Senior acting major and playwriting minor, Anahkah Ashanii Sims, is making her directing debut this fall with “The Boy Who Loved Pink,” a 90-minute original play about family expectations, identity and growing up.

Every spring, dozens of scripts written by senior playwrights are sent to Paul Amandes, associate professor and head coordinator of the playwriting program. Amandes selects two students to showcase their work in staged productions. Sims earned one of those spots for the fall. The other went to senior playwright major Finley Brisko, who will be debuting his play “Dream Role” in August. Production will start in early March of next year.

“What I look for in a play is if it’s well sculpted,” Amandes said. “It doesn’t talk too much or try to do too much, it dances through the poles of clarity and mystery.”

Sims’ play follows King, a high school senior who gets accepted to college on a student-athlete scholarship. While his mother encourages the opportunity ahead, his father is against it, favoring the choice for King to stay and work. While everyone in his life presses their own dreams onto him, a dark turn takes the story that will force everyone to confront themselves and what it means to live for themselves.

Sims has been writing stories since sixth grade, using them as an outlet while dealing with the stresses of growing up. Over the years, Sims found her voice and chose to minor in playwriting during her sophomore year after inevitably falling in love with it while taking a filler class to meet her curriculum requirements.

“When I was young, I used to write a lot of poetry, and that’s just how I got my thoughts out, that’s just how I expressed myself,” Sims said. “Playwriting came naturally, and it became another passion alongside acting.”

The title “The Boy Who Loved Pink” was inspired by Sims’ 10-year-old nephew, Kadrian, who was teased by relatives at age 5 for saying his favorite color was pink. They told him that boys can’t like the color pink and that it was a “girl color.” That moment stayed with Sims, who said she also felt like she had to change things about herself to appease others.

Sims said she hopes that when he gets older that Kadrian will understand her play more critically as a message that he can be whatever he wants to be, that he is loved and others’ expectations are not bound to him. This message resonates throughout the play.

“My main goal in creating anything is to connect with people,” Sims said, “It’s also to hopefully allow people to see themselves in situations that they never thought they could be in.”

The play’s main character, King, is being played by junior musical theatre major Kijani X, who found out about the play in his and Sims’ shared improv class. The pair also worked together on another play called “The Bluest Eye,” acting amongst each other and forming a good flow between each other in rehearsals. While auditioning for “The Boy Who Loved Pink,” X found himself drawn to King due to his journey of self-acceptance and ridding himself of expectations that others put on a person.

“That spoke to me as someone who is still trying to figure out who I want to be and what I want to do with my life,” X said, adding that he’s drawn to King’s ability to navigate constant dysfunction and conflict — a trait he finds especially compelling.

Marley Savarese, a junior theatre major, was assigned to be the head of stage management for the play in September.

Savarese said she has enjoyed working with Sims on this project. 

“She has such a clear and personal vision for this show, and it’s that passion and love that makes all of us want to be the best we can,” Savarese said. “Anything Anahkah wants in her show, I will make it happen.”

Amandes said he chose this play because he believes audience members will lose themselves in the 90-minute production, but the story and lesson will stay with them far beyond that. He hopes that after the show, people will be able to gather over a cup of coffee and discuss it among themselves, expressing their thoughts and what stuck with them.

“Not only could Anahkah maintain the energy, but build the energy through the arc of this play,” he said. “Anahkah is going to do very well as both a playwright and an actor. You want to see her while she’s free, while her play is free to go see. Come see it.”

The play runs at 8 p.m. for three nights, Oct. 28-30, at the Sheldon Patinkin Theatre, 72 E. 11th St. Tickets are free.

Copy edited by Vanessa Orozco