Local Artists for Mental Health Awareness Week

Press Release

11/10/11

Local Artists for Mental Health Awareness Week

It is national Mental Health Awareness Week this week (Oct 10 – 16). Established and emerging artists from five creative fields will be taking to the stage with a brand new multimedia theatre show that aims to change the way the public thinks about mental unwellness.

Since being awarded a reTHiNK Grant in May, The Literatti poets have been collaborating with Etched Dance Productions, artist Penny Howard, live musicians John McNab and Paul Williams and film makers from the public to create reTHiNK Possible Worlds. The show follows multiple characters as they journey out of mental unwellness and rethink their possible worlds. Madness is positioned as part of the human experience of navigating the maze of life. Reframed this way, mental unwellness becomes a character building, learning experience rather than something that need carry any stigma or shame.

Seven local performance poets have delved into their own lives to build the story. Etched Dance Productions have choreographed dance pieces for each poem in the story. John McNab and Paul Williams have composed a soundtrack which they perform live on stage to create a truly cross-genre theatre experience that reaches the audience through all of their senses. It all kicks off with a screening of the finalist entries from the public reTHiNK Possible Worlds film clip competition. Films came in from all over the world with one of the finalist entries being sent from Berlin.

40% of New Zealanders have already experienced mental unwellness, 20% of us have experienced it in the last twelve months. This means we probably all either know someone who has been through it if we haven’t been there ourselves. For reTHiNK Possible Worlds, some poets have drawn on experiences of family members and friends, others on their own lived experience of distress and recovery, but everyone was able to find a way to relate to the theme on a personal level. Cast member, Miriam Barr, says “This is a show about everyone, for everyone. Even people who don’t usually like poetry will like this. This is something truly different.”

As part of the national Like Minds Like Mine project, reTHiNK Possible Worlds gets the theme of mental health out into the community in a creative and entertaining way. The aim is to start conversations and challenge the stigma associated with mental unwellness.

reTHiNK Possible Worlds plays at Galatos on October 15th at 8 pm, October 15th at 1 pm and again at 5 pm. Tickets are only $10 from www.theliteratti.com. For reviewers comps and interviews please contact likeminds@mindandbody.co.nz. Mental Health Awareness Week events will be taking place all over the country for the duration of the week.

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