When Vivienne Benes, artistic director of the professional theater company in residence at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, first saw the play Any brilliant thing years ago, she was struck by how well it tackled one of the most complex and pressing mental health issues of the 21st century.
“I thought, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen a play that brings up mental health and wellness and specifically areas around [suicidality] at the forefront with so much hope and sensitivity and connectedness,” she says.
The play follows a young child into adulthood as he struggles with his mother’s depression and attempted suicide, coping by listing things that make him happy – hence the title Any brilliant thing.
But it wasn’t until the COVID-19 pandemic forced people around the world into isolation, exacerbating an existing youth mental health crisis, that Benes realized how valuable bringing the play to campus could be. In partnership with other campus departments, the theater company, PlayMakers Repertory Company, staged the 60-minute one-man play on multiple UNC campuses and in various campus buildings.
The team behind the performances aimed to share the play’s hopeful lessons with the UNC community while helping them connect to wellness resources and share their own experiences with mental health in a post-performance discussion.
What is the need: In the latest Healthy Minds survey, which included responses from 96,000 American students collected during the 2021-2022 school year, students reported the highest levels of depression, anxiety and suicidality in the survey’s 15-year history. In North Carolina, suicide is the second leading cause of death for children ages 10 to 18 and the third leading cause for those ages 19 to 34. Additionally, UNC Chapel Hill and North Carolina State have been in the spotlight for suicide deaths among their students in recent years.
As suicide rates climb, campuses across the country are looking for creative ways to support their students, even as counseling centers are exhausted by record demand.
It’s not uncommon for universities to do this by providing opportunities for students to learn about mental health, often in the form of workshops, panels or lectures, says Amy Johnson, vice chancellor for student affairs at Chapel Hill. But art is another way to communicate with students about mental well-being—one that’s often underutilized.
“Art is a channel that we [had] they haven’t been used to this moment to engage in that conversation and foster that culture,” she says. “I think we all thought, ‘It’s going to be a little embarrassing, but … what an opportunity to have a conversation and bring our community and the arts together in a really wonderful way.’
This isn’t the only UNC project focused on mental health and suicide prevention. Carolina Across 100, a UNC-run program dedicated to community support throughout the state, and the UNC Institute for Suicide Prevention are currently partnering in suicide prevention efforts across North Carolina.
How it works: Although PlayMakers Rep is a professional company, it works closely with Chapel Hill’s theater department, including its acting students. These four students took the lead role in the play, alternating each performance. Other elements, such as set and lights, were sparse, adapting to the various settings where the play was performed – in the library, lecture halls and conference rooms with cleared tables and chairs arranged in a circle around the improvised stage.
Jeff Aguiar, director of engagement and education at PlayMakers Rep, says it was important for the team to bring art directly to students by staging performances in places they already frequent.
“I think the key questions in terms of site visits comes down to what would create the most engaging atmosphere for anyone engaging with this show?” he says.
Although there were concerns about whether the School of Information Systems library was large enough for the show, for example, they decided to stage a performance there because they felt it was a place that would be welcoming and familiar to the students.
The team was also diligent in planning other factors for the performance, such as teaching actors and other facilitators how to ask if certain audience members were interested in participating in the show, which featured numerous audience members in various improvised roles. Post-show debriefings were facilitated by members of the community who hosted each performance—say, an education faculty or staff member for the show hosted in the School of Education. Clinicians were also available to assist with the conversation if needed.
What next: The final show of the competition concluded on Wednesday, February 21, at the UNC School of Government. But the process is not over. Aguiar, who is also a doctoral student studying conflict analysis and resolution studies focusing on arts-based approaches to peacebuilding, is researching the effect the play has on audience members in partnership with the School of Social Work. The study used the results of surveys completed by attendees before and after the play, asking questions about how participants felt about people dying by suicide and what problems or issues would prompt them to seek counseling.
Responses are still coming in, and survey respondents don’t appear to be fully representative of the show’s audience, as the average age of respondents is 41. But preliminary data, he says, is promising.
“We saw significant changes in negative perceptions and stereotypes about suicidality, and an overall significant reduction in the stigma around talking” about mental health, he says. “To me, that’s the thing that’s really the innovation within the project is that we actually have quantitative data that we’re collecting to start building a statistically significant case.”
Has your institution used art to start an additional conversation about mental health? Tell us about it.
If you or someone you know is in crisis or considering suicide and needs help, call 988 Suicide and Crisis Helpline by dialing 9-8-8 or contacting Crisis text line via SMS HOME to 741741.
