text: Amanda Knox traveled to Italy to study writing. A few weeks later, the American college student became a murder suspect. Now nearly a year after she was convicted in a second trial by an Italian court, Knox has returned to writing, as a journalist in Seattle. 
   
   Knox has been working as a freelance reporter for the small West Seattle Herald for a few months, according to Web Editor Patrick Robinson. The Herald asked her to be a freelance reporter, but not because of her notorious status. 
   
   “We approached her originally to give her the opportunity of a normal life,” Robinson told The Daily Beast. “We simply asked her as we would ask anyone of that age and stage, if they would be interested in writing for us as a qualified writer of that scale and this level of journalism.” 
   
   In November 2007, Knox’s roommate, Meredith Kercher, was found dead in the house they shared with two other women. Authorities arrested Knox, boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito, and a bar owner and charged them in Kercher’s murder. In 2009, Knox and Sollecito were found guilty of murder. Both spent four years in prison before a court acquitted them in 2011 after evidence was thrown into doubt by independent experts. Knox returned to the U.S. following acquittal, but a court in January 2014 upheld the 2009 guilty verdict and sentenced Knox and Sollecito to more than 25 years. Knox has not been extradited to Italy while the case is appealed. 
   
   In 2012, Knox signed a book deal reportedly worth $4 million. A movie based on a book by The Daily Beast’s Barbie Latza Nadeau has been made into a movie starring Kate Beckinsale. 
   
   Knox wanted to write under a pen name at first, which the paper allowed her to do. 
   
   “That was purposely to give her the protection of that and to give her the opportunity. She showed us writing samples and they were good,” Robinson said. After she “got her feet wet,” Knox began writing under her own name. 
   
   Knox is covering everything from human-interest stories to local theater like a high-school production of Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. 
   
   “Amanda’s a very bright, very capable, highly qualified writer,” Robinson said, adding he was “flabbergasted” by how good her photography had become over a few months. “She’s certainly been through as lot and been very easy to work with and very interested and eager in doing stories.” 
   
   The Herald was obviously aware that their newest freelancer—an international celebrity and convicted murderer—would eventually generate outside attention. There was “some note of caution” attached to hiring Knox, thanks to the negativity from the case, Robinson said. But that wasn’t why the paper hired her, he insisted. 
   
   “It doesn’t matter what people say or think—the truth is that she’s a West Seattle resident, she grew up here,” Robinson added. “Why not give her the opportunity to be an actual human being versus a celebrity?” 
   
   That celebrity may attract unwelcome visitors, like people with cameras, but Robinson said all meetings with Knox are conducted privately. Though “she’s not hiding,” he added. 
   
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   As for the murder charges against Knox and Italy’s request to extradite her, Robinson said that’s not the newspaper’s concern. The outcome of the case has “little to nothing” to do with Knox’s relationship with the newspaper, he said. 
   
   “It’s really about giving a young, talented writer an opportunity at a normal life.” ||||| Amanda Knox 
   
   Behind the scenes: Cast and crew busy building the set of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead at West Seattle High School. 
   
   Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to be performed by West Seattle High School’s Drama Club 
   
   By Amanda Knox 
   
   With just over a week left until opening night, Literature and Drama teacher Andrew Finley and his cast and crew are busy sawing, stacking, and securing old wooden pallets into what looks like a horseshoe formation. Is it a hill? A castle? A balcony? A ship? It will serve as all of the above and be just what it is—none of those things. 
   
   Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is notorious for turning Hamlet on its head and questioning everything one takes for granted: time, space, identity, reality, fate, freedom. It’s a major theme that Finley is emphasizing in multiple ways. The set is clearly a construct, begging the audience to exercise their imagination and at the same time recognize the artifice. The characters from Hamlet—the King, Queen, Laertes, Ophelia, the players—will each be played by multiple members of an ensemble cast, so that the audience won’t be able to pin down characters by their most defining human aspect: their faces. As the script suggests, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern will be confused one with the other, but Finley emphasizes that confusion by casting a boy and a girl for these principle roles. “It’s this male character who’s played by a female actor. We never try to make her look like a boy, but we don’t make it obvious that she’s a girl either. There are a couple of moments in the play when the head player of the drama troupe that they encounter makes a couple of references to, ‘Oh, I’m always in costume…SIR,’ as if to say, ‘I can see through your costume. You’re clearly a girl, but we’re going to pretend you’re a guy.’ It’s part of this question of what is your identity and how can you tell? What do you know and what do you not know?” 
   
   
   
   Usually this kind of questioning seems to be a departure from practical, every-day existence. Any single person has a set name, job, friends and family. But Finley argues that high school is a particularly appropriate setting for exploring the questioning of reality and identity. “The other major theme is hopelessness, and I’d rather not hit that one so hard for the people who will largely populate my audience. I’d rather explore identity and how do you know who you are and how do you build an identity, because my target audience is in the process of doing that.” 
   
   There are a few things you should remember before seeing the show. “R&G,” as Finley affectionately calls it, is a re-envisioning of the tragedy Hamlet from the perspective of two minor characters. Finley recommends that you have a general understanding of the story and themes of the Shakespearean tragedy so you can get the most out of the references made to it. He’s even considering holding a viewing of the Mel Gibson film version of Hamlet for those underclassmen who haven’t read the play in school yet. 
   
   The other thing Finley wants you to remember is that R&G, unlike Hamlet, is a comedy. “If it’s not funny, you’re doing it wrong. If people walk in thinking this is Hamlet, it’s going to take them much of the first act to realize that, ‘Oh, wait, not only was what they said funny, but it’s appropriate for me to laugh.’” 
   
   Finley has high hopes for the production and every confidence in his cast and crew. “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead has always been one of my really favorite plays. I’ve always wanted to do this show and I’ve been waiting for the right group of kids. This year we’ve got it.” 
   
   Performances are scheduled for November 6, 7, 8 and 12, 13, 14 at 7:30 p.m. at West Seattle High School’s campus, 3000 California Ave SW. Tickets are $12 at the door, $7 with an online reservation. To reserve tickets, contact tickets@westsidedrama.com.
target: – Amanda Knox may yet be extradited, but for now, the 27-year-old has a new gig: writing for a small Seattle newspaper. Patrick Robinson, web editor for the West Seattle Herald, tells the Daily Beast that Knox has been freelancing for a "few months," covering human interest stories and high school plays—in her recent review, Knox philosophizes about how Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead questions "everything one takes for granted: time, space, identity, reality, fate, freedom." "Amanda's a very bright, very capable, highly qualified writer," says Robinson, admitting that she used a pen name at first. "She's certainly been through [a] lot and been very easy to work with and very interested and eager in doing stories." As for Italy's ongoing attempt to get Knox back overseas, Robinson says it has "little to nothing" to do with her standing at the Herald: "Why not give her the opportunity to be an actual human being versus a celebrity?" (Knox's ex-boyfriend changed his story over the summer.)