Haley Ganatos is a teenager who doesn’t let household chores stop her from dreaming up stories she plans to tell on stage or screen.
“She’ll be in her room cleaning, and she’ll come out and tell me about an idea for a movie she wants to make someday,” says her mom, Tracey Ganatos, 40. “She comes up with sad, angry plays when I make her clean the bathroom.”
The 18-year-old high school senior, who plans to study screenwriting in college, isn’t just a dreamer. Her resume lists numerous acting and writing awards from theatrical competitions, including best actress in the novice category of the 2010 and 2011 Idaho 48-Hour Film Competition & Festival.
Ganatos wrote and directed “The Waiting Room.” The 45-minute, one-act play is set in a hospital emergency room.
“What I want people to take away is that you’ve only got a limited amount of time,” Ganatos said, “and what you need to do with it needs to be important.”
She wrote the play over the summer. Her mom sometimes found her up at 3 a.m., writing on her laptop in bed. She usually drinks tea while writing because she likes to pretend she’s British.
“She’s a funny kid,” Tracey Ganatos said of the oldest of her two daughters, who looked serious and professional in a suit at Tuesday’s dress rehearsal.
Ganatos cast 20 fellow students in her play, which she co-directs with friend Ashlie Owen. Ganatos’ sister, Hanna, 15, is doing the play’s hair and makeup. She is one of eight members of the crew.
Ganatos asked her friend Dalton Ogden to write and record the music. The 17-year-old senior also plays Death.
“I joke around and tell people that it’s type-casting. People usually see me as a dark character,” said Dalton, who plans to major in physics and minor in music at Boise State University.
Rocky Mountain’s drama department offers five classes: acting I, II and advanced, and two stagecraft classes. About 180 students are involved in the drama program, with 30 competing in district and state competitions.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN’S BUDDING WRITERS
Haley Ganatos wasn’t the only Rocky Mountain student who wrote and directed a play this year. Senior Eli Nary’s one-act play, “Shall We Gather at the River,” was staged last week.
“It was exciting but definitely stressful,” said Nary, who is already on to new projects. “I have my next two plays mapped out, and I’ve already started writing one of them.”
Nary aspires to be a professional playwright. He’s planning to double-major in English and theater at the College of Idaho and do graduate work at New York University.
Rocky Mountain’s theater director says she expects other talented playwrights to shine, too. She admires Nary’s and Ganatos’ willingness to offer their work for public consumption.
“These two guys have guts,” Erin Davidson said. “They are at a point in life when they can handle criticism from their peers.”
Davidson said the school’s drama students read and critiqued the plays before they went into production.
“They are going to be really prepared for college life, if they can handle (the criticism) at this age,” she said.
Ganatos and Nary teamed up last spring to write a play called “Slender,” based on the Internet sensation “Slender Man”— a tall, thin, faceless man with tentacle-like limbs who makes people disappear. The school staged the play, and it was a hit.
“There was a buzz for the drama department for the first time ever,” said Davidson, who has taught at Rocky Mountain for three years. “We had a great turnout.”
A SURPRISING TALENT
Ganatos’ parents aren’t sure where their daughter got her talent for writing and acting. Neither her mom nor her dad was involved in theater, and it was only by chance that their daughter ended up in her first play at age 8.
That early experience opened a door of creative expression. She remembers loving stories as a child — her father read “The Lord of the Rings” — and she was enthralled by J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series.
She counts Rowling among her literary heroes.
“She was one of the most notable writers who was able to write for such a broad audience,” Ganatos said. “She was able to attach meaning for everybody. It’s possible to reach every member of an audience.”
She’s also a fan of Diablo Cody, who wrote the screenplay for the edgy teen-pregnancy movie “Juno” and the TV series about a woman with multiple personalities, “The United States of Tara.”
Her idol is former “Saturday Night Live” writer and performer Tina Fey, who succeeded not only in SNL’s “boy’s club” but also on the big screen (“Mean Girls”) and on her own TV show, “30 Rock.”
“She’s a strong, tough lady who writes what she wants,” Ganatos said.
FROM PAGE TO STAGE
The teenager said that when it comes to staging a play, writing is the easy part; things get more complicated when you add actors into the mix.
“Everything makes sense in your head, things look a certain way and fit together perfectly,” she said. “My biggest difficulty was explaining, as a director, what I wanted from my actors during scenes.”
Ganatos takes AP honors classes and has a 3.8 GPA. She’s not yet sure where she’s going to college, but the College of Idaho, Boston College and NYU are on her list.
Some parents steer their college-bound kids away from the arts.
“My parents are pushing me to do what I want to do most,” Ganatos said. “I have the best parents in the world.”
Katy Moeller: 377-6413
JOIN THE DISCUSSION | Register here
We welcome comments. Please keep them civil, short and to the point. ALL CAPS, spam, obscene, profane, abusive and off topic comments will be deleted. Repeat offenders will be blocked. Thanks for taking part — and abiding by these simple rules. A thorough explanation of rules of conduct can be found in our Terms of Service. If you have any questions, including why your comment may not be showing immediately after you submit it, be sure to visit the commenting FAQ.