What matters to you? What worries you? What do you care about? What part of your story do you not see being told on stage, on TV or hear in your music?

The students of Granite Bay High School’s drama department were posed with these questions in early spring of 2018, by their drama teacher (Holmes) and musical director (Gomes).
The resounding answer: we are stressed, we are overwhelmed, we are drowning and we don’t feel like anyone is going to save us any time soon. For some students, the stakes were “go to a top university, or you are a disappointment.” For others, it was “go to college, or you are a failure.”

Students were encouraged to share personal experiences and submit monologues for Holmes & Gomes to consider as they shaped the story and the characters. As their contributions were reviewed, it became apparent that Ranked needed to validate teenagers’ experiences as the real, difficult, complicated, and painful experiences they are, rather than dismiss them as fleeting moments that would eventually pass.

Holmes & Gomes started working on a story with this concept, and their research led them to alarming examples of “whatever it takes” academics, from the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating Scandal to the Washington D.C. Graduation Scandal.

If students were feeling this pressure from their parents, teachers and one another, and adults were demonstrating on a national level they were willing to bend rules and break laws… to what lengths would parents go to help their children get ahead? The answer seemed obvious.

They drafted a story outline with characters, and wrote what they assumed would be their Act1 Finale - “World Keeps Spinning.” At a fundraiser announcing the following year’s season, GBHS graduating seniors performed the number for the community as Holmes & Gomes announced they would spend the next six months interviewing students and writing a musical.

On March 12th, 2019 three weeks before opening night, Operation Varsity Blues was made public, and the world was shocked to learn parents had been paying, bribing and cheating for their students to get into college. Holmes, Gomes and the students of Granite Bay High School weren’t shocked that it happened, it was the story they had been writing for a year. They were shocked that it happened right now.

After GBHS, Ranked was further developed as part of the UC Davis Department of Theatre & Dance’s “Catalyst - A Theatre Think Tank” (formerly Ground & Field Theatre Festival) by director Mindy Cooper. The musical has become a modern day anthem for stressed teenagers, and continues to find new homes in schools across the country.

“World Keeps Spinning” musical reveal at Granite Bay High School featuring graduating seniors Laynee Daniels, Olivia Caserta, Georgia Seagraves, Katie Hunter and Chris Gai

A Discussion with creators David Taylor Gomes and Kyle Holmes on the conception and development of Ranked