37, Joy’s first fiction submission, is a genre-blending novel that combines a contemporary self-discovery travelogue with historical fiction, and elements of magical realism.
If small-town reporter Polly Stern has to cover one more manure runoff story, she's going to lose her already unmindful mind. Polly thought she'd end up as a serious photojournalist, traveling the world, meeting important people, and documenting significant environmental and social events. Life didn't turn out exactly as expected. With her career at a standstill, her marriage over, her nest empty, her spiritual foundation precarious, and her family keeping a vital secret from her, Polly is desperate for answers. And change. She sets out on an unintended journey, stumbling upon story after story that for some reason—coincidence, fate?—all occurred in 1937.
Polly's path leads her to: a troubled teen on a stone bridge high in the Green Mountains of Vermont, a political refugee on a kosher farm carved out of the Dominican Republic jungle, a tribal chief near a remote hut in uncharted Papua New Guinea, a volunteer soldier in a foggy olive grove in Spain, an artistic savant in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and to a Tibetan boy and his snow-white mastiff as they begin their trek across the formidable Himalayas. As the lines blur between reality and fantasy, between truth and fiction, between present and past, Polly writes about these inspiring characters, and others, in nine linked short stories.
Her compelling literary voyage reveals clues that allow Polly to uncover the truth about her own history, opening a new path for understanding, forgiveness, and love.
Early reader response for 37:
Coming Soon!
Anna's Journal was performed as a staged reading November 14-17, 2013.
PRESS RELEASE:
August 26, 2013
info@theatrekavanah.org
THEATRE KAVANAH PRESENTS ANNA'S JOURNAL, NOV. 14th-17th
Screenplay by Vermont author Joy Kipp will come to life at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center.
Burlington, Vermont--Theatre Kavanah, Vermont's premier production company dedicated to staging the Jewish experience, is pleased to announce its second production, a dramatic reading of Anna's Journal by Vermont author
Joy Kipp.
Anna's Journal centers on Anna Ludkin, a 13-year-old struggling to find her way as a Jewish teen in rural Vermont. Anna navigates the challenging territory of her parents’ disintegrating relationship, school friendships, and blossoming romance with 16-year-old Jamal, who also knows what it’s like to be an outsider. As Jamal becomes closer to both Anna and Anna's grandmother, Leah, he begins to suspect something at once shocking and hopeful: that Leah is none other than Anne Frank, who—he believes—has survived the atrocities of the concentration camp, and is living a quiet and anonymous life in Vermont. Set in September 2001, Anna's Journal weaves together historical accounts, Holocaust flashbacks, and issues of human intolerance into a complex, beautiful, coming-of-age story.
"For Theatre Kavanah, presenting Anna's Journal is a double win," states Founding Co-Director Wendi Stein. "We not only get to give voice to a perspective not often seen on the stage - that of young Jewish girl growing up in small town Vermont - but we have the opportunity to showcase the work of a talented Vermont writer."
That writer is Joy Kipp, a St. Albans-based author, educator, and artist. Says Kipp, "I'm thrilled that Theatre Kavanah selected my work for their fall production. I look forward to seeing the audience transported into the world of my characters. I hope that when people attend the performance, they will share an intimate experience resulting in a deeper understanding that, despite differences in cultures and individuals, there is a profound commonality in the essence of our human condition."
The Possibility Exists, a screenplay
Rob Fisher is an easy-going, popular high school teacher. He lives with his wife and his two stepchildren, and he's an active, well-liked member of his community. Rob has a special rapport with kids; he coaches wrestling and is successful working with at-risk teens. He leads a happy, comfortable life until everything changes—in the flash of a computer screen.
Rob is working late at school one day. He's searching the web and notices an unfamiliar address on his browser. When he clicks on the address, a pornographic website pops up. As he briefly checks out the site, Rob’s principal walks in and catches him. In that moment, Rob’s simple, wonderful life is turned into a living hell.
