welcome to a taste of theater where everyone is the star today's star is shining bright on ursula barrow of baltimore maryland she joins us via skype and her play will that will be showcased today is the the new teachers lounge so ursula tell me what inspired you to write this way i was actually inspired to write this played by my mother the best time battleground she's a teacher in the baltimore city public school system she's been teaching for over forty years and many years ago she and i had gone to see shelley gare as your shop and added conclusion of the play she said earnestly you should write a play about teachers and i gave it some thought and i said wow i'd be great i haven't written a play before but i knew that really liked to write and i knew i had a special liking and love for the actual stage play writing so i thought that i would give it a try so it was all inspired by my love it as well as shelley gare in his his stage play a beauty shop wow and how long have you been writing plays now well the new teachers ledge is the most recent production that i've written the original teachers lounge premiered in baltimore city in two thousand and two so i've been writing stays close now for about twelve years with the script well known actor out of baltimore our charles rock didn't read the script and thought it was really an excellent script for my first you know stay a bit of writing for our first stage and he gave premiered september twenty first two thousand and two and victor although that was my first production i basically stepped down faith again it was my first stage play i didn't have a e it was a huge hit and people really enjoyed the message although the play centers around teachers the plays universal messages deal with things that everybody can relate are relationships there's a secret romance actually taking place within the school there's a situation with the teacher who is face and the the prospect that she may have breast cancer there's another teacher this in the play who is dealing with some financial challenges and there's another teacher in the plains are always giving financial advice in terms of you know how the teachers should manage their money but outside of their she has a personal issue at home with respect to you know providing care to her sick mother but even around their own personal lives  these educators are still expected to come to school and perform so on one hand it how lights the the situation around educators and as we know you know i'm sure as you know in chicago our educators are heavily deal with situations nail in two thousand and fourteen their teachers and had to deal with years ago you know as far as you know school violence teachers being attacked by students are just all kinds of things that w production and i was asked by a facility here called the downtown cultural arts center in baltimore to write and present a stage play down there so i said we're better place to do there than a teacher's lounge but no one there's so much ha changed around education since two thousand and two i went back and rewrote the teacher's lounge to reflect those issues that are so relevant in education but not just education so the subtle issues that are in place now that we didn't necessarily have to deal with so much back in two thousand and two when the first original play came out wow so turner some of the characters in this new updated version ok well call him he's never anywhere to be found he's always ducking we're and then when the emergency situation is over with he magically appears on the scene so that's one of the new a characters in the play again he's a school police attempting to get the teachers and troubling then there's the flamboyant may have teacher who is in the production he is the man teacher by the name of mr curtis cameron and so he's is the one that always keeps the teachers in the know about all of that is taking place within this elementary middle school and then there's the school secretary tony jenkins and tony jenkins doesn't it looks like she's not given it we're done because she's always on the phone you know when the parents show up with it kids come to her desk in the main office and anyhow to do something she'd rather be talking on the phone or she rather be texting somebody my mother head made a suggestion to me about writing a play only thing that she said was you need to write a play about teachers and that was it but as a child growing up and is the daughter of an educator my mother always h say that most kids always wonder what goes on the teacher's lounge when most kids have didn't have the word allowed to go on a teacher's lounge just so happened to me and my sister were allowed to because we was with my mother so i just remember th when she talked to me about you know you need to write a play about teachers i thought what better place did to center a play around the teacher's lounge you know a lot of times or oftentimes teachers can go on t and publicly say what some of the challenges are ls you might be the head of the teacher's union or something like it and you represent the body as a whole but this play can see the play through these characters through the story line can put those things out there in a creative and tasteful way and and allow people to think about some of the issues that the teachers deal with but it sounds like now only are the teachers dealing with the students and their issues but it seems like the teachers are also same wished in between dealing with the administration because i remember you mentioning that there is a way it's always trying to get your interim always trying to get but you know what she does get her end she does get her as in the end seemed to me that in of itself is a is another powerful message in the play net you know sometimes when we're dealing with a difficult situation which for these teachers was this vice principal but although she really you know took them to the edge they didn't handle they allow things to just take the course that they were suppose it takes and in the in they didn't have to do anything the situation worked out the way it was suppose work out but they didn't have to go in a school and shooter they didn't cuss out and lose their