Skip to main content
Rain icon
45º

Performance, conversation on mental health coming to University of Michigan campus

The Keene Theater. (University of Michigan)

ANN ARBOR – A series of events focusing on mental health is coming to the University of Michigan March 26-29.

A theatrical adaptation of a novelette from the 2019 Michigan Quarterly Review by James Munro Leaf titled “Why I Fight” will take place across four days. According to a release, the play “dramatizes the perils of being defined by a mental illness and being caught in the psychiatric system.”

Recommended Videos



Led by U-M School of Music, Theatre & Dance faculty Gillian Eaton (creative director) and Malcolm Tulip (actor), the performance unwraps the complex dynamics of dehumanization, power and abuse in clinical settings.

Performances will take place March 26-29 at U-M Residential College’s Keene Theater and will be followed by a series of panel discussions with leaders of the U-M Heinz C. Prechter Bipolar Research program and other university units.

Like what you’re reading? Sign up for our email newsletter here!

The event is free and open to the public, and audience members are invited to participate in post-performance conversations that will feature U-M researchers, individuals and family members who live with mental illness and arts practitioners focused on healing.

Information tables highlighting community resources in mental health and the arts and a catered reception will follow each performance.

Dates and times:

  • Thursday, March 26: 7-9 p.m.
  • Friday, March 27: 7-9 p.m.
  • Saturday, March 28: 7-9 p.m.
  • Sunday, March 29: 2-4 p.m.

One hundred free tickets are available for each performance. To make a reservation, click here.

The Keene Theater is at 701 East University Ave.