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November 18, 2000
"THE DANGERS OF EMPATHY" TO BE PERFORMED AT MEDICAL CENTER DECEMBER 1
The Community Mental Health Foundation is sponsoring a special performance of a one-act play "The Dangers of Empathy." The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Hackensack University Medical Center is a co-sponsor and host of the program which will be presented on Friday, December 1 at 7:30 p.m. in the Hekemian Conference Center, at the medical center, 30 Prospect Avenue, Hackensack.
"The Dangers of Empathy" is a performance piece that dramatizes the pain, tragedy and lighter moments of mental illness as experienced by a 12-year-old girl and her mother. Arthur Middleton, M.D., chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at the medical center said, "This play should help the general public to better understand the life experiences of both patients and their families in dealing with the impact of mental illness."
Creating art of their experience, writers/performance artists June Gross and Viesia Novosielski, (now 22 years old) tell the story of their path to understanding and healing.
In song, poetry, movement, drama and music, they present Viesia's struggle for safety and stability while clinging to the art of Vincent Van Gogh. The artists dramatize the Greek myth of Persephone, carried off to the underworld, and her mother, Demeter, searching for her.
Performances of "The Dangers of Empathy" have been showcased at The Somerville Museum, Brandeis University, Boston University, and the Georgetown University Training Institute, among other locations. Viesia Novosielski is a writer and artist affiliated with the Gateway Gallery, Brookline, Mass. and the Berenberg Gallery, Boston, Mass. June Gross is a writer and the former director of PAI, the Massachusetts Chapter of the Federation of Families for Children's Mental Health. Andy Zimmerman, guitarist, also performs the accompanying music, which he composed. Joel Gluck, director, has been performing in the Boston area for over a decade as an actor, director and playwright.
"I never thought that, one day, people would take my life, my family's life, and make it into a 'case history.' I thought that, with all her good qualities, and my love, and my hands, that Viesia could make it through, like I had done," said June Gross.
"With enormous insight, "The Dangers of Empathy" depicts the experience both of a mother who fears she's losing her daughter and a child's desperate struggle not to be lost.
"Psychologists and psychiatrists rarely receive such an opportunity to understand the full experience of their clients," said Phyllis Fisher, psychologist. other co-sponsors of this program are Care Plus NJ, Inc., Bergen Regional Medical Center, Intensive Family Support Services, and the Mental Health Association of Essex County. Tickets are $10 per person. Proceeds will help provide mental health services for residents of Northern New Jersey. For more information, please call the Community Mental Health Foundation at (201) 986-5017.
Hackensack University Medical Center
30 Prospect Avenue · Hackensack, New Jersey, 07601 · (201) 996-2000