By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
A young Atmore woman who aspires to be a writer of scripts for movies and Broadway plays recently got a boost of confidence in that direction.
Sherese Craft, 23, took home second-place honors in a writing contest that was part of the “Telling the Stories: Insights to Writing for Stage & Film Symposium,” held November 4-6 at Alabama State University’s Lelia Barlow Theater.
Award-winning writer, director and Broadway actor Timothy Ware-Hill, whose animated “Cops and Robbers” creation is a regular feature on Netflix, was the featured artist.
Craft, a graduate of Escambia County High school and currently a student at Trenholm State Community College in Montgomery, earned the runner-up spot with a dramatic play she initially wrote several years ago and has tweaked as she has become more adept at writing.
“It’s about a little boy’s life, a bad-guy-turned-good story,” she explained.
Sherese, the daughter of Tracy and Tracey Craft and granddaughter of Shelly Hawthorne, said she fell in love with writing as a fifth grader at Escambia County Middle School.
“I started out writing in fifth grade,” she said. “English class has always been my favorite subject. As I got older, I just kept writing. I write in my journal every day. I do the writing thing on my own time. I’ve written a lot of plays for my church, Harris St. A.O.H. Church of God, and some scripts. I also write poetry and essays.”
Her real love, though, is writing for the stage and screen. She might also look to taking the stage, or even controlling the action, herself.
“I’d like to do a little of both, movies and Broadway plays,” she explained. “I’m trying to put my name out there. What I really want to go into is writing scripts, acting and directing.”
Neither of her sisters, Jasmine (a nurse at Holman Correctional Facility) and Ashley (who is studying physical therapy) plan to follow the same path, but Sherese said she tries to stimulate them and anyone else who has a God-given talent, to exploit that talent to the nth degree.
“I like to encourage other people to, if they have gifts and talents, to push forward with their dream and try to make it happen,” she said.