If we do our job, you will leave the theatre with a better sense of community and a new perspective on mental illness. I hope you will start conversations about these subjects, as they are still very taboo.

The variable hard wired into the show is you. You entered the theatre as an individual and leave as a member of a community. Some of you will act, some of you added to the list. It is our intention to have a conversation with the lights on, to meet the audience with a hug and hold their hand along the way.

The playwright allowed us to stretch the fabric of this play around the performer and his life. In the improvisations with audiences early on we found that we had to practice, “radical inclusion.” How do we always make a positive choice in our interactions? How do we always make the audience feel loved and safe and heard? For example: If Ro wants an audience member to be louder in his interactions, he needs to set the example with his own voice. In the process of answering these questions I realized just how much this play marries form and content. The message that we learned as a rehearsal technique is also the core message of the play.

How do we make others feel? Set the example. Call that person you fear suffering from depression. Be kind and gentle one another. Stop and listen. As our playwright writes, “We’re all subconsciously affected by the behavior of our peers.”

There is brilliance all around us. We are in this together.

For my Uncle Bobby.

Every Brilliant Thing runs through Sept. 16 at Cygnet Theatre.