Olivia Lilli Bean

Liberal Studies, Focus in English and Art

Playwriting is something many actors and theater majors don’t embark on until their late twenties or early thirties. “Why so late in life?” people wonder. Maybe it’s because pouring your entire heart and soul into your own work is difficult. Many actors choose not to pursue playwriting at all, because they want to focus on acting opportunities. Perhaps they have a bigger fear in failure than getting cast in a bad role. For me, it wasn’t a fear of failure, but rather,  a way of turning bad coping skills into good ones. I wanted to make a point in the world of theater, one that may or may not be ridiculed, torn apart, or judged.

The point of theater is not only entertainment for people, but to get a point across to an audience, to bring big problems in the world to light, to change opinions and open blind eyes to the many problems my generation and other generations to come are facing. Racism, sexism, homophobia, corrupt government, social injustice, and these are only the beginning. Theater for me was an escape, a safe place for me to be myself in a community of socially awkward and backwards people. To be able to pour my heart and soul, all of my emotions into a piece of work that would cause people to open their eyes, make them think, maybe laugh and smile or change certain opinions was what I wanted to do with my life.

It wasn’t until my junior year in high school that playwriting was a given option to me by my director and mentor Kevin O’Leary, a man who in many ways I believe saved my life and many others’. I quickly set about my way of taking notes on every little thing he said, taking my peers’ criticisms and editing. My first play was based loosely on the death of my best friend and how I saw a suicide epidemic in front of my eyes that many chose to ignore because the absolute thought of mental illness frightens people, therefore people try to cover it up to hide from bullying, ridicule and judgement. Seeing my play performed before me by my peers was absolutely inspiring. It was at that point I knew I wanted to make a change.

Theater is not new, but it is now a growing horizon for my generation, the most diverse generation so far, to bring change into a growing world. Theater is scary. It is eye opening, it is meant to have bring a shock value to people, to get across a point, to teach. It is in hopes that the world will become a better, more open, accepting place. And I for one want to be part of that place.