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HEARING
VOICES
A play about mental health and mental illness.
As mentioned in Inside Higher Ed.
Hearing Voices is a theatrical showcase created by Samah Meghjee that centers around student experiences with mental health and illness. In 2018, Samah co-directed the inaugural show with fellow student Erin Oquindo. It has since evolved to represent specific and diverse members of the Emory community, highlighting Black Voices (Fall 2018) and LGBTQ+ Voices (Spring 2019) in its second year. In its third year it was again produced twice, first as Hearing Voices: Where We're Really From, which centered on the Asian-American/International Student experience, and then as Hearing Voices: Self-Loathing, Self-Love, which approached mental health by examining it under the lens of self-perception.
Below are photos of the inaugural production.
Photos by June Kwon.
Hearing Voices is a multi-medium, multi-locational performance art gallery focused on mental health and mental illness on college campuses. In the inaugural show, each of the five pieces in the gallery across campus were original pieces by Oxford students, ranging from monologues, large group scenes, movement pieces, and spoken word. They took place in the most intimate parts of campus that students interact with daily - public bathrooms, classrooms, and even students' own personal dorm rooms.
Duet scene inside of Samah's dorm room.
Fatima Elfakahany, a facilitation guide and the President of Ox Pride, leads a test group during a dress rehearsal.
Samah performing a monologue about dissociation in the mirror of a public bathroom in the Oxford College Student Center.
Each piece was intentionally curated to the space. One monologue, detailing a first year student's loneliness in their transition to college, was split among four separate actors in the same dorm room. The piece simulated that many students might experience mental illness with the belief that they are in isolation, but might not know that they are not alone. Facilitation by guides trained by Counseling and Psychiatric Services allowed for audience members to experience the show in intimate groups with significant and visible support.
An original scene, originally written as a monologue, performed in a double room.
A student performing her original monologue, accompanied by a corresponding movement piece.
An original scene, originally written as a monologue, performed in a large lecture classroom.
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