Jake Benson '20

Theatre Arts Major

Playwriting

For my capstone project, I focused on playwriting. The project involved writing an original play, casting, and reading the script on the stage. The play is calledBrotherly. It is about a high schooler, Ryan, dealing with his anxiety and agitating brother, Steven. Ryan on the cusp of graduating and going through several things in his life.

I wrote this play to help the conversation about anxiety and mental health. A conversation that needs to continue to grow and be produced in theater. My writing generally involves mental health issues in some shape or form, but this is the first piece of writing that I have written with mental health as its main theme. This play deals with how people treat anxiety in a realistic way, but also gives a deeper meaning to people who are suffering anxiety themselves.

I wrote Brotherly not only for the conversation to grow in the theater community, but also to reach anyone suffering from mental health issues to show they are not alone. This is not meant to treat anxiety or mental health as one concrete example, but rather tell one story of someone dealing with mental health so others can share their story, whether through writing a play or telling their story to others.

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