Joon Lee ’25 — Playwriting | Avon Old Farms News | About Us | Avon Old Farms

While the Advanced Independent Project (AIP) program is primarily a way for students to explore areas of interest outside of the standard curriculum, it is also a chance for teachers to collaborate with their students in exciting new ways. That has been the case this fall for English teacher and Director of Theatre Gwen Couch, who says it’s been wonderful to work alongside Joon Lee ’25 as he wrote, casted, and organized his own play.

“It’s been fun, really fun,” says Couch. “There are so many facets of theatre we don’t really get to explore when doing a play, so this is great. It’s amazing with AIPs that students with a specific interest have more time to explore it.”

Normally, students are limited to two options when it comes to theatre programs at the school: act or be a member of the stage crew. Plus, the shows are often chosen based on the pool of actors available, and that number isn’t always very high. “It’s really difficult to do productions, to get the actors, so we’ve been looking at different ways to do it,” Couch explains, adding that the idea to incorporate an AIP focused on playwriting or another element of theatre came to her over the summer through conversations with school administrators.

She reached out to students who had participated in theatre in the past to gauge interest, and Joon responded almost immediately, sharing that he already had an idea for his own play. Couch, who happens to be Joon’s advisor, loved his idea.

“This was the right time for Joon to launch into a project like this. To be able to create, and be given time to do so, it’s huge. It also excited him to be the very first student to do this.”

Joon, a junior from Farmington, was introduced to theatre his freshman year at Avon when he signed up to be a member of the tech crew, but instead ended up joining the cast of that year’s production, Lord of the Flies. “I realized I was actually really enjoying it,” Joon says. The following year, he eagerly auditioned for The Theory of Relativity and has performed in several other shows and one act plays since, including The SpongeBob Musical last year. A member of the Riddlers and the son of a professional pianist, Joon says he was always confident in his musical abilities, so participating in theatre productions came pretty naturally.

He was disappointed that his schedule would not allow him to participate in theatre this fall as he had in past years, but that disappointment turned into excitement when he learned of the AIP opportunity to write his own play. “I wanted to try something new that related to what I’m interested in. So, when Mrs. Couch reached out about this I thought why not jump at the opportunity? I already had this idea rolling around in my head since the beginning of the summer, and I’ve been trying to work on my creative writing.”

Joon’s idea came when he was watching a video-analysis of Paradise Lost, an epic poem from 17th century English poet John Milton. Joon was intrigued by the poem’s parallels with the biblical story of creation, and saw some potential for the story to be transformed into a comedy. “Joon’s a kid who has such a natural ability to understand the English language from an earlier time—like during Milton’s time. He’s also proven to be really adept at seeing comedy in otherwise serious works,” shares Couch.

The play is a comedy that places Milton into the actual events of the bible and follows him as he tries to write Paradise Regained, the sequel to Paradise Lost. Joon says the most difficult part of the process has been making sure the play maintains a balance between humor and the heavier elements of the story. He says he had to work hard to make sure his story wasn’t “too preachy.”

“The audience needs to know I’m just telling a story and not trying to sell them on something.”

Joon took inspiration from more modern stories as well. The characters of Hades in the 1997 Disney film Hercules and Beetlejuice from the 1998 film of the same name helped him create the villain of his story; “I thought I’d make Satan into one of those goofball-type villains. He’s obviously the bad guy, but he makes you laugh.” He says the humor of the story came very easily as he was writing it.

After writing, revising, and organizing his script, Joon then figured out how it would look on stage and casted all of the roles. The final step for the AIP will be a read-through of the script. If that goes well, Joon says he may try to organize it into a one-act play to be put on in the spring One Act Play festival, a series of short plays directed and performed by students.

As the head of the school’s theatre programs, Couch sees even more potential. “It would be very nice if this got kids interested in the various facets of theatre. Perhaps the next step could be a set-design AIP, or a history of musical theatre AIP. My hope is that this moves us toward more student-centered learning through theatre.”

Return To News