GOOD ENOUGH opens today!

We are so excited at Erasing the Distance because the world premiere production we've been working on for months, GOOD ENOUGH, opens today! Check out this link to read a great article about the show in today's Chicago Tribune.

We hope you are able to come and see this moving play about five remarkable women living with depression and bipolar disorder. Their stories are touching, raw, poignant, funny, and real. We couldn't be prouder of this production, and we can't wait to share it with you.

GOOD ENOUGH is sponsored by Rebecca's Dream and runs May 14, 15, 21 & 22 at 7:30pm at Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre. For more information, click here. See you at the theatre!

The cast of GOOD ENOUGH. Pictured l-r: Jennifer Mathews, Maggie Choumbakos, Meredith Siemsen, Katie Genualdi and Stephanie Leigh Rose. Photos by Cory Dewald.

Good Enough: A Story Shaper's Perspective

Welcome to fifth and final entry in our Good Enough Blog Series. Leading up to the world premiere of Good Enough this Monday, May 14, we are offering a weekly glimpse into the creative process behind crafting and staging a show that chronicles the true stories of five women living with depression or bipolar disorder. One of the most vital parts of our organization are the wonderful people that generously volunteer their time to transcribe, edit and shape our storyteller's interviews into theatrical monologues. This week, we hear from one such special volunteer - Nick Inzeo, who worked on the story of Lyn.

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I'm very honored I had the opportunity to transcribe and shape Lyn's story for Good Enough. My involvement with this story started with me transcribing the audio recording of Lyn's interview into a text document. Even while I worked on this aspect of the project, I felt an immense amount of responsibility to ensure the transcription was as accurate as possible. These words belong to another person. They were chosen by that person to describe a profound, personal journey, and it was extremely important to me that I respected that as much as possible. The process of creating an accurate transcription from an audio recording can be very meticulous...a constant loop of playing a small chunk of dialogue, pausing, rewinding, and replaying that same chunk of dialogue ad infinitum to ensure everything is transcribed correctly. I was mentally prepared for this, but I wasn't prepared for how much of an impression the tone and quality of Lyn's voice would have on me during certain moments of her story and how that would influence my approach to shaping her interview into a monologue.

I can't imagine shaping Lyn's interview into a monologue without having heard the audio recording of her story. On paper, the moments that carried immense weight and emotional heft in the audio recording do not appear to be as important because the impact of actually hearing Lyn tell her story is entirely lost when you simply read the transcript. If I had not been given the opportunity to listen to the audio recording from Lyn's interview, I don't think I would have been able to shape her story into the monologue it became. What really surprised me during the process of shaping Lyn's monologue was how clear the through-line of her story was. This was extremely helpful because editing an interview that lasted over an hour into a monologue that lasts for only a few, short minutes is difficult. Considering the time constraints involved, I challenged myself to edit and shape Lyn's monologue down to it's most basic elements while still maintaining the integrity of the story. I wanted to shape a monologue that told her story in as few words as possible while maintaining the emotional weight felt in her interview. Having such a well-defined through-line for her story was extremely helpful because it helped me choose what elements of her story needed to be included in order to convey her story effectively. Having heard her actually tell her own story was also very helpful. Moments I may have edited out for the sake of economizing my time were left intact because I had the opportunity to hear how important they were to Lyn. I firmly believe this helped me instill as much humanity into this monologue as I could while maintaining the simplicity I strived for throughout the entire process.

I'm very excited for Lyn's story to be shared with audiences and I'm honored I had the opportunity to have any involvement in helping it on its journey to the stage.

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Good Enough is sponsored by Rebecca's Dream and runs May 14, 15, 21 & 22 at 7:30pm at Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre. We hope you will join us! For more information, click here.

GOOD ENOUGH Promo Video

We are only a little over a week away until the opening of our world premiere production of GOOD ENOUGH. To find out more and meet some of the amazing women involved with the show, check out the promo video below!

