Hartford Stage to Host Free Panel Following Performance of THE ABSOLUTE BRIGHTNESS OF LEONARD PELKEY

Hartford Stage will host a free panel discussion on bullying and depression in teenagers immediately following the 7:30 p.m. performance of James Lecesne's The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey on Tuesday, April 11.

Finding Absolute Brightness: How Today's Youth Can Battle Bullying and Depression will highlight signs of depression, isolation, and bullying in adolescents and how family, friends and the community might spot risk factors before teens make negative, and sometimes irreversible, choices.

Laura Saunders, Psy.D. ABPP, a staff psychologist for Young Adult Services at the Institute of Living/Hartford Hospital and Clinical Coordinator of The Right Track/LGBTQ Intensive Outpatient program, will moderate the discussion.

Panelists include Lori Davison, M.A., President of PFLAG Hartford; Marisa Giarnella-Porco, LCSW, Co-Founder and President of the Jordan Porco Foundation in Hartford; and Jonathan Miller, 19, Founder and CEO of SaveOne, an anti-bullying organization in Greater Hartford County. One additional young adult, to be named shortly, will be included on the panel. James Lecesne will join the panel after the discussion for an audience Q & A.

The focus of the panel discussion mirrors the themes presented in The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, which centers upon the disappearance of a flamboyant 14-year-old who has been bullied by his peers.

The panel discussion (approximately 9 p.m.) is free to the public. To purchase tickets to the 7:30 p.m. performance of The Absolute Brightness of Leonard Pelkey, call the Hartford Stage box office at (860) 527-5151 or visit www.hartfordstage.org. Tickets start at $25; student tickets are $20.

For more information regarding the panel discussion, please call 860-520-7114 or email tmacnaughton@hartfordstage.org.

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