Rob is immediately suspended from his teaching and coaching duties. He's confused about the principal’s overreaction and naively assumes this suspension will only be temporary until everything can be straightened out. What Rob is not aware of is that someone had been accessing pornographic websites on his computer on hundreds of prior occasions, over a period of months. The principal had just been watching and waiting to catch the perpetrator in the act. She had assumed it was Rob all along; she just needed proof. The principal had already filed a report filled with devastating “findings of fact” based on nothing more than supposition. One of the damning allegations states that “the possibility exists that Rob attempted to contact and meet individuals under the age of 18.”
Although Rob is able to quickly prove that he was nowhere near his computer on about 70 percent of the times inappropriate sites were being accessed, the School Board will not give him time to make his case nor investigate it fully. The bureaucratic mentality combines with society’s paranoid, litigious climate to fuel the fires of mistrust.
Within 24 hours of being “caught,” Rob is forced to resign from teaching and coaching with the threat that all of the accusations will be made public if he does not leave quickly and quietly. He is assured that all personnel matters will be kept confidential. But when Rob resigns without explanation, everyone in the community is shocked and the rumors begin to fly. Confidences of close friends, family, and colleagues are negatively swayed by unsubstantiated charges and innuendo. Seems that the truth is more about perception than reality.
Rob does what the School Board asked, but still the Police Special Crimes Unit is called in to confiscate the computer and investigate Rob and all of his past interactions with children. He's ordered to stay away from all children—including his own stepchildren. Alone in a cheap, depressing apartment, Rob tries to sort things out. Prospective employers who at first seem very enthused with Rob at job interviews suddenly turn cold after checking his references. Rob is clearly being blackballed despite initial assurances that the situation would remain confidential. Students start spreading rumors about Rob. The State decides to use Rob as an example and they revoke his teaching license for “conduct unbecoming a teacher.” All of the allegations—including assumptions and inaccuracies blown out of proportion—make it to the news. And once the story hits the newspapers and the internet, the mere words become fact.
The Possibility Exists is a gripping, thought-provoking account that is actually based on true events. This reality makes it even more disturbing when one realizes that injustice of this kind can happen to any of us at any time. Lives can be ruined. And they are. Ultimately, the film explores how peoples’ reactions to events reveal more about their own dirty little secrets and lies than about what really happened.
Dramatically Incorrect, a screenplay
Richard Grayson is a gifted actor, most famous for popularizing Shakespeare. He also won an unprecedented Academy Award for Best Actor for his voice-over work on an animated film. Because of his beautiful, impeccable elocution, Grayson is known around the world as “The Voice.” But what his fans don’t know is that Richard Grayson has suffered with a speech impediment his whole life. When he is not acting, he happens to sound like the offspring of Elmer Fudd and Tweety Bird!
Grayson’s impediment, known as SED (Semantic Emphasis Disorder) is a rare malady in which people enunciate and emphasize the wrong syllables when they speak. It turns out to be the same problem that Regis Philbin has—even though he doesn’t know it!
The only way Grayson sounds “normal” is when he is acting, speaking memorized lines. Therefore, even though he is one of the world’s most popular actors, he has also become the world’s most reclusive celebrity, never speaking in public, never speaking out of character, and never granting interviews.
When Grayson finally undergoes therapy at a speech clinic, scene after belly-laughing scene are filled with speech disorders and unconventional treatments that have never before been seen—nor heard—on film. Until now. In
Dramatically Incorrect, no one is off-limits. Between the excessive salivators (like Sylvester Puddy Cat), the low-talkers, and the phumpherers, combined with activities such as the “Miss-Communications” talent contest, things at the Speech and Oral Health Clinic (aka SOHC) get out of control. Think The King's Speech meets Dumb and Dumber.
When Grayson’s own child shows signs of having SED, Grayson finally decides to go public and grants an interview with—who else but... Barbara Walters?! During the interview, flashbacks take us through Grayson’s childhood and early career.
Dramatically Incorrect explores the difficulty of living with a speech disorder, using riotous, offensive, politically incorrect humor as the vehicle to entertain as it also enlightens.
