Jewish Women's Theatre Opens 12th Season with Moving, Personal and Hopeful Stories about Mental Health

Mental health is the foundation of healthy relationships, personal and emotional well-being and positive connections to society. But one in five adults suffers from mental illness and they, and the people who care about them, have important stories to tell. Mapping of the Mind, a new salon show from Jewish Women's Theatre (JWT), will bring these stories to life and just might change the way we think about mental health forever.

Opening at The Braid, JWT's art and performance space in Santa Monica on January 18 and traveling throughout the Southland until January 28, Mapping of the Mind takes a unique look at mental illness through personal essays, song, and poetry. The stories, told by a talented cast and directed by the multi-talented Susan Morgenstern, will present touching, humorous, and truthful accounts about the courage it takes to live with mental illness and the hope and strategies that can make the impossible possible.

The salon show will open at the Braid on January 18 and travel to the California Museum of Art in Thousand Oaks on January 19, the Westside on January 20 and 21, the San Fernando Valley on January 22, Mid-City on January 25 and the South Bay on January 26. It will continue at The Braid on Mondays and Tuesdays throughout January. General admission is $45, and $50 at the door, with a dessert buffet. For additional information and to buy tickets, visit: www.jewishwomenstheatre.org.

One thread that will run through the show is writings from the journals of artist Maury Ornest, whose work was featured in The Gallery at The Braid in 2018. His journals say he had "no hope but to paint" and this reflection touches everyone who sees his canvases, because they negate the severe darkness that was going on inside his head by bursting with light, color, joy-and hope.

In Mapping of The Mind, audiences will also meet a woman with post-partum depression who winds up in a psychiatric ward because she believes she failed at natural childbirth, breastfeeding, and the doctrine that teaches "motherhood is instinctive." There is a story from a former 18-year old Yale freshman whose bulimia fills dormitory toilets with vomit and blood until a newly graduated therapist takes her under her wing. Twenty-three years later, she still sees her, but now as an equal because this former depressed bulimic now holds her own Ph.D. in clinical psychology.

"Michelle Obama once said that the only shameful thing about mental illness is the stigma attached to it," recalls Ronda Spinak, JWT's artistic director. "Our stories should help abolish this stigma because the writers demonstrate that they have the same wants and dreams that all of us do: to work and to love."

Another storyteller takes us through three years of Yom Kippur services, where she goes from cutting herself, to suicidal thoughts, to deciding to save her own life because she has learned "life is precious. I can walk with my despair and joy together."

One woman, diagnosed with schizophrenia 30 years ago, was told she would never live independently and would hold only menial jobs. Her story shares the techniques she used to "find the wellness within the illness." The author, Elyn R. Saks, is now a chaired professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law and the holder of an adjunct appointment in the department of psychiatry at the medical school of the University of California, San Diego. Her story, Successful and Schizophrenic, first appeared in the Sunday Opinion section of the New York Times, and it now makes its first theatrical adaptation in Mapping of the Mind. Saks is also the author of the critically acclaimed memoir The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey through Madness.

Other storytellers whose work will be featured in Mapping of the Mind include Chef Rossi, a writer for many publications including the New York Post, Time Out New York and Bust Magazine. She is also the owner and executive chef of The Raging Skillet, a cutting-edge catering company. Comedienne/actress Annie Korzen, Robyn Goodman Mandelberg Ph.D. and Spinak also have poignant pieces in the show.

Mental illness, of course, touches not only the people who suffer with the disease, but those who love them. One Passover, for example, the grandmother of an anxiety-ridden autistic child tells her son, the child's father, that the family is not welcome at the seder this year because she doesn't want her special needs grandson exposed to her other grandchildren. The family decides to hold their own seder and welcomes other families like theirs. One grateful mom thanks them for the invitation, saying, "Thank you for inviting us. No one else does."

These are just a sample of the stories, poetry and song that make up Mapping of the Mind. In addition, all shows at The Braid are accompanied by an art exhibit at The Braid, featuring works by eight artists and therapists.

Jewish Women's Theatre has been voted one of the "Best Live Theatres on the Westside" three years in a row by The Argonaut, stages and displays traditional and contemporary works and educational programming that provide a forum for the development, performance and showcasing of Jewish artistic talent. Now beginning its 12th season, JWT's salon theatre of original dramatic shows, each written to a specific theme, displays the diverse and eclectic community of writers, artists and creators who celebrate Jewish life, one story at a time. Learn more about JWT at: www.jewishwomenstheatre.org.