Alex Moon Casts a Wide Net with SHS Drama

Born and raised in Scituate, SHS senior Alex Moon, is already an accomplished playwright and SHS Drama Club co-president after only seriously starting theater four years ago. Moon was first introduced to drama in eighth grade through middle school musicals. He later participated in productions at The Company Theater in Norwell, Massachusetts, where he met creative and professional people who inspired him to explore theater beyond acting. Moon began writing plays and doing technical work as well.   

At SHS, Moon works with his Drama Club co-president, senior Katie Norton, developing community outreach, fundraising, directing festival shows, and increasing the overall interest in the club. According to Norton, the two make a good team. “He brings so much creativity to every project we’re working on,” Norton said. “We’ve been friends for quite a few years. Because we have that comradery, it makes it so easy to get stuff done,” she added.

Moon directed his own play, “Purple Haze,” last year for the Massachusetts Educational Theater Guild (METG) Festival competition. To date, Moon has written fifteen plays, with ten being full-length (90 minutes or longer). Five of Moon’s plays were professionally produced, including “The Werewolves,” which was produced in Times Square over the summer of 2017. “Les Nuls,” which depicts a scene from the French Revolution, will be included in the spring curriculum of the SHS senior English course War Literature: Cultures in Conflict.

Describing himself as a “history nerd,” Moon said he enjoys writing plays that have historical connections. “It helps audiences to connect,” he said. According to Moon, writing plays that capture the essence of the time period requires considerable research. Moon said he prefers to pull his information from the library rather than the Internet. For a “bio” play written about the French playwright and actor Moliere, Moon read several novels.

Moon said he writes plays multiple times in order to get the story just right. Referencing “The Werewolves,” he said, “This is the third staged presentation of it in two years, and I think I’m just finally happy with where the script is–even though it’s been through seven, eight, nine drafts.”

Moon will always consider Scituate his home, but after graduating from high school, he is looking forward to a new environment. Moon has applied to several out-of-state colleges, including New York University (NYU), Fordham University, and Yale University. Revealing he is particularly drawn to New York City, Moon said he has friends who currently attend NYU.

After college, Moon imagines living in New York City; however, he’s not completely sold on one place or another. Explaining he could see himself living in Los Angeles or even overseas, Moon said he wants to write plays that make his audience feel happy and inspired. Moon would also like to travel all around the world, visiting Greece, Italy, and the Mediterranean.

When asked about any criticism he may face through his playwriting, Moon responded, “That’s my favorite part of it, honestly, hearing what I’m not doing well.”  Moon added, “What I really need is people to say this could be better and here’s how.” Moon said learning how to listen and “filter what criticisms are useful” is “something you have to learn as a writer.”

Moon was inspired to write this year’s submission for the METG Festival, “The Wreck of The Silence,” after he had success with last year’s production of “Purple Haze.” Moon said, “We wanted to do something similar but play up our strengths and weaknesses a little better.” Citing previous plays that took a considerable amount of time, Moon said he wrote “Wreck of The Silence” relatively quickly. “Between research and actually writing it, it was probably two or three weeks total,” said Moon. “We’ve added a lot of movement–it’s very lyrical, almost dance-like and a lot of sign language interpretation and some really beautiful costuming.”