A Playwright Is Back In Her Element

By Joe Scott

As a theater major, Kati Frazier could not have picked a worse time to graduate from UNCG.

The year was 2008, the nation's economy was tanking and unemployment was at an all time high.

"I was just looking for a full time job with office work or something I wouldn't hate," says Frazier who is a native of Hope Mills, N.C.

But when Frazier depleted the money from her savings account, she ran out of options and began working the late shift at a local Waffle House.

"I met lots of fun people working there, but every day I'd walk into work thinking, 'What am I doing with my life?'" Frazier says. "'I just got my degree, I know I'm talented, I know I'm intelligent, what am I doing with my life?'"

Working nights at a Waffle House was hardly the vision she had for herself when she started college.

However, the job gave Frazier the chance to write "The Last Year," a new play about the end of a long-term relationship. On slow nights, Frazier would often grab a notebook, sit in a booth and work on her play. It took her six months to complete it.

"It gave me a lot of time to do writing because when you're working nights on the weekdays at the Waffle House, you're just waiting on the next customer," says Frazier, who now works at Edward McKay's Used Books and More in Greensboro.

Frazier is currently producing "The Last Year" as part of the eighth annual Greensboro Fringe Festival and will debut the production on Feb. 6. This is her third piece performed at the festival and her first to be hosted on the main stage at City Arts Studio Theatre.

"The Last Year" focuses on Parker and Lori (played by actors Noah Daulton and Angela Chandler), a young metropolitan couple who've been sharing an apartment for eight months. On the surface, their relationship appears to be going well until a secret relationship Parker has with a male co-worker begins to tear it apart.

"I do think there are parts of their experience that do relate to my life, Parker's confusion and Lori's just weak and in love," Frazier says. "I think anyone can relate to those things, and I know there are things that I can personally relate to in the story."

Beyond a plot that challenges the boundaries of non-platonic relationships, the one element that distinguishes Frazier's script is its biting wit and rapid-fire dialogue.

"It's one of the things that we're working on a lot in rehearsals," Frazier says. "The script's in their hands, and some of the young college actors are used to talking and listening and thinking really hard, and I'm like, 'No we've got to keep this going, it's a fast play, a quick play. &ellipses;You can't really stop for anything."

When Frazier's play was accepted to the Greensboro Fringe Festival, she was relieved because it had been one year since she had worked on a theatrical production.

"I had been feeling really out of my element this past year, and I hadn't really done a lot of theater and I was losing my mind," Frazier says. "And so when (Greensboro Fringe Festival Producer) Todd Fisher said to me, 'Hey, you're in this year,' I was just so excited and relieved because I had been bouncing off the walls without doing any theater."

Frazier hopes "The Last Year" will do well enough that she'll earn the money needed to send the play off to other fringe festivals around the country. She would like to develop the play further and watch it take shape under the vision of a new director.

"I just want to take the script and work on it based on what I learned here and let someone else do it so I can get separated from my work," Frazier says. "I write things and I direct things, but I need to let the stuff I write go, and I need to let someone else direct it."

Last year I worked with Kati on another of her original scripts. I was Shannon in Virtue of Fools, which was also in the Greensboro Fringe Festival. She is a wonderfully talented playwright and a great director. I can't wait to see The Last Year.