Well, I guess this story begins two years ago, when the McLean County Diversity Project produced The Laramie Project at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

The Laramie Project was about the brutal murder of an openly homosexual man, Matthew Shepard.

It was a very different as plays go, given that it was monologue-based and none of the characters really interact with each other.

I remember coming home from rehearsal, turning on the news, and hearing about gay rights protests happening all over the world.

Everything I saw and read in the media made me realize that our work was not only about an important current event but relevant when it comes to diversity and acceptance.

When we opened The Laramie Project, there was a lot of controversy because of the subject matter.

The audiences loved the performances.

I remember one of the tech crew at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts telling us something along the lines of: "Think about how much good you can do if one hate crime is prevented because of this performance". And I think about that a lot.

Coming off of The Laramie Project, we felt like we were on the top of the world and nothing could bring us down.

Last year we were ready to take on a new topic: mental illness, and The Project produced David and Lisa. David and Lisa is about a boy named David and a girl named Lisa, who meet in a school designed
for children challenged by mental illness.

David is under the delusion that if he is touched, by anyone, he will die. David struggles with an obsessive compulsive disorder. Lisa has split personalities.

It was a very real play in that it brought the stigma of mental illnesses to life for me.

On the final performance day of the play, the reality of it all hit home.

It was on Wednesday and I was at school. We were in P.E. class having a free day when we basically do whatever we want. One of my classmates has autism.

A couple of students were kicking around a soccer ball and by accident one of them hit him pretty hard in the stomach with the ball.

My classmate with autism started screaming in pain, while accusing the kids playing soccer of kicking the ball at him on purpose, when it was very clearly an accident.

This event reminded me of a scene in the play, when a teacher touches David. David starts screaming insults at the teacher and accuses the teacher of trying to kill him.

It was that moment, when I realized how very real this play is and how important it is to tell people about mental illnesses and to fight the stigma.

I learned that reality can be very different depending on one's perception. When someone sees things differently you should be willing to try to understand their perspective.

This was my second year working with Director Tricia. Last year, basically all I did was read lines when people were absent from rehearsal.

This year, I had to find all the music and sound effects for the play.
I then pieced them together on a CD and worked with the tech crews.

I actually felt like I was a part of something.

I've never seen anyone have so much passion for their art as does Tricia.  During rehearsal I'd occasionally look over at Tricia to see what she was doing and her face would be glued to the cast, watching their amazing performance.

Just looking at her, you could totally see it, her love for theater.

After the performance of David and Lisa, one of my friends who saw it said to me: "Dude, I never knew there were people like that in this world".

This comment reminded me of what the member of the tech crew said last year.

And honestly, I think we did a lot of good.