Do It

written by Kevin Seefried

“Do It” is a story about grief and shame that follows a family after a loved one takes his own life. The selected scene highlights the contrasting lives and mindsets of two brothers: one pursuing his misguided dream of being a motivational speaker and the other jumping to his death as a means of escaping a reality in which he feels like more of a burden than a boon.

I wrote the piece to explore the inconsistency in how people present themselves and the inauthenticity we’re forced to embrace for the comfort of others. The script is riddled with characters being dishonest to both others and themselves. A motivational speaker preaches about pursuing your dreams, despite his actively not working out. A widow mourns her husband with his family, while hiding how estranged she’s felt from him for months -- worried how exposing their rocky relationship will look now that he is gone. A child projects her deceased uncle’s attributes onto the puppy that he left her, incapable of  fully comprehending her loss. Do It is about how pulling one character out of the world exposes new truths about those left in it.

— Kevin Seefried

Since graduating with a B.A. in Writing for Film and Television from Emerson College, Kevin has split his time between Washington, D.C. and Brooklyn, NY, working a variety of jobs with organizations such as 826DC, West Wing Writers, and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. By night, Kevin works as a stand-up comedian. He’s performed in upwards of 20 states and the District of Columbia, including appearances in the Laughing Skull, Boston, Brooklyn, and Underground Comedy Festivals, amongst others. He also recently performed at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as part of the 2019 REACH Opening Festival. Kevin hosts From the Stretch: A Baseball Podcast. Kind Of, which features Kevin talking to comedians about baseball — not like analysts, but like fans (or in the case of a lot of guests…non-fans). In addition to both writing and performing, Kevin also has an extensive history as a live stand-up producer. He currently co-produces Taste Test Comedy, a nationally touring show that combines local food vendors with top-notch comedians and serves as the D.C. City Lead for Don’t Tell Comedy. In 2014, Kevin co-founded The Mendoza Line comedy show, which was voted “Best Live Comedy” by the Boston A-List  just 6 months after its inception.