At The Bolles School many students delve into artistic activities, in and out of class. Some students may draw at home, others participate in dance, and others write plays.

At Riverside Nursing Garden, Ria Joglekar (‘16) volunteers in the Junior Volunteer program usually two days a week. Every so often a play is put on in the auditorium that is in the nursing home.

It came around time to perform a play, but they realized that they needed one that wasn’t as long as traditional theater pieces. Joglekar came up with the brilliant idea of writing her own script.

This began Joglekar’s position writing plays for the Riverside Nursing Garden. Joglekar has written three plays that are all similar to traditional plays such as The Wizard of Oz and Beauty and the Beast.

The plays that she writes are about 40-60 minutes long and are performed for the community in the Nursing Home for the residents and their families.

The audiences aren’t huge for they have limited staff for actors and stage management. Many of the supplies they perform with comes from places such as Goodwill as well as they sometimes make costumes by hand at home or at the nursing home.

Joglekar really enjoys writing plays, but finds it hard sometimes to find time to write hour long plays and find and purchase all of the costumes.

The scripts include cues and long segments of writing for the actors to perform. One of the main difficulties was teaching the volunteers in the program how to act. It was also hard to learn how to use all the lights that come along with stage management.
While Joglekar gained massive amounts of community service hours for her dedication, the big benefits include are helping the community and providing entertainment for the elderly.