2001 O'Neill Show

2001's O'Neill Show, entitled "Everything from Soup to Nuts," was just that. It featured a wide variety of content that included poignant drama, sharply pointed political comedy, and a meaningful piece by Fred Vaughn about whether or not is is wise to disclose your diagnosis at a high school reunion, along with some of The Second Step Players' typical slapstick comedy. The show was woven together by a series of short skits collectively called "Scenes from the ER," in which a mother desperately tries to have her daughter seen in the ER for mental health symptoms. The skits this year were hard-hitting politically, jabbing at a system that was not supporting human beings the way it needed to. "Who Wants to be a Zillionairre" was a particularly pointed piece addressing everything from the 40% disparity in pay between state and nonprofit employees, (with nonprofit employees clearly coming out on the unwanted side of that equation) to the difficulties of reaching a human instead of an answering machine when calling for help. Rounding out the show was our first piece created to address issues of mental health treatment in an African American family who relied solely on the church and were very skeptical about mental health care, and the impact this had on a schizophrenic family member. This one was a doozy, chock full of funny, painful, socially conscious, educational theater.