https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/edinburgh-fringe-festival-shows-mental-health-comedy-theatre-depression-a8484236.html
"Putting on a brave face." I mean its what we do right? That question asked in the title of this article made my head spin! Although this article is mainly focused on acting and revolves around the Edinburgh Fringe Festival which isn't my particular field, I feel many of us could relate to this in one way or another. I have read so much on mental health within the arts, spoke to many people about it and heard so many different opinions. I also brought it up in a discussion group with fellow Module 2 students and they gave me many questions to work on which sparked my thoughts. So I thought I would open up and discussion on my blog about it too, to give people who weren't in the Skype discussion an opportunity to share ideas.
I have so many questions revolving around this area of interest for me. What area of Performing Arts am I looking at? Ordinarily I would focus on dancing as it is my area, however, having read this article it made me realise I can branch out more into different areas. Is there a specific person I can focus on? Or is it a group of people? What time frame in a career do I feel we are most affected by mental health in? Is it just when we graduate? Or is it three years after graduation? Or maybe ten? In order to answer this I need to find others opinions. I need to look forwards as well as backwards along my timeline. Speaking of timelines, I need to think about the historical context of this subject matter. Has the trend recently increased or decreased and why? I think there is a lot more publicity and openness to talking about mental health now which is great but does this correlate to the growth in people suffering with mental health? People may be affected for many different reasons and I wonder what these reasons are. Someone in my discussion group said they were affected badly by an injury. This is something I hadn't even thought of - I had just thought of things like the instability of this industry and lack of routine. I also wonder whether the rise in young people suffering from mental health issues is happening in all industries? Is Performing Arts more prolific than others or not? I spoke to someone who thought that this industry had had a positive affect on her mental health and felt it could give her everything she had ever dreamed of. Is this because she was successful? Is this just happening in the UK? Or is this happening all over the world? Someone else I spoke to suggested that this industry gives you an opportunity for escapism. Therefore she felt she could pretend to be someone else whilst working in this industry, which seemed to suit her well. And lastly, what are my own personal experiences? Maybe I wont share that on my blog for everyone to read!!
Wow - when I write it all down like that, there are so many things I am unsure of! Lots of work to do I think! Please comment and join in this conversation - even if its not about Mental Health these questions may be transferable to another area of wonder!
L xx
reading your blog has made me want to look into my 'BIG' idea in a more historical way. I am wanting to talk about the social wellbeing in primary schools, and as you asked yourself " has the trend increased or decreased?" I want to ask myself has the social/physical/mental well being of children got worse recently with child obesity been more prominent, is this something that has increased also and the correlation between them both.
ReplyDeleteA x
Hey Laura, I'm also looking into the health of dancers. These questions are really interesting and have helped me think more broadly especially in terms of not just focusing on the negative impacts on mental health but also the positive ones to!
ReplyDeleteShanice x