Victoria Noe

Award-winning Author, Speaker, Activist

blogpage

Blog

Capital Fringe Festival

Grieving Your Friend Onstage

Grieving Your Friend Onstage
Jul 18, 2014 by Victoria Noe
capitalfringe.orgIt’s hard for people to express their grief in words. While crying may be acceptable in some settings, it’s not easy to find a setting to discuss your grief. And for young people, who have not experienced a lot of loss, it can be doubly hard.A University of Maryland theatre major worked through the loss of three of his friends in the only way he knew how: onstage.Brendan O’Connell lost three of his friends in a drunk-driving accident in the summer of 2011. One had been his best friend for 15 years, next-door neighbors who grew up together.His grief was compounded by the knowledge that he’d begged off riding with them that night. When he returned to college, he was,...