Disrupted

Nicole Denise White – Interarts (School of Music, Theatre & Dance and Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design)

Collaborators: Tiara Partsch, – School of Music, Theatre & Dance; Elaine Cho, Katie Dutka, Nev Faulkner, Marta Frank, Naomi Rodriguez, Maddie Vassalo – Interarts

“Disrupted” plays with the translation of live performance and a one-woman show through the lens of an experimental film. Film and performance will intertwine with visual art and design creating a piece that reflects the inherent interdisciplinary nature of interarts majors.

One month before my freshman year in 2018, my father took his own life. I knew then that my journey of suicide awareness and prevention had begun as if my dad’s death had opened my eyes to the gross abundance of suicide as a plot point rather than a healthy talking point. From veterans, LGBTQ youth, trans-women of color, and white cisgender heterosexual men such as my dad, suicide is an epidemic sweeping our nation. I believe this piece will resonate with viewers in a multitude of ways. I hope they rethink their perspective on suicide and engage them with my perspective. For the past two years, many of us have had to face our mental health in a way we never had to before. Overall, I want to share my belief that life is worth living.

As a theatre-maker for 10 years now, I have been telling other people’s stories, and now is the time to tell my own and that of my father’s. There will be an invite-only screening in the Arthur Miller Theatre on April 19th and the piece will premiere online via YouTube on April 22nd.