Artreach
Theater Program
Artreach's The Second Step Players theater troupe has been performing original mental sketch comedy for stigma-busting since 1985. Since that time, they've expanded to include stand up comedy as well as a new project in 2023-2024 called The Waiting Room, a full length devised theater piece addressing racial disparity in mental health and healthcare.
Second Step Players
The Second Step Players Theater Troupe has been active since 1985. Co-founders Ronna Keil and SJ Williams had a vision for a theater that would both entertain and educate, and that consisted of actors, writers and production personnel who have lived experience with mental health issues.
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Now under the leadership of Becca Atkins, Emma Palzere-Rae and Carin Estey, The Second Step Players continues. New scripts are being developed, and the repertoire of early scripts stays in rotation (because we love them, and they're still relevant today).
One Person Shows
The Second Step Players launched a new performance venture: “The Second Step Players Go Solo!,” an evening of original, short one-person-shows. These works-in-progress were presented at the Chestnut Street Playhouse, 24 Chestnut Street in Norwich.
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The project was directed by Emma Palzere-Rae, a professional solo-performance artist, and theater director and playwright Kato McNickle, a longtime supporter and former employee of Artreach. Starting from scratch, each group member crafted a piece for presentation. Some are drawn from real-life experiences, some are imaginative fictions, and others blur the line between real-life and dramatic metaphor.
The Waiting Room
The Waiting Room is a new play exploring racial disparity in mental health and healthcare. This piece was devised by a group of professional actors beginning with a residency and workshop performance at The Dragon’s Egg in December, 2022.
In September of 2023, a second residency at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center brought the piece even more fully to life.
The script is almost there! Our performance workshop was very successful and led to great insights from the audience, and from the cast and production personnel. We hope to announce further development soon.
Stand Up for Mental Health - Connecticut Team at Artreach
In 2010, Artreach joined forces with David Granirer of Vancouver, founder of Stand Up For Mental Health. David's mission is aligned with our own - to develop self-confidence by learning new skills, and then to perform in order to change public perceptions about those who have mental health diagnoses.
Mining our mental health histories and transforming pain into comic gold, Artreach members perform their courageous stand up to inform and entertain.
David has worked with Artreach since 2010, developing new comics and helping continuing comics develop new work.
