Review: BRAINSTORM: THE INSIDE LIFE OF THE TEENAGE MIND NOW STREAMING AND ON DEMAND at Coterie Theatre

The Coterie Theatre and the University of Missouri at Kansas City have teamed together to offer the virtual co-production of BRAINSTORM: THE INSIDE LIFE OF THE TEENAGE MIND, which is streaming and on-demand now through February 28. The program is suggested for families and grades 6-12.

Written by Ned Glasier, Emily Lim, and Company Three, BRAINSTORM combines scientific research, theater, and local teens to explain how the brain of a teenager operates. Directed by Amanda Kibler, with input from students at nine Kansas City area schools the 50-minute production is a unique look at the inner workings of the teen mind.

How teens think, feel, experience the world, and relate to their parents is presented in a format that feels more like a zoom meeting with occasionally cute graphic art than theater. Once the script was completed the BRAINSTORM company took it to middle schools and high schools for additional input and stories from theater students. I am sure the program is meant to educate and entertain the viewer, but I found it dry and tiresome, making me look forward to the closing credits (or is that what fast forward is for). Getting 6-12th graders to sit through the program seems very unlikely unless they knew some of the performers and then again that is where the fast forward button would come into use.

Marissa B. Tejeda, Declan Franey, Jessica Andrews, Meredith Noel, Franklin Wagner, JT Nagle, Sarah Ann Leahy, Erdin Schultz-Bever, Hieu Ngoc Bui, and Shannon Mastel make up the cast of BRAINSTORM: THE INSIDE LIFE OF THE TEENAGE MIND. Contact www.thecoterie.org for information on purchasing streaming or on-demand performances.

Screen captures courtesy of The Coterie Theater