Lockhart, E. Dramarama. New York: Hyperion, 2007.
Genre: Contemporary
Intended Audience: 14 and up
Personal reaction
This was the second book by E. Lockhart that I’ve read this fall, and I adored it. This novel recounts the friendship of Demi, a gay, African American teenage boy, and Sarah aka “Sadye,” a straight, white teen girl concentrating especially on the summer they were away at a boarding school for theatre arts.
Sadye (the narrator) and Demi originally come to Wildwood Academy with only each other as friends. They have met the winter before and saved each other from a life of mainstream “vanilla” boredom in their small town in Ohio.
Only with each other can they share theatre jokes and be outrageous and totally unconditionally supportive of one another. They are both equally talented enough to make it on Broadway, and this is the summer that will show them that. Well, it doesn’t quite work out that way. Demi is free to live life not in “straight-boy drag,” collecting romances and flings all while earning lead parts and bringing down the house. Sadye, however, is unsure of herself. She was really only talented at dancing, and now she has come to a summer camp where everyone has been doing this for longer and is more serious about it than she. More importantly, people like her directors keep trying to shut her up from her giving her opinion and trying to start a conversation. The summer is not like what either Demi or Sadye hoped, and it is a summer that will tear them apart.
I loved this book. I loved how insecure Sadye was, and it really wasn’t because of boys most of the time; it was about forming and keeping friendships, lying to herself and others about her own talents, and whether her voice (both singing and speaking) deserved to be heard. I was heavily involved in theatre in high school and wanted to be an actress, was fully committed to that lifestyle and future for five years (including summers at theatre camp!), and Lockhart nailed the teen theatre world. I love that not everything worked out perfectly in the end and that Sadye and Demi make up in the end, and also that when it comes down to it Sadye did learn a lot from being friends with her peers.
I would definitely buy this book for the library. It’s important on so many levels; the gay guy/straight girl friendship runs true to life (I can tell you from experience), as does the idea of speaking up and being confident, finding out that it’s okay to not be spectacular at something, and more. Plus, this is a standalone title, and I think it’s important to have those in your collection.
Author Facts
- Lockhart went to a summer theatre camp called “Children’s Theatre Company”in Minneapolis and another one at Northwestern.
- Lockhart says there will not be a sequel to Dramarama.
- Lockhart first started to think of herself as a writer in third grade when she wrote a “seminal picture book featuring an orange sleeping bag.”
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