Villanova Graduate Students present A Reading of A CASE STUDY IN DIAGNOSTICS AND EMPATHY

The Villanova Theatre Department is proud to present a staged reading of graduate student Ann Marley's new play A Case Study in Diagnostics and Empathy. This play was selected to be workshopped and presented as on January 27, 2018.

The world shifts when every living person develops a mental illness. A small community of strangers and family must fight through the chaos and learn to cope with their new symptoms. Emily, who was diagnosed bipolar previously, struggles to help her schizophrenic neighbor and her sister through panic attacks. Psychiatrists rob pharmacies of their medications. Suicides spread over the news. A family struggles to survive. With portraits of 7 different mental illnesses, A Case Study In Diagnostics And Empathy, asks us to reexamine how we interact with mental illness.

Playwright Ann Marley says, "This play comes out of my own anxiety about questions I cannot answer. Is mental illness growing? Or are we diagnosing it more? Where is the line that separates a mentally ill person worth saving and someone society might consider evil, a lost cause? How do we develop coping mechanisms? At the end of the day, I want to live in a world in which mental illness is not stigmatized, but treated with the same love and patience as physical illness and pain. Despite the many harmful aspects of mental illness, I believe that love is the most powerful weapon you have against all mental illness from depression to psychopathy. Love fights trauma. Love fights mental illness. Love fights abuse. Love fights violence."

The characters are designed to be textbook versions of their disorders in order to teach audiences about the basic components of several disorders commonly misunderstood. Marley says, "The focus of the play is not their diagnosis, but their relationship and the way they respond to each other. The play is meant to cultivate empathy for these diseases that are beyond the characters' control."

The cast graduate assistants Ali Curth (Emily) and CJ Miller (Garret); theatre alumni Kevin Esmond (Kurt) and Kasey Phillips (Eugene); theatre graduate students Megan Schumacher (Estar), Annalise Settefrati (Joanne), Kelly McAnally (Janet), Travis Milliman (Dealer), and Heather Lemos (Dealer), and; English graduate student Stephen Reaugh (Dealer). Vasey Hall is located on Villanova's main campus at the intersection of Lancaster & Ithan Avenues.

Tickets are free, general admission with a suggested donation of $5 at the door. All proceeds go to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Tickets can be reserved online at villanocacasestudy.eventbrite.com.

ANDREA RUMBLE-MOORE is a second-year graduate assistant in scenic construction at Villanova Theatre. She was an assistant stage manager for Electra and the stage manager for Little Women and Bedtime Stories last year. She was the lighting designer for the Studio Show We Must Share Everything, The Gambler, Bedtime Stories, and Gruesome Playground Injuries.

Ann Marley is a second-year graduate student and the Marketing and Public Relations Assistant at Villanova University and was the stage manager for Godspell this fall. Ann served as the Sue Winge Marketing Intern at the Arden Theatre Company last spring. Her plays have been produced at BoxFest Detroit, the Scranton Fringe Festival, Laurel Mill Playhouse and the Artist's Exchange. In April 2017, she presented her play Reclamation at Villanova University's Gender and Women Studies Conference. She was the dramaturg for productions of Guys and Dolls, Her Naked Skin and Gruesome Playground Injuries. She is also published journalist and photographer. Ann graduated from Susquehanna University summa cum laude with a BA in Theatre Performance and a BA in Communications, earning departmental honors in Theatre.

Villanova Theatre is a community of artist-scholars committed to transforming hearts and minds through the visionary production of classical, modern, and contemporary dramatic literature. Our work is fueled by the imaginative striving common to Villanova's accomplished faculty, versatile staff, and energetic graduate students. Together, we are devoted to creating a vibrant theatre enriched by and overflowing with the ideas explored in our classrooms. In all of our endeavors, we aim to share the dynamic experience of collaborative learning with our audiences in order to engage the intellect and stir the soul. As a facet of Villanova University, Villanova Theatre serves the campus community as well as thousands of theatre-goers from the Main Line and the Greater Philadelphia area.

Since 1842, Villanova University's Augustinian Catholic intellectual tradition has been the cornerstone of an academic community in which students learn to think critically, act compassionately and succeed while serving others. There are more than 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students in the University's six colleges - the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering, the College of Nursing, the College of Professional Studies and the Charles Widger School of Law. As students grow intellectually, Villanova prepares them to become ethical leaders who create positive change everywhere life takes them.

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