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A short play by Syracuse University freshman Alethea Shirilan-Howlett is streaming online this week as a part of The Blank Theatre’s Young Playwrights Festival.

But the play, titled “Viewer Discretion Advised,” isn’t the only production that Shirilan-Howlett has presented to online audiences.

She created her first full-length production this spring, bringing an idea she had two years ago into fruition in the form of a virtual play titled “No Exodus.” The play premiered on YouTube in June.

“No Exodus” tells the story of a mother and daughter having a Passover Seder in Syracuse in the 1990s. Ruth, a talented painter, wants to pursue art, but her mother, Wendy, is reluctant to allow her to do so. Through flashbacks, the play reveals that Wendy was in a one-hit wonder ‘70s band in which she experienced tragedy and had complicated relationships with the band members.

Shirilan-Howlett started writing “No Exodus” in August 2018 after returning from a summer theater program at Brandeis University. She came across a YouTube documentary about the music group The Mamas and the Papas and decided to write a play about a band.

After brainstorming some ideas, she pivoted to writing about a Passover Seder. But when she completed her first draft on Sept. 30, 2018, the play incorporated aspects of both a band and a Passover Seder.

“I didn’t really think I was ever going to send it to anyone. It was sort of like a little fun thing for myself,” she said.

The play was intended to be an in-person production, but the coronavirus pandemic upended Shirilan-Howlett’s plans just after she had casted the roles in the play and held the first read-through.

She didn’t know that March 16 would be her last day at Jamesville-DeWitt High School.

As the pandemic continued to put a hold on in-person gatherings, Shirilan-Howlett and her team switched to rehearsing for a Zoom production of the play.

The team experimented with filters and sounds and used virtual backgrounds as the sets. Shirilan-Howlett took photos around her house for the backgrounds, including at each seat of her dining room table, so the characters would appear to be in the same room together.

Sam Phillips, a junior at Jamesville-DeWitt, played the role of Elijah Iseman in the film. The cast members could have multiple tries for each take during the Zoom rehearsals, which allowed them to refine their roles in a way that wouldn’t be possible with live theater, he said in an email.

Zoom rehearsals for the production took place almost every day, said Anka Chiorini, a sophomore at Jamesville-DeWitt who played Ruth. She looked forward to the rehearsals since she didn’t have many other structured activities going on during quarantine.

The cast started recording rehearsals May 4, and Shirilan-Howlett edited the rehearsal clips and audio together on FinalCutPro before the June premiere on YouTube.

Jordan Berger, the drama club adviser and director at Jamesville-DeWitt, said seeing Shirilan-Howlett and the cast members of “No Exodus” put on the production was impressive.

He supported the students from the sidelines, popping in and out of rehearsals on Zoom, but he wanted to be surprised for the final production. He’s now seen the production twice.

The writing was phenomenal, and the play balanced comedic moments with heavy themes, he said.

Berger has known Shirilan-Howlett since she was a freshman at Jamesville-DeWitt. She went above and beyond in her commitment to the theater program at the high school, as well as at summer workshops.

“She’s definitely not sitting on the sidelines,” Berger said. “She’s getting involved. She’s a leader of her peers. She does what needs to be done to make things happen.”

Despite being “supremely talented,” Shirilan-Howlett is grounded and humble, said Matthew Phillips, Sam Phillips’ father and an English teacher at Jamesville-DeWitt. She isn’t stuck-up and is supportive of other writers, he said.

Matthew Phillips remembers being excited for the staging of “No Exodus” before school was shut down. Others in this situation may have decided to give up and not go through with the play, but Shirilan-Howlett and her team “put together something truly amazing,” he said.

Her production showed the possibilities of showing dramatic art virtually and has inspired Matthew Phillips for the future, in case live theater performances cannot return next year, he said.

“She’s really one of the smartest and most creative and talented writers that I’ve met in my career,” Matthew Phillips said. “I knew she could handle it, so I was really glad that she was taking on something of that magnitude.”

Published on September 1, 2020 at 10:12 pm

Contact Mandy: ackrayna@syr.edu | @MandyKraynak