My name is Lindsey Ferrentino
and I'm the playwright of 'This Flat Earth'
'This Flat Earth' follows
 a 12-year-old named Julie
who's living in her town in her apartment 
with her dad, who's a single father.
And there's been a big event in their town.
This event has caused her to ask big questions
about the world and her relationships in it.
Is becoming an adult just
realizing bad things happen in the world  
and just being okay with it?
Or is becoming an adult changing that?
And wanting to have the power to change that.
Do we even have the power to change that?
Or do we just accept
that the world is full of chaos and
move on anyway?
This process at Playwrights Hoizons
is the first time that I got to hear kids
 in the play.
There's a simplicity and truth to
having a young person.
You can kinda speak your subconscious thoughts more.
You can be more direct about these
dark thoughts that you wouldn't say to anyone else
but kids can say.
This is a play that I feel like I'm asking
the biggest and scariest questions.
And I think
in the most direct way I've ever asked them in a play.
You know, I wrote this play three years ago.
I feel like I'm always trying to 
find my way into political stories
that sort of anger me.
Or make me really sad.
Playwriting is a way for me to get inside
those headlines and find personal stories within them
in a way that I'm not seeing in the news.
When you write plays in response to a political issue
there's always that risk.
You hope that the issues are going to get resolved
and that the plays are irrelevant.
It's a double-edged sword when they're not.
The conversation is good to still be having.
But we wish, I think we all wish
in the rehearsal room that we weren't
still having this conversation.
