Theater serves many purposes. It provides entertainment and acts as an outlet for creativity, but it also brings light to many issues. This year’s UIL performance gave just that in their play, “The Mental State.” The play tackled mental health and school shootings, bringing up situations that many tend to shy away from, all with the help of the actors participating. The play focuses a working class mother named Angela trying to help her schizophrenic son Andy Cady through high school as he struggles with reality and mental illness.

Freshman Ben McDanald played the part of Andy Cady. While practicing for the role, McDanald had to work hard to figure out the right way to accurately present Andy’s schizophrenia while performing.

“I decided that as a schizophrenic, Andy would have many ticks, like not making eye contact, constant fidgeting and different movements with his head and shoulders,” McDanald said. “Backstage I would do these to get into the right mindset of Andy Cady.”

The show taught McDanald that there is always another side to the story. Andy, who is a troubled kid, never meant to hurt anyone, but no one at the school is able to see that, they only see a child with a gun, not a child struggling with mental illness.

“Andy had serious mental issues, and couldn’t get the help he needed, which resulted in him getting killed because of a poor choice,” McDanald said. “He didn’t plan on hurting anyone when he brought a gun to school, but nobody knew that. 

McDanald said that the most rewarding part of being part of the play was spending time with the cast and crew and connecting with those involved in the show.

“I’m really happy that I got to work on this show with so many really cool people, and I am thankful for all of the fun times we had together along the way,” McDanald said. “I feel like as a group we really started becoming better friends on our cabin retreat the weekend before competition, which was super fun.”

Junior John Courtright played Michael Cody, the father of main character Andy. Courtright said preparing for the role took both physical and mental changes.

“A lot of my prep for the role [was] trying to find a middle ground between ‘angry alcoholic father’ and just being a good father, but just exhausted,” Courtright said. “Me and Katie Smith, who plays my wife, Angela, worked a lot together to establish our dynamic of being very distant from each other, getting torn apart by our different views on how to take care of our struggling son. To get into character, I took a lot of time before rehearsal just to focus on my physical elements such as my posture. Once I physically feel like him then the mentality soon follows.” 

Courtright said that the play opened his eyes to some of the struggles low-income families deal with, specifically with their children.

“As a school, the majority of us are very privileged growing up and don’t have to worry a lot about things like therapy costs and medication prices like the Cady family needed to,” Courtright said. “This show taught me that there are a lot of socio-economic injustices when it comes to mental health that need to be looked into not only by the providers of mental health care, but also as they play an integral part in the development and both physical and mental safety of their students.”

Sophomore Katie Smith, who played Angela Cady said the most challenging part of acting in the show was learning to utilize body language in order to tell the audience what her relationship to each character in the show was.

“We had to make it clear that my character had a healthy relationship with my son that was still strange, and the same goes with my husband,” Smith said. “I had never really done that before and this play really was my first straight play to do. This was outside of my comfort zone and learning those basic acting techniques was definitely a huge learning curve for me.”

Smith said to get into the character she listened to a specific playlist full of multiple worship songs that she imagined would be going through her character’s mind.

“I put songs in there that Andy would like in the playlist because I liked to imagine him blaring it in his room while I’m in the living room hearing it through the walls or songs that my husband in the play and I would be listening to together,” Smith said. “It really helped me get into her mindset since we opened the show with singing and it definitely helped tie it all together for me. One song reminded me of the entire show, it was about a mound of horrible things and using the strength of God to carry you through it, which is Angela’s mindset through the entire show.”

According to Smith, the most rewarding part of being in the show was the people and getting to build friendships with other actors that she knows are going to last for a long time.

“It’s been so magical,” Smith said. “The fact that I know that I have a group of people that are going to be there for me no matter what time or day it is is amazing. I’ve never been a part of a cast that is this tight knit and loving towards each and every person and it’s honestly something I will never forget. They’re amazing people who love what they do and I’m so glad we all have this unbreakable love of theater that brought us all together. Every single person in the show was there for a reason and it is such an impactful show that it just ingrained into me that everything happens for a reason and this cast met each other for a reason.”

Smith also says that performing a play like this holds a lot of significance, including raising awareness for people who cannot get the help they need and deserve.

“The importance of performing plays like “The Mental State” is to fight for those whose voices are being ignored,” Smith said. “It raises awareness for the people that have fallen under the radar and cannot get the help that they deserve. This show is so much more than words on paper that are being read aloud; it’s a call to action.”