On Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Redwood’s Little Theater hosted the second performance of “Disconnected,” a piece written by the seniors of Redwood’s EPiC Drama program. The first performance was held on April 18, and further showings are happening on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. and on Friday and Saturday at 9:00 p.m.

The 40 minute show touches on themes of isolation and miscommunication in a manner prescient to the struggles of today’s youth. Its structure mixes brief anecdotes with longer scenes as well as solo monologues and group movement pieces.

Senior D’Angelo Romero, one of the eleven performers in the show, shared that “Disconnected” is subtitled “scenes from eleven voices.” As a member of the cast, he was also involved in the collaborative writing process.

“While writing, you learn a lot of things about the people around you. What you need to figure out is that everybody around you is having a horrible time in life, and ‘Disconnected’ is really about the exploration of the horrible times we all have, vocalizing it and putting it on a stage. In that way, I feel like it can connect to every demographic,” Romero said.

Because EPiC has existed at Redwood for many years, “Disconnected” was put on with aid from alumni of the program, who helped with light and sound. One notable aspect of the production was its use of music, including popular songs and an a capella number sung by the cast.

Senior Alissa Wallace, another performer in the show, articulated his interpretation of the inclusion of the electronic song “Trampoline” by SHAED and the dance sequence it is paired with.

“The scene with ‘Trampoline’ is about suicide, and having thoughts like the lyric ‘when I dream of dying, I never feel so loved.’ That scene is us looking at what happens when things play out the worst way, and the realizations it can make us have. There’s a transition to the characters understanding, ‘I want to live and make the most of my life, and I’m not going to just do stuff that isn’t meaningful to me,’” Wallace said.

Determining the choreography and movement of these scenes was as much of a collaborative process as the writing.

“Because there were so many minds working on this project, and so many things that needed to be communicated, we came up with a lot of different ways of expressing them. A lot of people in EPiC have a dance background, so we included movement pieces that we workshopped through. If you pay attention, or come see the show a few times, you can see a lot of intricacies and emotions at play. Although we have so many voices, movement is the universal language. The use of popular music in the show also grounds the scenes into the modern day, and almost makes it a period piece,” Romero said.

Senior Rowan Dawson attended Wednesday’s performance in support of her friends in the show.

“It was my first time seeing it, and I thought it was very good and had some really emotional moments,” Dawson said.

Seniors Kathy Rostker and Dila Koksal went with Dawson and had both seen the earlier performance.

“I thought ‘Disconnected’ was great. On the second viewing, I feel like I caught a lot more. It captures our grade’s experience and does a really good job of blending humor with the sadder aspects,” Rostker said.

Koksal found “Disconnected” impactful for its focus on both specific and wider teenage experiences.

“Everyone our age goes through these same situations, but we think our experiences are atomic, individual to us. But in fact it’s as a collective that we all go through these issues of becoming an adult and transitioning to new responsibilities. I feel like it was very interesting to hear from a lot of different voices on the subject, and that’s why I think the writing and structure worked — everyone has experienced this during their high school life,” Koksal said.

A scene towards the beginning of the show lightly mocked the difficulties of Zoom classes during online learning, displaying the disconnected way in which the senior class’s time at Redwood began.

“We’ve all been through a lot together and I feel like it really emphasizes the community that we built as a class. After so much isolation, it’s nice to see something like this where everybody’s kind of separate, but they all come together as well. I think it’s really beautiful,” Rostker said.

Romero staunchly refused to comment on the plot of “Disconnected,” encouraging students to watch the production instead.

“I could give you a brief synopsis on the show, but to truly understand the experiences and the disconnection that all of these people felt and you yourself felt, you have to come see it,” Romero said.