ALEXANDRIA BAY — When Zachery C. Rufa was missing weeks and weeks of school last school year dealing with an amputated leg, he decided to put his down time to good use.
He began to write. About 20,000 words later, in May, he e-mailed the resulting dramatic play to Katie Taylor, theater director at Alexandria Central School. He called it "10 Years Later" and used his pen name, Alex Erlking.
"I was kind of reluctant to show it to anyone," Mr. Rufa said.
Mrs. Taylor stopped Mr. Rufa in a hallway a few days later.
"I stopped to tell him I loved it but hadn't quite finished it," Mrs. Taylor, who is on leave recovering from vocal cord nodules, said in an e-mail. "He said, 'I'm still working on the ending.' It blew me away. He's brilliant. The play cuts deep and evokes emotions in all who have read the script."
It was quite a fete for Mr. Rufa, a senior, considering the high school had to start the planned drama production without a drama club.
"The ACS drama department doesn't really exist," he said. "We're really well known for musicals."
Mrs. Taylor directed a comedy/drama interactive dinner-theater show last year held at the Alexandria Bay American Legion. It also had a splash of music.
"I've directed 11 musicals since I started teaching here in 1997," she said. "Masquers, the drama club before my time, was very popular. I believe the teachers who advised the club retired and the program dwindled. There is definitely interest in drama at ACS."
The district's administration approved Mr. Rufa's play to be presented Nov. 6 and 7 at the high school auditorium. Mrs. Taylor said it's extremely rare for a student-written show to be produced at ACS, or at any north country school.
"Ten Years Later" is set in two different times: senior year 1999 and today.
"They meet 10 years later at a party," Mr. Rufa said. "It's about how they changed over the decade."
The seven characters in the play deal with various teen and grown-up crises, including alcoholism, drug addiction, teen pregnancy, gambling, physical abuse, sexual orientation and suicide.
"These kids have experienced some of these in some form or another and I thought it was relatable; a little scary even," Mrs. Taylor said.
Mr. Rufa, a National Honor Society student and the son of Anthony and Narelle Rufa of Alexandria Bay, said he based his two-act play on real life and things he's read.
"Real life is not easy," Mr. Rufa said. "There are problems."
He was born with one leg shorter than the other because his left leg didn't have a femur, the thighbone. His foot was where his knee should have been. He said after limb-lengthening and reconstruction operations didn't work out, it was decided by doctors that it would be best to remove the shorter leg and to use a prothesis.
Mr. Rufa called writing the play a "great catharsis."
"It helps me to get it down on paper," he said.
Mrs. Taylor, because of her vocal cord nodules, handed off her duties to substitute teacherLia Call.
"Zach is really running the show," said Miss Call. "I'm there to facilitate. It's cool to watch him and his classmates put this together on their own. I can offer input, but Zach has a pretty clear vision of what he wants."
"It's been a good learning experience and certainly not the last thing I'm going to write," said Mr. Rufa, who plans to study English and/or creative writing in college. "This kind of showed me 20,000 words is not that much. Maybe a book isn't such a challenge."
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The seven students in "Ten Years Later": Matthew Remington, senior; Tristen Durand, junior; Ashley Scott, senior; Scott MacPherson, senior; Justin Ward, sophomore, Jeremy Moench, senior; and Samantha Rogers, sophomore.
