Our Story
Mission
Raise awareness about mental health and addiction issues, and reduce stigma surrounding mental illness and addiction.
Purpose
Educate people about mental health and addiction issues through:
theatre performances
programs at schools, businesses and organizations
educational workshops
in order to foster community engagement with these critical issues.
Our main offering is "She's Crazy: Mental Health & Other Myths", a musical theatre edutainment show that educates, uplifts, and inspires audiences to rethink the stigma surrounding mental illness and addiction. Topics addressed include depression, bipolar disorder, addiction, PTSD, and suicide. Through humor, personal stories, and songs, the three performers of "She's Crazy" bring healing and hope to audiences, changing minds and changing conversations. We have performed our show for people ages 14-80 at high schools, churches, universities, recovery conferences, fundraisers, a basketball court, a VA hospital, and theaters throughout Ohio, Kentucky and Pennsylvania. And now, we also offer our show, workshops and Q&A virtually through Zoom and other platforms.
History
"She's Crazy: Mental Health & Other Myths" was written in 2014 through a grant from the Cincinnati Arts Ambassador Fellowship Program. Our first performance was January, 2015. Originally intended as a show for theatre audiences, we were consistently encouraged to take our show out into the community because of the importance of the subject matter.
We have performed at 4 Recovery Conferences around the state, including the statewide Ohio Recovery Conference in Columbus in 2017 and 2019, to audiences of 700 to 800 people. At our Recovery event in Zanesville, OH we received a 3.98 out of 4.0 rating, the highest ever for any Recovery event.
We have done our show 25 times at the University of Cincinnati (so far). They bring us back to do our show for students in Academic Health majors each semester, with discussion groups after the performance led by our performers. Our cumulative rating from students for "She's Crazy" is 4.75 out of 5. We have also done 2 Orientation sessions, an Equity & Inclusion conference, and a Mental Health Action Summit for UC and Cincinnati area community leaders at UC.
We have done 4 events for the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). NAMI SW Ohio has reviewed and approved our script. We performed for a Cincinnati Association of Professional Psychiatrists event where attendees received continuing education credit.
Stop The Stigma Productions was incorporated as an Ohio nonprofit corporation in July, 2019. We had our first Board meeting in September, 2019. We then applied for IRS 501(c)(3) status, which was granted in December, 2019. We registered with Ohio in January, 2020. By forming Stop The Stigma Productions, we intend to expand the reach and impact of "She's Crazy" and create more shows. Our next show will be about trauma and its long term impacts.
How popular is our show “She’s Crazy?” 60% of She’s Crazy shows are repeat bookings, where a group or organization that books our show brings us back for a repeat performance or performances.