Feb 1, 2017 4 min read

Sara Hamilton knew since she was in kindergarten that she wanted to be a writer, and she wasted no time trying, penning her first book, “Time and His Bad Chihuahua,” even before she knew how to spell.

For spelling tips, she turned to her brother, who, despite his best efforts, could not persuade Sara to change Time to its correct spelling of Timmy. “That’s how I wanted to spell it,” she said.

And why not? It was her book.

“When I would read books, I wanted to change them,” Sara said. “I thought I could do better.”

Maybe she was right.

The Peters Township resident is a junior at Lincoln Park Performing Arts Charter School in Midland, Beaver County, where her work will be featured in the Ensemble Immersion show, “Live From Idiot Box 106,” at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday in the Black Box Theater.

“The show’s content is always a closely guarded secret before performances, but it’s a valuable way for students to work together across disciplines to build relationships with fellow classmates and independently produce, rehearse and perform,” said Todd Goodman, artistic education director at Lincoln Park.

Sara also will be reading a TED Talk-style piece, “Logic and Creativity: How Your Art Follows a Predictable Formula,” at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Actor’s Studio during the Literary and Visual Arts student event.

Ensemble Immersion is an interdisciplinary student group that writes and performs two original shows each year. They team up with LAVA students to provide two days of a variety of artistic experiences. Each evening includes poetry, fiction and creative nonfiction readings and painting, photography and sculpture exhibits.

“For the past decade, LAVA and EI have each represented the best of Lincoln Park,” said Dan LeRoy, director of literary arts at Lincoln Park. “In both cases, you get to experience pure student creativity, including original writing, artwork, music, choreography and performances. This is an opportunity no other school offers, and it’s a huge reason students choose to attend Lincoln Park.”

Sara, daughter of Doug and Sue Hamilton, was toying with the idea of enrolling at Shadyside Academy in high school to play ice hockey, but opted, instead, to enroll at Lincoln Park as a freshman so she could major in literary arts.

“I thought writing was more important to me,” she said. “In a normal high school, you get to take maybe one creative writing elective. This is definitely a good way to prepare for college. You get to choose classes in literary arts, and the teachers really trust you. They know what you’re good at and what you plan on doing, so they plot a path for you.”

Sara is the news editor of The SIREN, Lincoln Park’s school newspaper, and is on the poetry staff of pulp, Lincoln Park’s award-winning literary journal.

Although she has participated in LAVA before, she is particularly looking forward to this week’s show because of her expanded role.

“I’m really excited,” Sara said. “Before, I read poetry and creative nonfiction. I’m giving a speech this time. At this point, I really enjoy essay writing, and that’s what my speech is about. It’s artistic in a logical way. … You can form it to be whatever you want it to be.”

Sara also likes to read, and often passes her hourlong one-way commute to school on the bus either reading or writing.

“I get a lot of stuff done on the bus. I read a lot,” Sara said. “I keep notebooks. All writers get these moments where they need to write. I have a lot of energy, and sometimes I just need to write my thoughts down on paper.”