jobs they didn't have to go to school and do anything that would put them in the line of fire they just allow happen the way was supposed to happen and so to me that's a lesson to someone sit in the audience that you know they have a difficult bars or you know someone who wants to you know reprimand or for whatever reason you have to basically you know that sound judgment and you have to put in prayer and allow it to work out without you you know jumping out there and put yourself in a situation where you may lose your job or you may lose your freedom if you go somewhere pick up a gun and try to shoot somebody  just let things happen and not necessarily take you know matters into your own hands so if i have to and that's what do you want the audience to learn as a result or walk away with after seeing your play it sounds like what you're saying is you want them to leave with an appreciation for teachers i would like them to leave with an appreciation of the teachers that is correct but i also want them to the feel like they have been empowered to make it through some sort of challenge that they may have in their labs and i tell you i sit in the audience when we do these plays and i know i can feel with an audience because i'm sitting right there amongst them the action that they have to the things that are taking place on the stage and know that they have some stuff on or in the last because i hear the things that this and like you know like oh my god you know or that's right or they say amen you know it's certain it's like a certain reaction that i get from them where no they're there's some thing that they have seen or heard in their play that has resonated to t resonated with them and my hope is that they will leave feeling like ok i can i can do this so i have to say that every playwright has a ministry and what would you say is your ministry then i would probably say there that's a very good question but i would probably say for me my ministry is empowering through stage plays so well so it sounds and there are going to be some people are going to watch this and then see wow and wonder how she's she does what she does would advice would you give up incoming playwrights who want to do what it is that you do at work first of all i would say there they need to not tell everybody what it is that they're working on that's number one area best number one because sometimes i'll be honest with you i mean when i set out to do my first play if i listen to people like you know i'm like i'm calling the years but i mean you know they will limit you to what is at hand or either tell you  you don't want to jump out there like this your first play arm so sometimes you have to be very selective in terms of who you share will be is that you're going to write will visit your child do because if you listen there are some people who take you off their course and you know kind of dissuade you from will visit don't you want to do is just so happens in my case i'm persistent you know and once i think you know my friends or tell you my best friend will definitely tell you that once i put my mind or something i'm going to do it i would say they have to put their thoughts down on paper because paper because what happens if you can't all of these great ideas and if you don't write again like ok now i know what it was something so they have to make sure they write their there are thoughts down on paper definitely want to do th e and they have to just be persistent and not give up and not wait on anybody i mean was there decided that i'm going to break this peace and not allow themselves to get i guess distracted because i know that a lot of times of i'm writing or something you know it's is easy for me to sort of like you know go on to something else or jump to something else so you have to make a commitment that you're going to finish this piece that ok i'm going to sit down i'm on to write this play i'm going to write this book i'm going to write this pour i'm going to write this novel and just and just do it even if you just say i'm a write a page a day of i'm going to write a program just keep doing it and it will notice that the pages will start filling up and um and the other thing i would suggest to is not step out too big i think that i recently in my first production stepped out big in terms of a big venue and it really worked out for me but i would advise new playwrights is best to sell at one hundred seat venue so you know identify a very reasonable are you know venue and look to you know friends and family members to read descriptions was out be honest with you i get my best feedback from my friends and my family who will tell me if something needs to be worked on and won't sugarcoat the truth and will give me you know it vice in terms of ok ing plays is are is an expensive venture you know i don't consider it just a hobby out out i like to consider myself a professional playwright with aspirations of going out on a national level but in order to do that you know the things that from a business month business them point i have to keep in mind here and definitely surround yourself with positive people who can offer you good advice and and definitely you know to be a part of the church of a church because i think that my church has allowed me to do a number and that's a good place to get experience in the put production's up is in your church because i've learned to do sound effects you know because when you when you're part of a church and i'm part of a small church you know we have to make it happen ourselves so we're here in a sound effects you know we have to do our own sale are we use our own performers in the church but death has also allowed me to you know to learn how to do other things on my own and also tap into a talent pool of people who are members of my church and who really are mostly will believe in my vision and want to see me succeed and that's important too because up in terms of people don't want money ended up they just want to see you succeed and they get their blessing of the help new well that's what i was saying wow all right well we're going to i know i hope so many hopes dreams too many dreams and seen them swept weather turned away by fire scared away back