(Vanessa Maldonado/Clarion)
By Vanessa Maldonado | Staff Writer
From high school novelist turned screenplay writer, Jade Yancosky presents her story, “The Other Girl” to Emerging American Voices.
In “The Other Girl” the main character, Mia, struggles to find balance as she faces adulthood after high school but complications arise as she begins an affair with the father of a child for whom she babysits.
Mia stems from Yancosky’s experience in high school in which, like many others, struggle to find a place in the world to fit in.
“I was a senior, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do yet. I was kind of conflicted and that set the story,” Yancosky, 20, said.
Yancosky participated in last year’s “Emerging American Voices” program, as an actor and narrator for student plays.
She is receiving guidance from theater art professors, including Cherie Brown, program director of acting and directing.
Brown believes writing a screenplay teaches self-confidence and how to take criticism or “having their listening ears open to what their audience is giving them and not take things personally,” as Brown said.
Yancosky is enjoying getting out of her comfort zone with this program.
“It helps and encourages you to be a storyteller, to put your story out there and to continue it,” Yancosky said.
