Courtney Ravelo
Sara Belcher: Tell me a little bit about yourself and what you do on campus.
Courtney Ravelo: I’m a senior writing major and theatre minor, and I’m currently involved in a lot of things. I’m the co-president of Spit That!, which is IC’s only spoken word poetry club. I am the co-editor-in-chief of States of Mind, which is the mental health magazine run out of the Mental Health Association in Tompkins County. I’m a nonfiction editor for Stillwater, and I’m in a musical right now. I’m in a student film, I’m in a show choir, and I’m taking 18 credits this semester. Oh, and I have a part time job!
SB: What made you want to be a writing major?
CR: I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Since I was young, I was obsessed with reading and books. I just wanted to create for young people what authors created for me when I was young. I’ve always wanted to be a lot of things, just for some reason I decided to focus on writing in college because I was focusing on other things in high school.
SB: What other things did you focus on in high school? CR: I went to a performing arts high school, so I was a vocal major there. I was classically trained. And then my senior year [of high school], I double-majored in creative writing, and I loved it so much so I ended up applying here as a writing major. Yeah, so I’ve always been into performing.
SB: Did you ever picture yourself writing plays?
CR: No, I was actually really surprised. Because I’m such a narrative writer, I’m not good with dialogue. And then I ended up writing something that has no narrative — it’s only dialogue. So I surprised myself, but I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written. So I guess it opened a door for me.
SB: So tell me a little bit about your play.
CR: This is the first play I’ve ever written. Okay, so, working synopsis: It’s a futuristic, dystopian play that considers what would happen to people of color if this administration was considered for a second term. The whole cast is people of color, and there’s a bunch of different themes. There’s a theme of water and a lack of it. I got the idea for this play, actually, when the Flint, Michigan, stuff started happening on the news. Because it was happening for a long time, and I just didn’t personally hear about it until people had died. I was really upset about it, and I’m still upset about it, considering nothing has changed and they still don’t have clean water. So there’s a really big theme of water in the play and not having access to it. There’s a theme of — trigger warning — suicide in the play, like ritualistic suicide, not mental illness suicide. It’s more like a “big brother made me do” it kind of thing. And then the other theme is religion. It’s very religious, Christian-based. It’s like a commentary or an argument about Christianity. And it uses themes like the apple. I talk a little bit about global warming. It takes place a hundred years from now, so the world is f----d. It’s a dystopia.
SB: So were you raised Christian?
CR:Yeah, I was raised Catholic. I was baptized, made Communion, was confirmed. I went to [Confraternity of Christian Doctrine,] which is like Catholic school, every Wednesday night for an hour for the first decade of my life. When I was 14, after I was confirmed, I stopped going to church because I didn’t agree with Catholicism. In high school — my junior year of high school — I ended up going to an Apostolic Pentecostal church, which is a branch of Protestantism within Christianity. I was Pentecostal for like four years. I kind of have been getting out of it the last two years or so.
SB: Did one sect of religion have more influence on the play than the other?
CR: I think both had equal influence on the play, because all of Christianity has the same background that they pull from, the same Bible, and the same rules. It’s just the way you go about them that’s different, and the rules you decide to follow are different within every religion. The apple is across all of Christianity. The theme of the play is like they’re killing themselves to go to this “Heaven” but it’s called “Euphoria” because they’ve been told that that’s where they need to be and their purpose here is meaningless. Which is literally what I’ve been told in CCD. I remember in seventh grade, I was maybe 11 or 12. My CCD teacher’s assistant, who was like 17 — she was in high school — told us that if we could take the chance to die right now and go to heaven, we all should because heaven is the most amazing place ever and Earth is nothing compared to it. And that if you could kill yourself and still go to heaven, she would. Because heaven is perfect, and our place here is meaningless, and we’re just waiting here. And I use all of this stuff in my play.
SB: What kind of conversations do you hope this play is going to start?
CR: So many. It’s already started conversations among groups that have seen it. Just about what it means to be a person of color in this country, bringing awareness to the fact that Flint doesn’t have water still, which is a basic necessity of life, and government and rebelling. Conversations about that. Mostly about race, though.
SB: Where have you seen these conversations happening?
