Chelsea Davis ’23 has always enjoyed composing literature as well as English class, mainly because of the writing aspect. At Deerfield, Davis continued to pursue this passion of hers in both her sophomore and junior year where she began to focus on writing scripts. Passionate about creative writing, Davis will continue to study composition and literature at New York University (NYU).
Although Davis has composed a multitude of scripts, varying in length and description, her main focal points revolve around two genres: comedy and drama, aiming to incorporate at least one of these into each script. Davis focuses on human interactions and general relationships as she enjoys being able to explore and elaborate on those aspects of life. Inspired by human connections, she wrote her two most recent plays, Not Even You and We’re Okay, and her recent screenplay, Sit Still.
In addition to drawing inspiration from relationships, Davis has a running list filled with ideas and pieces of information that she gathers daily. She said that most of the time, her script ideas come from this document, which enables her to save her ideas for a later time, when she can incorporate her thoughts and notions into the well-thought-out scripts that the Deerfield community has experienced.
Although Davis has produced all of her own scripts at Deerfield, other students from the Deerfield community have read aloud and presented her writings. These individuals include Zoe Matias ’23, Caleb Levesque ’23, Koko Akpan ’23, Peter Shea ’23, Gavin Mariani ’23, and Greta Steever ’24. Matias played a main role in Davis’ play, Not Even You, at Deerfield’s very own Black Box Theater. When speaking with Matias, she described working alongside Davis and performing the script to be focused on “immerses[ing] you in the script with her plot and language.”
Many of Davis’ smaller pieces were written in her English class, and she began writing her latest big script during Winter Term for Deerfield Night Live (DNL). In the fall term, Davis constructed a ten-page script.
Davis’ writing talent has stemmed from her long-lasting love for writing. But, overall, she enjoys it because of its flow and because she finds peace and pleasure through expressing herself and appreciates how “most of the time they just write themselves.”
Davis loves reading her scripts and having them read aloud by others because it brings a new level of enthusiasm. In an interview with Davis, she revealed that when her scripts are read aloud, she “[wonders] what [will] happen next,” and it gives her the ability to feel like she is hearing the story for the first time, despite the fact that she wrote the script.
Beyond Deerfield, Davis will continue to pursue her passion for writing scripts as well as making movies and TV films in college and the near future. Peers, colleagues, and friends describe her as passionate and devoted to her scripts. Her dedication over the past few years to this hobby shows that she has what it takes to follow and accomplish her script-writing dreams.