Going back in time

Bright and outgoing, Olivia Vasquez bounded around the Grovetown Elementary School cafeteria Tuesday before the staging of her play.

The 9-year-old wrote, directed and acted in History Mystery, a play her teacher, Sylvia Martin, challenged her to write.

Martin, who teaches fourth grade, recalled one of her teachers challenging her to write a play.

"Olivia is so extraordinarily smart and talented," Martin said. "I remembered writing a play about Daniel Boone and I thought it would be a great project for Olivia."

Using her classmates as her cast, Olivia's play focuses on a group of students working on a history project who find a portal to the past in the woods.

"I love history and wanted to write something that would make history fun for the other students," she said.

The boys meet Walt Disney and his sister, Ruth. The girls meet Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton (played by Olivia), a nurse during the Civil War and the founder of the Red Cross.

After the show, before a crowd of about 250 pupils and teachers, Olivia praised her cast.

"They all worked really hard to learn their lines and get everything just right," she said. "I'm really proud of them."

As a first-time playwright, Olivia leaned on her experience as an actress with the Augusta Player's Children's Wing.

"I got a lot of good advice from people I've worked with," she said.

"They helped me to better understand the dialogue and character development."

Despite her love of theater, Olivia doesn't see herself becoming an actress.

An animal lover, she hopes to become a veterinarian's assistant.

Still, her stage days are far from over, she said.

"I might write another play during the summer," she said. "I know I'm going to get bored and that will be a good project for me."