’s a way to build future audiences.  I’d also like to publish them as books.