Playbill: As Remi Bader spoke about her experience with mental health, Maya Days reached over and touched her arm.
It was a small gesture, but for Stacie Karp Weisbrot, founder of The Kind Mind, it captured much of what she hopes the organization can create: a space where people can speak honestly about difficult experiences and find connection in the process.
3 comments:
I think it is extremely important that we prioritize mental health especially in an educational setting. For years mental health has been a topic of discussion when it comes to school, college, or the application process to attend universities. So many kids get so wrapped up in their grades that they let their worth be defined by the letters on a homework assignment often leading kids into depressions and isolation. In a school setting where there is so much socialization bullying is unfortunately also a prominent problem which leads to many mental and physical health problems. Remi Bader speaks about struggling with an eating disorder and disorders like that are very common in teenage girls. It really makes you wonder how much that number would drop if these kids actually got the support they needed. That is why I think The “Kind Mind’s” mission to help kids who are struggling is so important.
I think the use of a Broadway show’s platform to spread awareness of mental health struggles is a great way to reach a wide range of audience members and further the destigmatization of conversations about mental health. In regional productions I’ve worked on, we’ve had similar talkbacks that have related to mental health struggles characters face. Therefore, I think that it is extremely important to utilize even regional platforms' scope to educate people on mental health struggles and to destigmatize conversations about it. I also believe that the use of art in general as an expression of mental health is a great way to educate others on the importance of destigmatizing conversations regarding mental health. My high school utilized AP Art, and students were able to choose themes to base their art around as a way to express themselves and their past mental health struggles. At the end of the year, we would show these pieces in an art show, which opened up conversations regarding emotional struggles in a setting where they might not be discussed regularly.
Teenage mental health is one of the biggest issues facing the country right now, and not enough people are talking about it. Often, theater is a place where people who feel left out, or don't feel like they fit anywhere else will go. It is only a natural progression that people thought to move mental health teaching and work into educational theater. This has the opportunity to transform teenagers' lives, to make them see themselves and other people in a better light, and possibly prevent heavy mental health challenges. I think that the idea to start with NYC schools is very smart. As one of the largest public school systems in the country, New York has many many theater programs, most if not all underfunded. This would possibly bring more attention to the programs and provide incentive for more donations, or funding allotted to these programs. Truly this is such an important program that will see a lasting impact on the theater community.
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