What do award-winning composer Jonathan Larson (RENT), Drama Pulitzer Prize recipient Tony Kushner (Angels in America), and Cathedral’s own Miss Katie Wilson have in common? The New York Theatre Workshop.

In late December, while most people were making their New Year’s resolutions and preparing for 2013, Miss Wilson was compiling her resumes, sifting through her favorite pieces of writing, and answering four essay questions.  She had decided to apply, “just for the heck of it”, for the New Play Development Workshop, which was created by the New York Theatre Workshop to help foster the creation of a new show.

And out of all the talented applicants from around the nation, the directors of the workshop chose her.

“There were only twenty-one people in the workshop,” explained the talented drama teacher. “I was actually the only one from outside of the New York/New Jersey area.”

Being the only West Coast actor did come with a price, though.  Miss Wilson ended up flying to New York in the middle of a blizzard.  “It was classic,” she said, laughing.  But once she arrived in the “Big Apple,” all thoughts of freezing temperatures and uncomfortable flights vanished.

Miss Wilson, who travels to the theatre capital of the country at least two or three times a year, felt inspiration flow into her as soon as she stepped off the plane.  Throughout her time in New York, she had the opportunity to see four new shows: two plays and two musicals.

The overall vibe of the city artistically reinvigorated and motivated Miss Wilson, but the workshop itself was the highlight of her trip.

In this exclusive workshop, the playwright-actors worked directly with the creators of a new show, participating in a version of experimental theatre.  They took part in many improv, or completely unscripted activities, and many creative movement exercises, ranging from dancing actual choreography to rolling around on the floor.

“In one exercise, we were given a YouTube video of this woman winning on ‘The Price is Right’,” Miss Wilson explained.  “We had to copy her movements exactly, turn those movements into a dance, and incorporate that dance into a scene.”

In the end, many of the developing show’s actual cast members used movements created by Miss Wilson and her peers.  Many directors and playwrights also took notice of the talented workshop participants, and two even wanted to collaborate with Cathedral’s drama director in the future.

Despite being sought after by prestigious directors in New York City, acting alongside Richard Dreyfuss, and having sandiegoplaybill.com call her original musical “lovingly and humorously written and graced with one beautiful song after another,” Miss Wilson is far from conceited.

“What a lot of people don’t know about me,” she began, smiling like a child telling an exciting secret, “is that I am an actor and a playwright.  I don’t talk about my professional life because I don’t want to intimidate students, or make them think that I have this preconceived notion of what ‘great’ means.”

From her trip to New York, Miss Wilson returned with a new vigor to further her personal writing and acting career.  But that plan doesn’t involve leaving Cathedral any time soon.  In fact, she is more excited and inspired than ever to bring many of the things she experienced at the workshop to the CCHS drama department.