Former Rockette and Broadway performer visits Bloomington to perform mental health one-woman show

Photo provided by the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – Former Rockette and Broadway performer Chryssie Whitehead is performing her one-woman show this Saturday at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.

Whitehead’s career has spanned both stage and screen, professional and amateur. Her show, “In my Own Little Corner: My Work in Progress with Bipolar Disorder,” is in Bloomington as the fifth stop in its six city tour. She performs the show with song, dance and projection of images relevant to her story.

The struggles of having issues with mental health is personal for Whitehead, it was something her and her mother both shared. Her mother died in 2013 and she was inspired to use her mother’s story to explain some of the failures of mental healthcare. Whitehead was diagnosed a short time after her mother’s death.

“I want to do right by her,” she said. “She did not get help through mental healthcare and denied anything was wrong with her health and took a turn for the worst.”

Whitehead explained her mother died by “slow suicide”, slowly losing weight and physically deteriorating. In the show, she portrays both her and her mother at different times in life.

The overall mission of the show, according to Whitehead, is to bring awareness to mental health and break the stigma around conversations. Whitehead explained how she hopes people see themselves in the show and understand mental health better.

She said, “We see ourselves in other people when they share their truth and not many people are willing to share their truth. I’m definitely doing that with my own life, my mom’s life…”

Development of the show has been over a two year process. Whitehead was approached by a producer for the show and she asked her friends to help her perform, direct and produce the show. Other notable figures include Dramaturg Ken Cerniglia, known as the Head Dramaturg of Tony and Grammy-award winning musical “Hadestown.”

The show also features a special segment at the end, which Whitehead and her team designed to bring the audience into the discussion and help take that first step into recognizing mental health. For this show, a local Bloomington art therapist is joining the talkback session after the show.

When audience members leave the show, Whitehead’s team collects “takeaway” cards to hear anonymous feedback on the show and its messages.

“We also have takeaway cards from the audience every single night, every single city,” she said. “Anonymously, ‘What’s your takeaway?’”

The cards are also on the show’s website for the public to read how audience members are feeling about the show.

Whitehead said her final goals for the show are for as many people to see it as possible, and she will perform it as long as audiences want to see it. Her final success would be to film it in New York City and sell it to streaming. However, she expressed interest in posting it for free on YouTube, to give it as much potential for viewing as possible.