Patrick Schweiss, executive director of the Sedona International Film Festival, recently brought “Every Brilliant Thing,” a theatrical one-character play, to the Mary D. Fisher Theatre in Sedona. The play deals with the issue of mental health and is an interactive performance with audience participation.

Additional performances took place from May 1 to May 3 at Sedona Red Rock High School, Verde Valley School, Mingus Union High School and Camp Verde High School. The play’s production coincided with Mental Health Awareness Month.

“I’ve been working for four years to bring this production of ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ to Sedona, as I wanted to deliver its life affirming message to our residents and our schools. I particularly wanted to do it with this actor — the extraordinary Michael Doherty,” Schweiss said.

Schweiss discovered “Every Brilliant Thing” at the Utah Shakespeare Festival when Doherty was starring in the production. Based on true and fictional stories by playwrights Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe, it opened at the Ludlow Fringe Festival in England in 2013 and in New York City in 2014.

Doherty said that the performance tells a highly compelling story in less than 70 minutes. While it’s quick, funny and well-written, he said that he continues to be surprised at the audience’s openness and their ability to comfortably discuss their personal experiences with depression and suicide.

Schweiss said that discussions of mental health are needed in the Verde Valley.

“Hearing some of these students share their personal stories, and that of their families, with Michael after the performances, showed that there is a need to address mental health in our area,” Schweiss said. “I think it affects many more people and families than we may realize. The principals at the schools also shared stories with me about how much a play and positive message like this is needed, as they are facing these issues firsthand in their schools.”

Administrator Reaction

John Chorlton, director of technology and sustainability and interim dean of students at Verde Valley School, said that his staff prepped their students prior to the performance.

“As the interim dean of students, I work with our mental health support staff. This is a small school, and we know the kids really well here. We know there are kids who are going to go into this with baggage,” Chorlton said. “It starts with communication and finding out if these kids are OK to walk into something they know is going to touch on a really sensitive topic. You can say, ‘Oh, it’s light-hearted, it’s going to be fun.’ But you know that the core nugget of this play is about something tragic and sensitive.”

Approximately 60 Verde Valley School students from the ninth and tenth grades attended. Sedona Red Rock High School had 350 students in attendance, Mingus Union High School had approximately 600 and Camp Verde High School had 385.

Kate Stanley, VVS school counselor and wellness coordinator, felt that the play’s subject matter offered an excellent way to discuss the issue of suicide.

“It was an excellent opportunity for the students to have exposure to the idea of suicide and suicide prevention in a way that appropriately brought up the seriousness of the topic, but also made it approachable and lively through its interactive nature, and some of the humorous kind of aspects of the play,” Stanley said.

“I have two sons, they are ninth- and tenth-graders, and their cousin killed himself,” Chorlton said. “They might have been too young to truly understand it. But they knew who their cousin was and they know that he took his own life.”

Paul Amadio, VVS head of school, spoke about an incident that occurred close to his home in the 1980s. Amadio’s father was superintendent of schools in Leominster, Mass., where 11 students died from suicide within months of each other from 1984 to 1986.

“It broke his heart,” Amadio said. “I just remember how the whole city didn’t know what to do.”

Chorlton said that he was impressed with the behavior of the students at his school.

“The kids here are pretty good at articulating how they feel and I was just impressed by them, the depth of their understanding of it and appreciation of the context and the content of it,” he said. “I know some of the kids who are struggling. I see the looks on their faces and they’re in it with Michael, you know. They’re in the story, and they’re listening, and they’re being entertained, but they’re being asked to explore their own experience, too and as it’s heavy, it’s beautiful.”

All of the area’s schools have mental health programs in place.

“We experience students who are in crisis and who need extra support and extra mental health services,” Sedona-Oak Creek School District Assistant Superintendent Deana DeWitt said. “We embedded some social-emotional support systems, and we have specifically hired extra counselors. Nationwide, the student-to-counselor ratio in public schools is pretty high. But we have made it a priority to have abundant counseling services and that’s something that we’ve made a commitment to do.”

Student Reaction

“I thought it was amazing because, for somebody who has personally dealt with mental health since I was 11, I think it’s really, really touching,” said Sophia Rizzo, a sophomore at Sedona Sky Academy, a therapeutic boarding school, who attended the performance at SRRHS. “It opens your perspective on real life, about mental health, because it’s a thing that’s not talked about a lot and a lot of kids deal with it. I feel like it’s a subject that should be talked about more. This gives kids the chance to go and speak up and express and get the help they need.”

“I think that the idea of normalizing, especially in public high schools, is really important and I hope this continues,” Sedona Sky Academy ninth-grader Daniella Mellman said. “I’ve seen so many people, friends, family, strangers, from anxiety, depression, you name it — a lot of people. Especially since after COVID and if we’re going to normalize mental health issues, I feel like this is like the perfect time.”

“It’s really powerful how they show how they persevere, but also how it’s not a fairy tale,” 11-year-old Fiona Berger said. “However, there are bad things that happen and part of why. I think it shows the power of a story and has a strong effect on people and when you make it heard, I think it’s amazing.”

“I actually lost one of my best friends to suicide in high school,” said Reanna Crittenden, a 2021 MUHS graduate currently Yavapai College student who was seeing the play for the second time. “So, I do know depression and I’ve seen it many times, myself. I feel I’ve experienced depression, but you know, everybody’s different and there are always ways to overcome that sadness.”

Michael Doherty

Doherty said that performing for the students at each of the high schools was a challenging yet rewarding experience and that he was amazed by the stories that they shared.

“At one of the schools [a child shared] they had done hospital stays in the last couple of years over suicide attempts and depression; another, whose father had taken their own life,” Doherty recalled. “That child who lost their parent was talking about, no matter how many times they hear, ‘It’s not your fault,’ which is aligned with the play, said, ‘I can never hear that enough. So I got to hear it today.’”

“You don’t expect a play to hit back close to home,” he said. “Talking about how much of a relief it was to have this topic discussed, just the idea of getting taboo subjects out of the dark, was Duncan MacMillan’s real goal with this piece. He said that this subject lives in the darkness and that’s part of the problem. So, to bring this into the light is what we need to do culturally and is the goal of this piece.”