Why I Fight

Due to the University of Michigan campus response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Why I Fight performances, panels and related events are all postponed. Dates TBA. 

Why I Fight, a theatrical adaptation of the 2019 Michigan Quarterly Review novelette by James Munro Leaf, dramatizes the perils of being defined by a mental illness and being caught in the psychiatric system. It probes the presumption of labels and the complex dynamics of power. Director and adapter Gillian Eaton leads a diverse cast and crew of faculty and students from U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance and U-M College of Literature, Science and the Arts, including actors Malcolm Tulip and Tommy Gomez, in this production at U-M Residential College Keene Theater. Dates TBA. 
 

Based on collaboration with the U-M Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research Program and other University units, panels on mental illness and the arts follow each performance. Panelists will expand on themes in Why I Fight and invite conversation with audience members. Individuals and family members who live with mental illness; U-M faculty conducting psycho-social, public health, and biomedical research; and practitioners in the arts will explore the roles of creativity and the outdoors in healing. Dr. Melvin McInnis, Director of the Prechter Program, and other U-M mental health experts, will moderate the panels.

A catered reception and information tables for community resources in the arts and mental health follow each performance.

Check out this short video exploring mental health obstacles that U-M students face with the healing power of the arts, created by Sophia Liu and Kelly Zhu under the guidance of Liz Goodenough: