Theatrefolk Featured Play – Somewhere, Nowhere by Lindsay Price

Welcome to our Featured Play Spotlight. The heartwarming and heartbreaking story, Somewhere, Nowhere by Lindsay Price, is a full-length play made up of four one-act plays. See the characters grow, change, and stumble through four seasons.

Somewhere, Nowhere is a place to call home. A place to leave. The best place in the world. Nothing but a memory. How many of us feel one way or the other about the place we grew up? How many of us love or hate our hometown? Maybe it’s both at the same time.

The characters in Somewhere, Nowhere face a dilemma: Do they stay close to home at the end of high school, or do they get as far away as possible? What if they want to do both at the same time? What then?

Why did we publish this play?
Home is a universal topic – and leaving home is something every senior high school student has to face – do they want to get as far away as possible, or is the thought terrifying? A topic like this makes for an excellent play material and that’s what Somewhere, Nowhere explores to the fullest: Relatable characters going through the ups and downs of dealing with their relationship with home. Great for every program.

Let’s hear from the author!

1. Why did you write this play?
On a long distance drive I had an experience in a small town oil change place and was so taken by the young people working there, it was the spark that lead to the whole play. I basically wrote the rest of the trip! I’m also always interested in the places that people call home – what makes people stay? What makes people leave?

2. Decribe the theme in one or two sentences.
What does home mean to you? What does it mean to leave home?

3. What’s the most important visual for you in this play?
It’s not something that we see, but it’s a visual that is vital to each character – and that’s how they see the town. I’m purposefully vague about where the town is because I want each cast to make it their own. Every character has a specific relationship to the town and that has to come through in every moment.

4. If you could give one piece of advice for those producing the play, what would it be?
Establish the relationships between characters outside the world of the play. The play shows four scenes in the year of the life of these characters in summer, fall, winter, and spring. There’s a lot of time in-between where characters change, sometimes drastically. It’s important to establish how those changes happen.

5. Why is this play great for student performers?
Character work is always great for student performers – how do they interpret the information in the text and make the play come alive? Also, the play addresses the question every teenager has to answer for themselves by the end of high school – do they leave? Do they stay? Who will decide not to go away to school and face the consequences? Who will want to leave, but fears the unknown? Who will end up covered in egg cartons and shaving cream?