WMHS Senior Sarah Ford Plays with Shakespeare

UPDATED at 12:45 p.m.

Each week, Wakefield Patch will select a Whiz Kid of the Week.

This week we chose senior and budding writer Sarah Ford, who penned the play “Dr. Shakespeare” which got performed by the WMHS Drama Club.

Why she's a Whiz Kid:

'Dr. Shakespeare" was entered in the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild Festival preliminaries last weekend. Sarah's idea was ingeniously post-modern: she took three couples from Shakespeare plays and set them all in a joint therapy session with Shakespeare himself sitting in. She says the idea came to her as the result of having taken a creative writing class.

“I went to our drama director, Emily Holmes and I said ‘I wrote a play – could you give me some tips and hints?’ In the back of my mind I thought it would be so cool to do it, but I didn’t think it’d actually happen. I started the play my sophomore year,” she said.

Sarah's parents had never read their daughter's play and were floored by the performance and reception.

"We weren't sure what to expect," they told us. "After the first five minutes, we looked at each other and went 'Wow!'. The response from the audience told us that we weren't being biased as Sarah's parents. We were in tears by the time Sarah came on stage for her bow."

“It was amazing," said Sarah, who worked as assistant director, after the show. "I lucked out with the actors I got... they brought a lot to the characters that I hadn’t seen. It was cool to see how people interpreted my work and it ended up being so much fun. I’ve been in the club for the last four years, and this is the first time we’ve ever done a student play, so that was very cool also."

"We also want to publicly thank Emily Holmes for taking a chance on a student written play, and for the time she spent working with Sarah on preparing the play for stage," added Sarah's parents. "The cast and crew did a great job, as they always do."

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Do you know a Whiz Kid?

Wakefield Patch is currently seeking Wakefield kids who have done something cool, amazing, kind, remarkable – anything that made you say "Wow!"

It could be in the classroom, on the athletic field or helped out a good cause. They could be the next Wakefield Patch Whiz Kid.

Each week, Wakefield Patch will highlight one child or group in the Whiz Kids feature. We need your help to find these accomplished individuals. Tell us about these amazing children and teens and select one each week as the Patch Whiz Kid.

Submit your nomination in our comment box below or e-mail the information to editor Sara Jacobi at sara.jacobi@patch.com.  Be sure to include all of the following information:

• Nominator's Name
• Nominator's E-Mail
• Whiz Kid's Name
• Whiz Kid's Age
• Whiz Kid's School
• Whiz Kid's Accomplishment
• Whiz Kid's Key to Awesomeness (what made him/her successful?)

If your nominee is selected, we'll contact you to ask for a photo and further information.