New Play at Playwrights Local Explores Mental Health Issues

Fri 5/20-Sun 5/29

Two of the area’s top theater talents are coming together for a special workshop production to premiere a new script for Playwrights Local and the Life Exchange Center.

The Phoenix Society was written by Peter Lawson Jones, a former northeast Ohio politician who found a new life in theater after his county commissioner job was eliminated. He’s acted in films, TV and on local stages, directed and written for theater. He launched that new chapter in his life in part with the encouragement of director/writer/filmmaker/educator/theater promoter Terrence Spivey, who came to Cleveland in 2003 to direct the Karamu House theater, where he restored it to its former glory during his 13-year tenure. Sine leaving Karamu in 2016, Spivey’s been in demand everywhere and he’ll be returning to Playwrights Local to direct this show at the Creative Spaces at Waterloo Arts.

The play addresses mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse and depression, and the connections between them. It focuses on a widower who returns home from serving in Afghanistan in denial from the mental health issues he’s dealing with and the people trying to help him. Another noted local theater person, actor and former Karamu interim technical director Prophet Seay, plays the role of the veteran Will Coulter.

The play was commissioned by Life Exchange Center (LEC), a peer support drop-in center to encourage members’ recovery from mental health and chemical dependency disorders. It says it hope the play will “inspire hope to its members, their loved ones, and anyone who has begun re-birth in recovery.” For those not dealing with recovery, either personally or among family and friends, the play can serve as a educational experience, hopefully instilling compassion for the struggles others face. Members of the LEC community also appear on stage as part of the ensemble.

Performances take place Thursday-Saturday @ 7:30pm and Sunday @ 2:30pm, through Sunday May 29. A $50 post-show reception takes place following the Friday May 20 performances at EMW Fine Dining Event Venue, 687 East 152nd Street; admission to the show is included.

Tickets are $20 for adults; $15 for students, senior and groups. Masks —surgical, KN95 or N95 — are required and will be provided free at the box office to those who don’t have one.

playwrightslocal.org/the-phoenix-society/

lifeexchangecenter

 

 

Post categories:

Leave a Reply

[fbcomments]