CR: We had a talkback after the reading, and a bunch of people asked me questions, and they were asking each other questions and having conversation. Then two of the people who saw it that day messaged me separately asking me to send it to them so they could send it to their college because they have play talks at their college. And the other girl told me to send it to her because she’s friends with a director of theater in New York. And I sent it to them. I’m hoping that these people are having meaningful conversations. It’s hard because I’m not there, and it’s hard to give this part of me out to people who don’t see me and don’t know me, and they can say anything they want about something that’s so precious to me. And everything I write is a reflection of myself and my character. If someone doesn’t like it, then I take it personally, because they don’t like my thoughts, then. It shapes your writing, even if it’s not real.
SB: What is it like to see your work read?
CR: I cried. I didn’t expect to cry, because I don’t usually happy cry because I’m too busy sad crying (laughs). It was very overwhelming. I’ve never had my work read aloud before — ever. And my parents were there. They drove up from New Jersey, like a 4 1/2 hour ride, just to hear the play reading, and then drove back home. Because they’re like my biggest fans and my big supporters. And just having them sit next to me — and they had no idea what it was about. I didn’t tell them. And they come and it was super dark, and ridiculous, and weird. And they were like, “Are you okay?” There’s humor in the play, too. There’s plenty of suicide, but there’s humor. People laughed. And I’m glad people caught the humor, because some characters were supposed to be the comedic relief, and people actually laughed. Because I laugh to myself when I’m writing, but I worry that no one else is going to find it funny because they’re not in my head, they don’t have my sense of humor, whatever. No, people laughed at the things I wanted them to laugh at and people cried at the things I wanted them to cry at. I cried when something happens to one of the characters and I know it’s going to happen because I wrote it! And I still cry. When it’s acted out, it’s almost more heartbreaking than creating it on the page. Seeing it happen in front of me, hearing it, having other people witness it for the first time, and being emotionally affected.
SB: What was the process you went through from writing the play to having it read?
CR: What happened was I applied to be in the Hangar Theatre Lab Company, which is an 8-week summer intensive via the Hangar Theatre where they bring in very young artists. There are three tracks. You can be an assistant director, be an actor, or you can be a playwright dramaturg. And I was in the playwright dramaturg track. Basically the deal was I had to construct a play in 8 weeks and then have it read at a place, and the place that was decided upon was the Community School of Music-Arts. And I honestly didn’t think I could do it. I didn’t think I could write a play in 8 weeks. I don’t write quickly, I don’t write well under pressure. But they were very helpful. I had a mentor, and he was very helpful. He would read my drafts and edit them for clarity and content and grammar and whatever else, and he helped me so much. Without him, it would’ve been a different play. I definitely wouldn’t have had such a good final product. And I had readings throughout the summer, too, so I could hear it out loud. So I would have a couple of the actors from the acting tract read through my play, and I could hear things — you know when you’re reading over your own stuff, you’re just glossing? Hearing it out loud I would be like, “Oh,” and I would edit it that way, and then two weeks later have a fresh copy. Completely different ending, different characters. I deleted characters, added characters. And then we would read it again. By the end of the summer, it was a totally different play than the idea I’d had in my head. And I’m glad the idea worked by the end, but getting there was other people helping me. I wouldn’t have gotten there by myself.
SB: What are your hopes for the future of this play?
CR: I’m trying to get it performed on campus. One of my friends is in a theater group here and they have play submissions from students where they pick a play written by a student and they put it on. I haven’t heard back from that, though. I might be renting out the Kitchen Theatre. The Kitchen Theatre has this series where they let you rent out their space to put on your play. So I was thinking of doing that in the spring semester. I’ve sent it out to a couple of theaters. Once I graduate in May, I’ll have more time to focus on it and to promote it. My goal is to get it published, but publishing comes after you’ve produced it a few places. So I’m just trying to get it out there right now, but it’s hard with everything else going on, too, to focus on it.
SB: Do you think you’ll focus on promoting the play after graduation?
CR: I need to make money. Printing my play will be a side thing until things like that make me money. I play on applying to the NBC Page Program. Hopefully I get into that. If not, I might move to the city and just start auditioning. I was thinking about teaching English in Paris for a year, or maybe I’ll find some reason to stay [in Ithaca] and work at one of the theaters. I have connections to all of the theaters up here — I’d love to be in the shows here or work in one of them. Maybe I’ll move to LA or something, or just go back home. I might take a year off and apply to grad school. Basically, next year’s up in the air.
