Jacqueline Woodson, the only author to receive three Newberry Honor Awards, is admired by teachers and parents for her thoughtful books that resonate with students of all ages. Now, thanks to a co-commission from the Kennedy Center and the Orlando Repertory Theatre, she has adapted her book “Locomotion” into a family play.
Peter Kovac, director of the Kennedy Center Theater for Young Audiences, loved the story of a young person finding his way through poetry and got in touch with Woodson through her Web site. Directed by theater veteran Jennifer Nelson, currently the director of special programming at Ford’s Theatre, “Locomotion” tells how young Lonnie copes with his new life when he and his sister are placed in foster care in separate homes after losing their parents in a fire. The title is also his nickname.
“The most interesting part of adapting the book for the theater was being able to revise my gaze,” Woodson said. “I think of writing from inside out, but I had to go from outside in for the stage and still tell an engaging story. I had never met Jennifer Nelson, but we quickly connected when it turned out that her sister Marilyn, a poet, and I are good friends.”
Like Lonnie, Woodson found her creative voice in the fifth grade. She was scared of poetry until she realized it was like a secret code if she ignored the line breaks. Until an ordinarily grumpy teacher complimented her writing and the world opened up, she wrote secretly. Earlier, a poem she wrote about Martin Luther King Jr. was dismissed as being unoriginal; once it became apparent to doubters that she had indeed written it, she received her first prize, a Scrabble game.
Today Woodson cherishes many prizes, among them the Coretta Scott King Award received in 2001 for “Miracle’s Boys” and the Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Young Adult Library Services Association. Notably, she is the youngest person ever to win that award.
“I love the Coretta Scott King Award for what it stands for and the Margaret Edwards Award, which honored me with a breakfast my mother and grandmother attended,” she said. “My grandmother enjoyed herself, but she confided in me afterward that the food was not worth the ticket price of $75, even though it was good.”
Unaware that Woodson is one of the most beloved and best-selling authors of books for children and adolescents, her grandmother remarked in parting, “Now maybe someone will give you a job.”
“I’d love for children attending ‘Locomotion’ to realize their own power in words,” she said. “Lonnie realizes he has something to say and the right to say it. Each generation has something to give others, so I hope every child leaving the theater plans to go home and write, sing and do something creative today.”
