Never Better

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"Put yourself in my shoes." Sunday, August 30, 2009 @ 3:40 PM Yesterday I rode the bus to New York to see Amanda's show. I had already read and adored the script, and I had seen Amanda read Jane in Act I of the show when it was first presented at the RCL Workshop, so I knew she was going to be phenomenal. The script, "Like We Wasn't People" by Chelsea Peluso, is mind-blowing and the writing is amazing. The story follows Jane, who is fifteen at the beginning of the show, and her years in a residential facility for "troubled" children and teenagers and then in a long-term psychiatric hospital. Jane spends most of the first act terrorizing her fellow inmates and trying to reason with her mother, who seems pretty much indifferent to Jane's imprisonment. The language is pretty shocking and there's a fair amount of violence. And it's all horrifyingly realistic. What struck me most while watching it, more than when I read it, was that the only time you ever see a patient - and these are children - being comforted, it is by another patient. The staff never speaks, except over a loudspeaker. They are never onstage, except to break up fights and administer sedative injections. The only people who care about the patients are the other patients. It flies in the face of the conventional wisdom, that "You can't take care of someone else until you can take care of yourself." I felt really inspired watching it, and riding the bus home, I just hoped that someday I would write something as powerful as that. I hope that Amanda is able to return to her blogging now that the show is over. 0 Comments: Post a Comment << Home archives / / blogger NetworkedBlogs Blog: Never Better Topics: writing, music, theatre   Join my network Content & Design (c) 2000-2009 KP

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