A few years ago, my daughter got to perform in a Stage Right summer camp production of 13: The Musical. The show’s dark humor and tween angst, and stunning performances by the young cast, made it one of my favorites. Here is a thoughtful essay written by the show’s creator, about one of the lead characters, Archie, who is bullied and ostracized for having a terminal disease (but who is not a one-dimensional victim character — he’s also manipulative, but it’s that very complexity that makes him such a wonderful character.

A couple of months ago, I got an email saying that a high school principal had told one of his students that they couldn’t do “13” for their Spring Musical because one of the lead characters in the show was a terminally ill child. I wrote the following piece and sent it to that student. Jason Robert Brown