Good Enough: A Storyteller's Perspective

Welcome to part four of our Good Enough Blog Series. Leading up to the world premiere of Good Enough on May 14, we are offering a weekly glimpse into the creative process behind crafting and staging a show that chronicles the true stories of five women living with depression or bipolar disorder. This week, we hear a storyteller's perspective - specifically that of Meagan, whose recently shared story is one of the five featured in Good Enough.

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I have truly enjoyed being a part of Erasing the Distance. I am so proud to have my story featured in Good Enough. I have always been the type of person to share my story, but it’s never been performed before. I have been so inspired by this process that I have been working with the Mental Health Association of West Palm Beach, FL. I had the opportunity to speak to AP psychology students to help them to understand more about bipolar disorder. Now they know what some of their peers and family members might be struggling with. I am scheduled to speak to women who have just been diagnosed as bipolar, and I hope I am able to show them what a gift it is. I have a learned more about self-control than most people, and that my struggles are life lessons. I also have a support system (therapist, family, and friends) that help guide me. So I really do see being bipolar as a gift and part of my life’s journey. I am so inspired, I am now working on writing a book. I always looked for a book that would tell me the things I really needed to know about being bipolar and never really found it. I am very excited to help others in their growing process of being in control of their life. I think people like the ones at Erasing the Distance are giving people what a book might have given me. Hope, and understanding that we are not alone and that we are “good enough.” Thank you to the beautiful people at Erasing the Distance! You’re changing lives in many ways.

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Good Enough is sponsored by Rebecca's Dream and runs May 14, 15, 21 & 22 at 7:30pm at Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre. We hope you will join us! For more information, click here.

Good Enough: A Director's Perspective

Welcome to part three of our Good Enough Blog Series. Leading up to the world premiere of Good Enough on May 14, we are offering a weekly glimpse into the creative process behind crafting and staging a show that chronicles the true stories of five women living with depression or bipolar disorder. This week, we hear a director's perspective - specifically, that of Good Enough director Genevieve Thompson.

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I think in my next life, I should be a detective.

I find that I am very interested in the research aspect of my directing work. In the past, most of my really successful work has been in historical dramas -- meaning, stories of fictitious characters taking place during historically significant times (ie, the migration from the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression or the centuries-old battle for land in the Appalachian mountains or the collapse of the British Empire in parts of Africa.) My preparation process for these projects has always been very research-oriented. I tend to read the play, make a very long list of questions, and then throw myself into research until all of my questions are answered.

I find that a slightly different preparation process is necessary for Good Enough. While I have certainly made my list of questions and researched the scientific aspects of depression and bipolar disorder (diagnoses, causes, treatments, prognosis, etc.), I find myself spending a lot more time looking for clues in the words of the text. My primary goal with this production is not to put a spotlight on the illnesses, but on the people, on their stories. Which are far more interesting and relevant to us than statistics, I think.

So, the first step I took was to read the complete unedited interviews. The main thing I was looking for were clues about who this person was. Their archetype, if you will. For instance, the things someone repeats over and over again? Those are the things that they don't feel heard about. Those are major points of frustration that no one seems to ever really get.

I studied the parentheticals. For instance, in the texts of the interviews, it says things like "(laughs)" or "(takes a long pause before continuing)." I consider each one of those parentheticals a clue. Those are what we call subtext. For instance, there is one woman who, whenever she says something almost unbearably painful, she laughs. But later in the text, when she is talking more lightly, it indicates that she begins crying quite hard. Or there is another woman who begins her interview with pause after pause after pause. In those parentheticals I find hesitancy. A desire to choose her words carefully. But later, as she seems to become more comfortable, her words come fast and furious and there are no parentheticals anywhere, just talking talking talking the story cannot come out quick enough oh my god finally someone is really just sitting there and listening.

After reading the full interviews, I was able to listen to the sound recordings of a few of them. I listened to the depth of the speaker's voice, the volume, the ebbs and flows of how they speak. I heard the women cry and laugh and was able to get a better sense of how they present themselves to the world vocally.

