Erasing the Distance and the Asian American Suicide Prevention Initiative (AASPI) present “Falling Petals”

We are collaborating with AASPI to create a custom production shedding light on how metal health issues and suicide impact the Asian-American community.
Please join us for this inspiring event!

Falling Petals
Saturday, October 2
2:00 pm
at Stage 773 (Formerly The Theatre Building)
1225 W Belmont Ave, Chicago

Free and open to the public!
Show up early to secure your spot, and join our facebook page for updates on this show and more.

“Sunrise” (pictured) by Alfred Li Tsao will be among the artwork on display at the event.

This past spring, Erasing the Distance performed at a middle school by Midway Airport called Robert L. Grimes School.

Many of the issues we covered resonated with the students (7th graders) and their daily experiences (issues covered included depression, substance addiction, domestic violence, self-injury, eating disorders, and suicidal feelings). ETD suggested to the counselor and principal that we follow up our visit with a longer term residency program so the students would have a more robust opportunity to give voice to their experiences and get support and education.

The school has agreed, and Erasing the Distance will be in residency at Grimes this September through October 2010 on Tuesdays and Thursdays after school!

The residency will include collaboration with Certified Art Therapist, Danniel Anthon (pictured at left), who has over 20 years of experience in the art therapy community, and will be led by ETD’s Founder and Executive Artistic Director Brighid O’Shaughnessy.

See previous post (below, titled “Training people on mental health education through theatre”) to hear what students at a previous residency had to say about the experience!

Will You Stand Up? is a three part project designed to shed light on violence and its impacts on our individual and community health (including mental health).

This includes domestic violence, sexual violence, partner/dating violence, and emotional violence to name a few. The project is being done in collaboration with Affinity Community Services based in Hyde Park.

* The project begins with a community forum held on Sept 29th in Hyde Park to discuss violence openly and safely.

* It then leads to an original performance created by us at ETD sharing 6 stories of violence (3 men and 3 women, diverse in age and color) and its impact held on December 1st.

* The project wraps up between December 3 – 17 with free workshops/trainings held by local violence prevention agencies and specialists. The goal is for people to build awareness and learn tangible skills of how to respond to violence —- in their own lives and in their world. All three events are open to the public.

Are you interested in getting involved in this project? Contact Project Manager Julie Ritchey at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Executive Artistic Director Brighid O’Shaughnessy recently led these special projects:

• May 2010 – Grimes School – Brighid led an interactive training for faculty and staff at Grimes School so they can learn the signs and symptoms of mental illness, effective treatment options, how to help a student in distress, and how to separate myth from fact when it comes to this often misunderstood topic.

• Ongoing through spring — Brighid worked with AP Psychology students at Al Raby High School on Chicago’s west side. As part of their service learning credit, students learned about mental illness and engaged in the ETD style of interviewing and documenting stories from people they know. Read what students have to say about this project — Project at Al Raby.