A

Inaugural Peformance, "Shouting Voices Upon My Mind."

May I always be able to do what I'm afraid to do. Our performance day for drama had finally arrived. Two on Saturday; then two more on Sunday. Therefore Saturday and Sunday were spent in dress rehearsals from 9:30 AM through 10:00PM.

Certain actors felt pressured and went through stage fright. While other actors cried. Likewise one of my cast members, Laura Lagarda, cried after the third performance. I myself felt the atmosphere of pressure backstage, to the point where my stomach dropped as if I was riding an intense roller coaster. We're the opening act; what if we fuck up? The director, Shankar, and I crossed our fingers and hoped our audience would enjoy our performance.

I'm happy to be able to say "Shouting Voices Upon My Mind" was a successful performance. The actors had extraordinary performance. All those endless hours of rehearsing, bickering, tears, stress, pressure, for all of the sacrifice and dedication was worth it in the end.

It has been an honor to write,"Shouting Voices Upon My Mind." This playwright received a lot of good feedback and compliments. To my surprise a reporter interviewed me after Sunday nights after party.

This afternoon, my director surprised me when he showed me Imperial Valley Presses Newspaper. "Students showcase original working during inaugural performance." The picture showed an image of my cast embracing with the caption reading, "Actors perform the production Shouting Voices Upon My Mind." I embraced my director and screamed in overjoy! This is my first work in writing an inaugural production, and it was published! I felt pride in this work I created.

I couldn't have done it without inspiration. Shouting Voices is about family who comes face to face with adversity. In which the King family must decide whether the family will overcome adversity. Life isn't fair when Hope King is diagnosed with the mental disorder of schizophrenia. Angelina and Rome's marriage nearly falls apart. Irony appears a lot because their daughters name is Hope and their is no hope. In the end family sticks together. Even though Hope isn't cured, their family still has faith that she will be cured one day. This wasn't about a happy ending. It was about the story.

~Yours truly,