October 24, 2003

Teen With Congenital MD Wins
National Playwriting Award

by Christina Medvescek

Amanda Harper (left) and Bethany Andrews at the Kennedy Center in Washington in September. Photo by Erin Dey for VSA Arts

“I write it all, honey!”

There’s no doubt about it, writing makes Amanda Harper, 18, very happy. Although her tastes run mainly to fiction, she merrily ticks off song lyrics and poems among her many loves.

There’s something about writing, she declares in a characteristic rush, that’s “so relieving. When you write, it takes you from the world to a different world. I create characters who are real to me, you know them. They’re amazing tools — and teaching tools too, if you do it in the right way. You never know when your writing will affect others.”

Indeed, you really, truly never know.

For example, Amanda, of Chandler, Ariz., and her close friend and writing buddy, Bethany Andrews, 18, of Tempe, Ariz., never imagined they’d take second place in the national VSA Arts Playwright Discovery Award competition for a play they were “forced” to write.

The Goal Was Graduation

“Get Ready to Walk and Roll” began life as a creative writing assignment that Amanda needed in order to graduate with her class from Corona del Sol High School in Tempe. Affected by congenital muscular dystrophy, Amanda missed two months of her senior year due to chronic severe back pain — “off the charts pain,” says her mother, Merlie.

Pain and back surgery already had forced Amanda to spend the bulk of her junior year at home. Finally, in January, she was able to return to school for the final semester of her senior year, armed with heavy painkillers and the “blessing” of only having to take three classes.

Unfortunately, one of the classes was Mr. Brugger’s creative writing class. Not that creative writing was a problem; far from it. Amanda’s writings had been filling up a box on her mom’s shelf since grade school, and she had won several writing awards, including the Columbia Scholastic Press Association Gold Circle Award in 2001 for a personal essay titled “If Only My Legs Worked.”

The problem was that Dan Brugger insisted she write a play, not a short story, and submit it to the contest sponsored by VSA Arts, an international nonprofit that challenges middle and high school students of all abilities to take an artistic look at how disability affects their lives. The winning play would be performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, and the second-place work would receive a staged reading of excerpts.

Amanda freely admits she “whined and begged” to get out of the assignment. She’d never written a play before, she protested, and she preferred to write about a character’s thoughts. Mr. Brugger held firm.

“I remember sitting next to his desk looking at the VSA brochure and it said you could write with a partner. My ears perked up,” she recounts. After the teacher agreed to let her collaborate on the piece, “I went straight home and called Bethany and said, ‘You have to help me graduate.’”

Hidden Disability

Bethany Andrews is another blessing in Amanda’s life. The girls first met doing volunteer work at the Christian bookstore where their mothers worked.

“When we found out we both loved to write, it just clicked in and we started writing together,” says Amanda. “She would spend the night at my house and the next day our moms would go, ‘What story did you make up this time?’ We’ve written about 10 stories together, not including our own stories.”

Bethany also sports an impressive writing portfolio, including a play that was produced by her high school. Together, she and Amanda are a powerful team.

“We know our strengths,” Amanda explains. “I’m the dialogue, she’s the describer. I think up a character, she finds the name. It’s amazing how our minds work together. We can be dangerous if we’re not careful! I love her, she loves me, she’s one of my best friends — we click.”

Bethany had written about people with disabilities before meeting Amanda, whose writing “trademark” is always to include at least one character with a disability, even if disability isn’t the theme of the piece. Both girls share a deep curiosity about the different ways that “God made people,” and were interested in portraying “hidden disability — something that isn’t out there like a wheelchair.”

Amanda is very up-front about her disability. Congenital muscular dystrophy manifests before the age of 2, causing muscle weakness that progresses at varying rates. Amanda uses power and manual wheelchairs, and part-time ventilatory assistance. She still has enough upper body strength to self-transfer.

As a child, Amanda was MDA’s 1992 Washington State Goodwill Ambassador, and 1997 Arizona State Ambassador. In high school she often gave talks at “awareness” assemblies about living with disability.

“When I came out here, did you see me, or my chair?” she would ask the crowd, unfazed by either answer. She notes matter-of-factly, “It’s a learning experience to know someone in a wheelchair and if they want to use me as a learning tool, go right ahead. I don’t take offense at that.”

She adds that she, too, isn’t “immune” to curiosity about other disabilities. “When I see someone with a disability, I have the same reaction as everyone else. I wonder about it. And at the same time, I wonder how they feel.”

Business Cards?

“Get Ready to Walk and Roll” was sent to VSA literally at the very last moment, then promptly forgotten in the rush of graduation. It tells the story of Haven, a high school girl who uses a wheelchair and also provides a kind of haven for other students who need a listening ear.

“Rule number 1 of writing is always ‘write what you know,’” grins Amanda. A self-described “listener who can talk to anybody,” she used to be called on by the resource teachers to help calm down kids in the remedial classes.

In addition to Haven, “Walk and Roll” features Dominic, a high school boy struggling with the hidden disability of depression. Haven wants to go to the prom, but is convinced no one will ask her because she can’t dance. The two help each other, and in the end she and Dominic go to the prom together, with him declaring, “Get ready to walk and roll!”

Amanda (who actually attended two proms) and Bethany were stunned to get a call in July saying their script had been selected from more than 170 works for a staged reading at the Kennedy Center on Sept. 29. In addition to the onstage production, their prize included $500 each and a trip to Washington.

Hearing their work performed caused the girls to “kind of cringe a couple of times, and go ‘we want to change that,’” says Amanda. But public reaction was extremely positive, and several people asked if they could produce the work at their own schools.

“A lot of people said it made them review what they think about disabilities,” she said, adding that others asked for their autographs or their business cards. “We’re like, ‘Cards? What are cards?’”

The girls would love to have the play produced by high schools once they’ve “fixed some things and added a little more.”

Future Plans

Having successfully graduated and added those feathers to their heavily feathered caps, Bethany is working and attending Arizona State University in Tempe. Amanda is at home “weighing my options” and banking on another back surgery this fall to relieve her unremitting pain, which makes it hard for her even to sit up. Meanwhile, the girls continue to write together and separately.

“There are so many paths out there,” Amanda muses, adding she’s sure writing will be a part of whatever she does. She’s thought about teaching creative writing, but at the moment her plans are simple: to “sleep in” and to “let God guide me to the place where He wants me to be.”