My final preparation is one that I do with almost all of my scripts, no matter what type of show. For each character, I create a chart. In one column, I list all the things the person says about themself. In the next column, what they say about others. In the final column, what others say about them. It is a tedious process, to be honest, but one that reveals so much about how to approach the performance of the piece. I look for repetitions and opposites. I look at the number of items in each column. Which column has the most number of things in it. For example this person has 30 things in the column What She Says About Others and they are all positive things, but she only has one thing in her What Others Say About Her column and it's negative.

Everything's a clue, when you get right down to it. I hope that I've found enough of them to properly serve the women who so bravely have shared their stories with us.

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Good Enough is sponsored by Rebecca's Dream and runs May 14, 15, 21 & 22 at 7:30pm at Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre. We hope you will join us! For more information, click here.

Good Enough: A Clinician's Perspective

Welcome to part two of our Good Enough Blog Series. Leading up to the world premiere of Good Enough on May 14, we are offering a weekly glimpse into the creative process behind crafting and staging a show that chronicles the true stories of five women living with depression or bipolar disorder. This week, we hear a clinician's perspective: that of licensed clinical social worker Lisa Sniderman. Lisa is a regular contributor to our blog, as well as one of our storytellers and a past member of our Mental Health Advisory Board. She presented a thorough and fascinating training workshop for the cast and crew of Good Enough, and we asked her to share her tremendous knowledge with our blog community.

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On March 6, I presented the first training I've ever done for non-social-workers. My audience this time was 12 ETD-ers, most of whom are actors in Good Enough, an upcoming show about five women living with mood disorders (depression and bipolar disorder). The experience held many lessons for me, as well. I had aimed to create a comprehensive primer on mood disorders, including ways to talk effectively with people in crisis. Honestly, I sweated a few bullets for the first hour or so of the training. I'd front-loaded it with densely packed information on medical diagnosis and treatment, and I was wishing I had led with something more scintillating and interactive.

Luckily, everyone hung with me, and several folks told me later that I'd given them some good information to soak up and digest. As I got to the part of the training about cognitive-behavioral therapy, and the importance of replacing negative self-talk with realistic self-talk, I was in my own mind going, "You're doing a fine job, Lisa. This training will be a learning experience." I was talking myself through talking about talking oneself through things! How's that for practicing what you preach?

Seriously, I've struggled with social phobia over the years, and it used to be impossible for me to get up in front of people. Or even talk in class. At my previous job, despite all the trainings and presentations I did routinely, the first half hour or so always brought on overactive bladder, desert mouth, and intestinal heebie-jeebies. So I took it in stride when I opened my mouth to begin the ETD training and found I had to forcibly unstick my tongue from my upper palate. In fact, I thought, "Actors probably understand this more than social workers!"

In the end, this training was a wonderful experience. It was fascinating to make note of which information was most (and least) helpful to the actors. Sometimes, those of us in "the field" get caught in a world that has little to do with what's going on outside our particular four walls (in my case, the emergency room of a large hospital). It can be easy to overemphasize someone's diagnosis, when that's not even an exact science. It can be even easier to rely on particular methods or "tricks" for interviewing people in crisis, rather than connecting via one's own human vulnerability. Throughout the training, I found that the energy in the room was coaxing me away from psychobabble and toward descriptions of the lived experience of recovery from mood disorders. That's definitely where my emphasis will be next time. That's where ETD places its emphasis, which is why I've been so drawn to ETD since its inception. Even though I have a mood disorder, I need reminders to respect other people's unique stories just as I respect my own.

To view the complete training presentation on mood disorders, click here.

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 Good Enough is sponsored by Rebecca's Dream and runs May 14, 15, 21 & 22 at 7:30pm at Center on Halsted's Hoover-Leppen Theatre. We hope you will join us! For more information, click here.

Good Enough

We are totally stoked here at Erasing the Distance to start rehearsals for our spring show, Good Enough. Look for a weekly blog series about the show to start next week, but in the meantime...mark your calendars! We are only performing four shows, and they typically sell out fast. Click here to save $5 per ticket with advance purchase. Look forward to seeing you there!