SHU Student’s Play Accepted for National Conference
"What It Means to Be Polite" examines why women feel the need to protect men’s feelings
A play by Sacred Heart University junior, Grace Curley ’23, What It Means to Be Polite, has been accepted to the 2022 Mid-America Theatre Conference (MATC), due to take place March 3-6 in Cleveland, OH. Curley is the first SHU student to earn this honor.
The national, annual conference showcases works by professionals, college faculty and graduate students working toward their master’s degrees in fine arts—making this a rare opportunity for Curley as an undergraduate. She submitted her work to the conference’s 10-minute, dramatist, play lab symposium and was selected through a competitive, blind, peer-review process.
What It Means to Be Polite is a dialogue between two women who talk about their personal experiences as they explore why women feel the need to be polite to men.
“I’m looking forward to learning more about playwriting from the professionals at the conference and making this particular show the best it can possibly be,” Curley said. “I’m really excited about expanding my knowledge and bringing everything back to the theatre arts program here.
“My mom has a notebook from my childhood of my stories; for instance, about dogs who go on adventures,” laughed Curley. “Writing has followed me all throughout my life.” She said she also was “always doing theatre and always doing musicals, and I love Broadway.”
At Sacred Heart, Curley married her two passions as a dual theatre arts and English major. “I wrote my first one-act play for SHU’s TheatreFest during my freshman year and realized it was a combination of two things that I love. It was a wonderful discovery.”
Rachel Bauer, coordinator of academic theatre arts and a lecturer at SHU, as well as co-chair of the MATC symposium that that accepted Curley’s work, encouraged her to submit her play for consideration. “Grace has shown a lot of promise as a playwright, mostly through things like TheatreFest, which is our new-works program,” Bauer said. “She has an interesting and unique voice. When I saw this opportunity come up at MATC, I thought it would be a great experience for her to get feedback from outside the University and expand her sources to help her hone her craft.”
“Grace’s passion for writing is undeniable. She has a distinctive voice that is funny and deeply observant of human nature,” said Emily Bryan, a lecturer in the department of languages & literature who also encouraged Curley to submit her play. “She writes characters that you feel you have met before. She writes dialogue that is both witty and emotional, a rare quality. If Grace wants to be a professional playwright, she will be, I have no doubt.”