Peyton Zaletsky, Reporter
@peytonzcourant
Every year, the Palace Theatre in Stamford hosts the Ernie DiMattia Emerging Young Artist Awards, granting high school playwrights the opportunity to submit original plays. If selected as a winner, students have the opportunity to direct and showcase their work to family and friends in a virtual reading of their show, where the play performed professional actors and directed by Luis Salgado. This year, three students were selected, one of them being Nicole Talamo, a sophomore, for her play, “Cultural Reset”.
Nicole has not always been a playwright. In fact, she only began over quarantine. “Playwriting was something I had always wanted to do, and since I had more time over quarantine, it was a really good chance to try something new that I had wanted to try for so long,” she said.
Nicole’s show, “Cultural Reset” focuses on the way that the evolvement of technology has impacted the amount of personal interactions people have, specifically with the younger generation. “I talk about two people, Margaret and George, who are in their twenties and go on a virtual date. One of them knows everything about the internet, and the other is a grandpa with technology.” said Nicole. “I was inspired by the use of technology in the modernized world, so my play shows how it has evolved over time and how relationships change when technology is used.”
Nicole Talamo (pictured), Chris Israel, and Marco Greco are the three winners of the Ernie DiMattia Emerging Young Artist Award at the Palace Theatre.
In terms of the writing process, Nicole felt that the idea came quickly to her, which allowed the writing to flow easily. “I thought of it while I was on my phone, and just thought it was a cool idea,” she said. “I started bulleting pop culture references, and that developed into a full script which I wrote in two hours and then submitted.”
Developing the characters also came naturally to Nicole, as she used her own life experiences to create them. “I relate to the character George, who is basically a grandpa with technology. I always feel like a grandma in the sense that I don’t know how to work my own computer. I used that to inspire the character, and I took the opposite of that and created Margret, the other character,” Nicole said.
In regards to the competition, Nicole said she got the idea to enter it from her English teacher, Mr. Robert Darken. However, when it came to actually submitting the play, Nicole felt that this was one of the more difficult aspects. “The hardest part for me isn’t even writing it itself, it’s actually having the courage to press submit,” Nicole said. “I didn’t want to submit it but then I decided to because I realized that not all of my writing pieces are going to be good, so I should just submit it anyway because it’s my first time writing something so it’s okay if it’s not my best.”
Once she found out that she won, Nicole began the rehearsal process, which she enjoyed because she was able to see her work come to life. “Seeing it read and acted by the actors was awesome. It showed me that this dynamic I wrote could sound very natural, so it was cool to see it come to life,” she said. “It was interesting to see people I didn’t know break down my script, act it out, and portray the characters so well.”
On March 14th, the competition culminated in a virtual read through of the three plays. Alex Montano, a senior, attended the show, and really loved getting to see Nicole’s play. “I think “Cultural Reset” was beautifully written. Not only was it written by one of my closest friends, but the play itself truly captures the way people connect with one another in the modern world,” Alex said.
Erica Angilletta, a junior, also went to the read through, and found it very inspiring to see one of her own friends win such a prestigious award. “I love to write as well and Nicole’s success is a constant reminder of the creativity in all of us” she said. “Her motivation and drive always pushes me to think outside of the box.”
In the future, Nicole would like to continue playwriting. She’s unsure if she sees this as a possible career path, but she always has lots of new ideas that she would like to continue to turn into something more. “I really do like writing, and after I write one thing I always get a bunch of other ideas on what I could write about next, so I don’t think coming up with ideas or having visions of writing things will be a challenge” she said. “And career? Maybe. I don’t know yet, but I do know that I definitely want to write more.”
