Mental Health and Musicals
“How are you?” is possibly the hardest question for people to answer right now. Since the Coronavirus pandemic began in 2020, our world has changed in unrecognizable ways. Mercifully, one of these changes includes a normalizing of discussions about mental health. Anxiety disorders have been identified as the most common mental health illness in the US by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America and yet only 36.9% of those adults suffering from this illness receive treatment. These sort of figures were screaming for change and we at Ripple Effect Artists are extremely pleased to see this change in society. However, discussions about mental health are not new in theatre and today we want to highlight two musicals that have addressed this issue beautifully.
Dear Evan Hansen
Dear Evan Hansen opened at the Arena Stage Theatre in Washington D.C. in 2015 following which it turned into an off-Broadway and subsequently Broadway production in 2016. The musical has enjoyed immense success and has been performed in Toronto and London. It addresses mental health in one of the most realistic settings, at school. A number of people recount high-school as being a particularly challenging time and most of us, whether we were popular or not, have felt that it was harder work than it should be. It talks about social anxiety, hints at Agoraphobia, and the extremely difficult theme of suicide. Although there has been much criticism of the musical as well, musicals like these are important. They are important because they spark a debate. The point is to reflect societal issues and questionable decisions in performances such as Dear Evan Hansen and as we go through our journey of destigmatizing mental health, theater such as this is crucial to the journey.
Next to Normal
Another musical that dives into the space of mental health and especially into the heavily stigmatized arena of bipolar disorder and loss of a child. Many people living with bipolar disorder never speak up about their symptoms for fear of being branded crazy or unhinged. Even worse off are the ones who suffer a mild version of the disorder but that which affects their perception of reality and makes everyday life extremely hard. In this play we meet a woman going through the former version and how her journey impacts the quality of life of her entire family. Next to Normal makes us look at the classic family in a different light and makes us ponder on how we truly never know our neighbors.
At Ripple Effect Artists we continue to be inspired by productions such as the two mentioned above. They inspire us to look within ourselves and come up with answers to questions we may all be asking ourselves in private. Our November production of PTSD and Me, was one such masterpiece. It went live on WPKN radio this November, with a fantastic voice artist bringing this monologue-format play to life. We received a fantastic amount of positive response to this play and that only showed us how much appetite there is for real conversations and experiences such as these. Follow Ripple Effect Artists for more announcements and let us know what you think!
Shelby Pickelny for Ripple Effect Artists. This article was contributed to the Ripple Effect blog by Shelby Pickelny in October 2020 in her position as an Intern with Ripple Effect Artists Inc. Ripple Effect Artists is committed to giving artists their dues and as such, this article has been retained under our new Editorial standards, albeit with updates.
