SA play tackles drug addiction and mental illness - WOAI
A San Antonio non-profit theater production company is trying to reach teens through the art of acting. They're performing a play this weekend that tackles everything from to drug abuse to mental illness.
It's called "Don't Pity My Party" and it's all about moving forward through very dark days. "You don't have to pity us anymore because we were getting it together," said DeeDee Thompson, founder of Mz. Dee'z Productions. "It may not be what you think but we get into it together from being pitiful to be it fabulous."
It's the sequel to the play, "Pity Party" which dealt with the emotional struggles that come with addiction and mental illness. "I've worked with kids for years and I was a troubled kids," Thompson explained. "So, it's like God is making me go back and do what I'm supposed to do."
Many of the actors have lived through some of the issues being tackled in the play. "I'm a recovering addict," said Michael Anthony Jackson. "I've been clean now going on seventeen years and I actually was homeless and I actually was incarcerated. So, what appealed to me was the fact that she's getting a message out. And once you see the production you can be like, wow."
UIW assistant professor, Doshie Piper, pushed to get the play on campus and uses it to help teach her students. "Coming during practices and watching them practice and picking out specific issues that [are] being acted out in the play and then taking it back to class and reflecting on it," said Piper.
Dee says putting on productions like this help kids see themselves in a completely different light. "I felt like kids that's what we do -- we act out. I acted out as a as a kid and I just know that there's so much in them other than what we see," Thompson said. "We look at them and we judge them before we know them. We look at how they look or what they have on or maybe some of their bad behaviors and we judge them from that. And that's not fair. So, we felt like we need to bring this out. And what better way...act."
There are two performance of "Don't Pity My Party" -- December 2 and December 9 at the UIW Mabee Library Auditorium.
Go to www.eventbrite.com for tickets.
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