WATERFORDrama director Shane Valle has no problem tackling producations that address tough issues.  He directed The Laramie Project in 2006 and 2013, which detailed the reactions about the murder of University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard who was tortured and murdered because he was gay. Mr. Valle also had his own students write and perform I AM, a play about the societal issues teenage girls face, in 2014. WATERFORDrama’s latest production is The Mental State.

According to the WATERFORDrama Facebook event, “this gripping, emotional, and thought-provoking play takes place on October 20-22 at 7:00PM in the Waterford High School Auditorium. Tickets are $7 for students and $12 for adults if purchased in advance or $10 for students and $15 for adults if purchased at the door. Tickets are sold at WHS during school hours or can be reserved by calling 860-437-6956 x. 7407. Appropriate for students aged 13 and above.”

The Mental State addresses the urgent and growing issue of mental illness in our society. The main characters are Andrew, played by senior Matthew McKenzie, and his mother, Angela, senior Kaitlyn Mangelinkx.

The two did not know what to expect before the first read through, but McKinzie said, “After we shut the back cover, the auditorium was engulfed in silence. You could hear a pin drop. I myself was totally speechless, so overcome with emotion that everything went numb. I thought to myself ‘I have never read a show so viscerally powerful in my life,’ because it really is so modern and relevant and real. It truly moved me. This show has the ability, if done right, to change lives.”

In addition to McKinzie and  Mangelinkx, the cast includes seniors Natalie Frascarelli, Liz Dusza, Taylor Houggy, and Isabel Umland, juniors Jonathan Dryden-Jaffe,  Andre Mastrandrea, Sam Amodeo, and Michael Macesker, and sophomores Nali Colon and Chloe Wilson. Class of 2016 alum Beth Lacey is the stage manager and freshman Alex Cole and senior Olivia Billis will assist her.

Written in 2014 by Josh Adell, a high school drama teacher at Campbell Hall High School in Los Angeles, California, this production is only the second of this play. Since the show is so new, the cast actually has the opportunity to email with Adell and ask him any questions they may have regarding their roles or the show itself.

Similarly in 2014, WATERFORDrama wrote and performed their own play I AM, where the girls cast were able to express their thoughts and create their own characters, and went to each other for help with developing those characters.

Senior Kaitlyn Mangelinkx, who was a part of I AM, said that the entire environment for this play is different. “[This time around we’re] trying to do justice to one issue, whereas I AM was all about creating something that expressed many issues [affecting girls and women].”

Mangelinx added, “This [production] is giving us a forum with which to reach out to the community and scream ‘you are not alone’. I hope we can really help some people feel understood, and help change some minds about the importance of mental illness and funding for mental treatment”.

The play looks at the lack of funding for community mental health services and the how overworked school systems are through Angela’s search in the rural town of Havenville, Kentucky to help her son Andrew.

While this play is fiction, the struggle of having and getting treatment for mental illness is real. Mental illness is not a disease that you can tell someone has by looking at them. This show gives people a voice. It can start some necessary conversations and broaden understanding of mental illness.