This project served as my final exam for my performing arts magnet

program at the end of my junior year. The prompt was, “create a piece of theatre.”
I knew that I wanted to connect my love of theatre with my love of science, so after
some extensive brainstorming I decided to create a piece inspired by the play
Angels in America​, specifically the character of Harper. Not only is her character,
an agoraphobic, Valium addicted, Mormon housewife a far cry from my own self,
but her benzodiazepine addiction really offered an interesting scientific research
opportunity I was excited to sink my teeth into, as I had never done a character
study from a deeply scientific standpoint, and had limited knowledge about just
how the science behind addiction worked on a micro level. So, I researched
different benzodiazepines, specifically diazepam, and how it would influence a
character’s mannerisms, personality, physiology, and health, especially since
Harper is implied to have triumphed over her addiction at the end of the second
half of the play, but is very much affected by her Valium “highs” in the beginning.
My final project consisted of me performing two of her monologues, her first and
last speeches in fact, in tandem with this animation/infographic I had created as the
culmination of both my biological and artistic research playing projected on a
screen behind me. It was meant to be shared with people with more of an artistic
background as opposed to a scientific one, so I had to simplify some things so that
it was understandable to a person with little knowledge on the subject, but I was
quite pleased with the result. Unfortunately my performance was not taped, but
below is the biological animation/infographic presentation that went along with my
monologues. I hope you enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBS93UllWeg

Note: I do not own any of the music, it was sampled from

the HBO miniseries adaptation of the play.