If small-town reporter Polly Stern has to cover one more manure runoff story, she's going to lose her already unmindful mind. Polly thought she'd end up as a serious photojournalist, traveling the world, meeting important people, and documenting significant environmental and social events. Life didn't turn out exactly as expected. With her career at a standstill, her marriage over, her nest empty, her spiritual foundation precarious, and her family keeping a vital secret from her, Polly is desperate for answers. And change. She sets out on an unintended journey, stumbling upon story after story that for some reason—coincidence, fate?—all occurred in 1937.
Polly's path leads her to: a troubled teen on a stone bridge high in the Green Mountains of Vermont, a political refugee on a kosher farm carved out of the Dominican Republic jungle, a tribal chief near a remote hut in uncharted Papua New Guinea, a volunteer soldier in a foggy olive grove in Spain, an artistic savant in a tenement on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, and to a Tibetan boy and his snow-white mastiff as they begin their trek across the formidable Himalayas. As the lines blur between reality and fantasy, between truth and fiction, between present and past, Polly writes about these inspiring characters, and others, in nine linked short stories.
Her compelling literary voyage reveals clues that allow Polly to uncover the truth about her own history, opening a new path for understanding, forgiveness, and love.
Early reader response for 37:
Coming Soon!
Anna's Journal was performed as a staged reading November 14-17, 2013.
PRESS RELEASE:
August 26, 2013
info@theatrekavanah.org
THEATRE KAVANAH PRESENTS ANNA'S JOURNAL, NOV. 14th-17th
Screenplay by Vermont author Joy Kipp will come to life at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center.
Burlington, Vermont--Theatre Kavanah, Vermont's premier production company dedicated to staging the Jewish experience, is pleased to announce its second production, a dramatic reading of Anna's Journal by Vermont author
Joy Kipp.
Anna's Journal centers on Anna Ludkin, a 13-year-old struggling to find her way as a Jewish teen in rural Vermont. Anna navigates the challenging territory of her parents’ disintegrating relationship, school friendships, and blossoming romance with 16-year-old Jamal, who also knows what it’s like to be an outsider. As Jamal becomes closer to both Anna and Anna's grandmother, Leah, he begins to suspect something at once shocking and hopeful: that Leah is none other than Anne Frank, who—he believes—has survived the atrocities of the concentration camp, and is living a quiet and anonymous life in Vermont. Set in September 2001, Anna's Journal weaves together historical accounts, Holocaust flashbacks, and issues of human intolerance into a complex, beautiful, coming-of-age story.
"For Theatre Kavanah, presenting Anna's Journal is a double win," states Founding Co-Director Wendi Stein. "We not only get to give voice to a perspective not often seen on the stage - that of young Jewish girl growing up in small town Vermont - but we have the opportunity to showcase the work of a talented Vermont writer."
That writer is Joy Kipp, a St. Albans-based author, educator, and artist. Says Kipp, "I'm thrilled that Theatre Kavanah selected my work for their fall production. I look forward to seeing the audience transported into the world of my characters. I hope that when people attend the performance, they will share an intimate experience resulting in a deeper understanding that, despite differences in cultures and individuals, there is a profound commonality in the essence of our human condition."
The Possibility Exists, a screenplay
Rob Fisher is an easy-going, popular high school teacher. He lives with his wife and his two stepchildren, and he's an active, well-liked member of his community. Rob has a special rapport with kids; he coaches wrestling and is successful working with at-risk teens. He leads a happy, comfortable life until everything changes—in the flash of a computer screen.
Rob is working late at school one day. He's searching the web and notices an unfamiliar address on his browser. When he clicks on the address, a pornographic website pops up. As he briefly checks out the site, Rob’s principal walks in and catches him. In that moment, Rob’s simple, wonderful life is turned into a living hell.
