Last summer, I had the honor of interviewing Rita Cannon, the YPC alum who wrote the screenplay for MEAN (Watch Video). At the time she had no idea what she was going to write, and was very nervous about the challenge ahead of her. Jacie Knight (Founder/Artistic Director) had recently asked her to help out with the development of the play. Jacie had some ideas, but she specifically sought out Rita because she wanted someone younger and closer to the realities of bullying. To Rita, “help out” meant, you know, give her opinion, brainstorm, co-write some scenes maybe. But after their first meeting, Rita said she realized that “help” really meant “write the play.” Before she knew it, her name was on the season’s brochure: MEAN. Written by Rita Cannon. She knew she couldn’t back out now. But the cool thing was that even though Rita had never taken on such an enormous, important project before, she knew she could do it… because Jacie knew she could do it.
That is the magic of YPC: Empowering youth to reach farther than they ever thought they could go. I am proud to serve on the board of an organization that truly makes a difference, not just for the audience, but for the kids who are involved in YPC who grow into confident, talented, creative leaders in our community.
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