Michelle and Jin: Writing the Fall Play

By Paloma Rudnicki' 27

Mocktail and a Martini, the fall play being performed at the 2026 Fall Family Weekend, is the first student-written one in Cate School history. Michelle Wu ‘27, in collaboration with Jin Sun ‘28 and Patrick Wykoff ‘27, wrote the 11-scene show between early May and Outings Week in September, when the process turned towards rehearsals.

The trio, having participated in the fall plays for the past few years, wanted something new.

“We wanted to try a whole play instead of individual scenes,” explains Michelle. So, instead of finding a play, they decided to make one themselves.

“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do,” says Jin.

At first, theater director Mr. Harvey was hesitant to give the students so much work, especially since the majority of it would have to happen over the summer, but the trio persuaded him to give them a chance.

“It felt really surreal,” says Michelle.

The students, working with last year’s Advanced Theater seniors, Tree Payne ‘26 and Flora Adair ‘26, began to brainstorm potential plots. Originally, the play was set to be a romance, but they felt that it needed an edge to make it “spicy,” as Jin describes it. It became a murder mystery.

The students also began building their characters, an essential part of the theatrical process, whether writing or simply acting. With Mr. Harvey’s guidance, they created extensive backstories with niche details that serve only to inform their acting decisions. Some of the questions he had them think about included the characters’ screen savers or go-to coffee choice.

“I have to get used to my characters,” says Michelle about the difficult but rewarding part of being an actor, requiring thoughts about details the audience will never see.

“For my character, she is a Taishanese American. This is a very small district in China where many people have migrated to the U.S. or other parts of the world. I wanted to hone it on that cultural aspect, but it was fighting for attention with the main storyline.” 

There are a lot of details in the play that the audience will need to pay close attention to. Michelle explains that each line had to be carefully examined, and each object mentioned had to be cataloged to avoid plot holes.

“Writing it is actually a lot more difficult than just having the storyline down, because there are a lot of details in a murder mystery,” she says. “You have to track objects like, ‘Where does this coat go?’ Or ‘Where does this Ziploc bag go?’”

Thankfully, the script was fully completed by September, leaving the students involved with over a month to rehearse. 

“The best part of the process is when I shift gears from being a playwright to an actor,” Michelle says. 

“Mr. Harvey warned me that it's goin to be difficult to not want to go back and change lines.

But the best part is forcing yourself to interpret it as an actor.”

Mr. Harvey’s guidance was integral to the show’s success. Having someone with industry experience allowed students to feel both supported in their process and free to make their own creative decisions. When Michelle was worried about how certain lines would land, Mr. Harvey would reassure her.

“He will always tell us, ‘You just need the acting to make it fuller.’ And now that we've actually started to bring scenes on stage, I realized what he said was totally right.”

While the actors enjoyed having him help them, Mr. Harvey loved working with students to write the play.

“The fun part has been watching them see their stories come alive on stage.”

He added, “The best advice I can give them is to shut out all the other noise and really tap into their artistic brain, and don’t let others influence the story they want to tell.”

Another crucial step in putting on the play is bringing tech into the fold. Tech rehearsals began on October 3, with lighting, sound, and other special effects. The tech crew is the group that ensures the student vision comes to life, linking special effects to the words and actions of the actors.

Seth Lee ‘28 is the Stage Manager for this year's fall play, leading the tech team. He explains that having student playwrights makes communication among the tech, the director, and the actors more seamless.

“We get a better insight into what their vision for the show is, and it also helps us interact with the work better.”

While this was the first student-written fall play, it may not be the last.

“I would absolutely love to have students write again in the future,” says Mr. Harvey, while adding that he would use more of the school year before May to write the script, to allow actors to jump right into rehearsals in the fall.

When asked about plans for the next fall play, Jin hesitates.

“We'll see how this year goes,” he laughs.