All The World's A Stage [PLAY]

For this civic term, I was assigned to 'All The World's A Stage', a class in which we discuss various elements of theater. Our action project for this course was to develop a character, write a reflective monologue for our character and provide a detailed explanation about our characters' life circumstances. Our intended purpose of this monologue is to express our truth about an oftentimes marginalized oppressed community and perform it in a public space. My group created a play about college students living with mental illnesses and their diverse backgrounds that impact and/or affect their mental illnesses. My character Kenzie is an African American female living with depression. Kenzie is an introvert who has mostly suffered in silence since her grandmother died. Kenzie used to talk to her grandmother about everything from her depression to art and life in college. Lately, Kenzie's depression symptoms vary but, most days she feels as if she is glued to her bed and doesn't have any control over her own thoughts which are mostly negative. Luckily, art has been her saving grace because it keeps her mind and hands occupied enough to endure the immense of depression. Since her grandmothers death, Kenzie has struggled and lost interest in a lot of things. However creating art has become a necessity because it stops those dark thoughts from clouding her mind and from starting that sadness cycle all over again. Kenzie creates art, not for a grade, but for herself and for other people that may feel the same as her.