Eighth period may be the last class in the traditional school day, but for Charles Davidson (’21), it’s where his dreams begin.

Robinson’s Troupe 2660 theater class meets every eighth period, and they recently started preparing their showing of “Dystopia: a Teen Parody,” a one-act play that Davidson both wrote and directed.

Inspiration first struck for “Dystopia” in June of 2019, when he decided to write a satirical play influenced by the popular dystopians, keeping The Hunger Games and Divergent in mind. For two months, Davidson crafted play day and night in order to beat the deadline for the Be Original script festival in Orlando.

“Script writing is definitely a passion of mine” Davidson said. “I want people to walk away from the show feeling happy.”

“Dystopia” focused on one teen girl, Main Character, who must go on an adventure and overcome every teen villain stereotype ever, including zombie parasites, killer robots and more. The play is humorous, as is the nature of a parody, focusing more on zany laughs and one-liners.

Casting for the play was Oct 16, where Davidson was in charge of all the actors. Not only will he direct the play at school, but Davidson will be the director at the District Nine One-Act Thespian Competition, where Maureen Pelamati, the theater teacher, chose “Dystopia” as their submission for the competition.

The first performance at Robinson will be Dec 12 and 13 at the Holiday Showcase, where they will put it on during the second act.

“Charles is a wonderful student,” Pelamati said. “We have very big plans for this play.”

Davidson was first involved in Robinson’s theater community during his freshman year, where he was one of the few boys in Troupe 2660. His lifelong love for theater, combined with his interests in writing, left him with only one way to tell his story: a play.

“You have a lot more leeway with how you present things on a stage vs in a book because you have visual elements, auditory elements that you can’t achieve in writing a novel,” Davidson said.

Although Davidson’s performance of “Dystopia: a Teen Parody,” ends this year, his writing career does not. Playwriting may not be the end all be all for him, but Davidson plans on sticking to fiction and continuing to make his mark not only on Robinson but on the world.