Rob is immediately suspended from his teaching and coaching duties. He's confused about the principal’s overreaction and naively assumes this suspension will only be temporary until everything can be straightened out. What Rob is not aware of is that someone had been accessing pornographic websites on his computer on hundreds of prior occasions, over a period of months. The principal had just been watching and waiting to catch the perpetrator in the act. She had assumed it was Rob all along; she just needed proof. The principal had already filed a report filled with devastating “findings of fact” based on nothing more than supposition. One of the damning allegations states that “the possibility exists that Rob attempted to contact and meet individuals under the age of 18.”
Although Rob is able to quickly prove that he was nowhere near his computer on about 70 percent of the times inappropriate sites were being accessed, the School Board will not give him time to make his case nor investigate it fully. The bureaucratic mentality combines with society’s paranoid, litigious climate to fuel the fires of mistrust.
Within 24 hours of being “caught,” Rob is forced to resign from teaching and coaching with the threat that all of the accusations will be made public if he does not leave quickly and quietly. He is assured that all personnel matters will be kept confidential. But when Rob resigns without explanation, everyone in the community is shocked and the rumors begin to fly. Confidences of close friends, family, and colleagues are negatively swayed by unsubstantiated charges and innuendo. Seems that the truth is more about perception than reality.
Rob does what the School Board asked, but still the Police Special Crimes Unit is called in to confiscate the computer and investigate Rob and all of his past interactions with children. He's ordered to stay away from all children—including his own stepchildren. Alone in a cheap, depressing apartment, Rob tries to sort things out. Prospective employers who at first seem very enthused with Rob at job interviews suddenly turn cold after checking his references. Rob is clearly being blackballed despite initial assurances that the situation would remain confidential. Students start spreading rumors about Rob. The State decides to use Rob as an example and they revoke his teaching license for “conduct unbecoming a teacher.” All of the allegations—including assumptions and inaccuracies blown out of proportion—make it to the news. And once the story hits the newspapers and the internet, the mere words become fact.
The Possibility Exists is a gripping, thought-provoking account that is actually based on true events. This reality makes it even more disturbing when one realizes that injustice of this kind can happen to any of us at any time. Lives can be ruined. And they are. Ultimately, the film explores how peoples’ reactions to events reveal more about their own dirty little secrets and lies than about what really happened.
Dramatically Incorrect, a screenplay
Richard Grayson is a gifted actor, most famous for popularizing Shakespeare. He also won an unprecedented Academy Award for Best Actor for his voice-over work on an animated film. Because of his beautiful, impeccable elocution, Grayson is known around the world as “The Voice.” But what his fans don’t know is that Richard Grayson has suffered with a speech impediment his whole life. When he is not acting, he happens to sound like the offspring of Elmer Fudd and Tweety Bird!
Grayson’s impediment, known as SED (Semantic Emphasis Disorder) is a rare malady in which people enunciate and emphasize the wrong syllables when they speak. It turns out to be the same problem that Regis Philbin has—even though he doesn’t know it!
The only way Grayson sounds “normal” is when he is acting, speaking memorized lines. Therefore, even though he is one of the world’s most popular actors, he has also become the world’s most reclusive celebrity, never speaking in public, never speaking out of character, and never granting interviews.
When Grayson finally undergoes therapy at a speech clinic, scene after belly-laughing scene are filled with speech disorders and unconventional treatments that have never before been seen—nor heard—on film. Until now. In
Dramatically Incorrect, no one is off-limits. Between the excessive salivators (like Sylvester Puddy Cat), the low-talkers, and the phumpherers, combined with activities such as the “Miss-Communications” talent contest, things at the Speech and Oral Health Clinic (aka SOHC) get out of control. Think The King's Speech meets Dumb and Dumber.
When Grayson’s own child shows signs of having SED, Grayson finally decides to go public and grants an interview with—who else but... Barbara Walters?! During the interview, flashbacks take us through Grayson’s childhood and early career.
Dramatically Incorrect explores the difficulty of living with a speech disorder, using riotous, offensive, politically incorrect humor as the vehicle to entertain as it also enlightens.
