On January 22, actress, writer, and comedian Shelley Marshall is bringing her award winning one- woman show Hold Mommy’s Cigarette to Niagara for one night only, at the JW Ennis auditorium at Centennial Secondary School in Welland, in support of mental wellness.
This dark comedy is an autobiographical account of Marshall’s family and their collective struggles with mental illness. The show delivers a brilliant night of entertainment through a story about triumph over tragedy, addressing family dysfunction with raw honesty. In the end, the show delivers much needed hope, healing and empowerment.
The show is receiving a great deal of support from E.L Crossley students, who have embraced mental health awareness campaigns after one of their peers took his own life late last spring.
“I thought the message was very strong,” said Amy Nyman, whose class has helped organize the event. “There is still a stigma surrounding mental health in our generation and older generations, and what we’re trying to do- and what the play is trying to do- is to end that stigma for future generations.”
Amy and her grade 12 classmates have been supporting the show by putting up posters, organizing and selling tickets, and other marketing and promotion. “We’ve been selling tickets now for a couple of months and it’s been going really well,” said Dayna McNeill. “People have been very supportive. Whether they are going to attend or not, they find it eye opening, because I think everyone knows someone who has been affected by mental illness.”
The students were also involved in a number of other fundraising activities to help promote mental wellness. “We sold colouring books and we raffled off a mental wellness basket,” explained Brooke Casey. “We also sold candles around Christmas time. We raised around $500.”
“Our school has obviously been through a lot,” she added, “and people were inspired by our desire to change things.”
And slowly but surely change is happening, say students Megan Hall and Kennedy Bridgland.
“All the resources we have at the school have opened up more since what we went through over the last few years,” noted Megan. “We’ve gotten a new guidance counsellor and a social worker who is there more, and even the guidance counsellors who are there to talk about academics are very open to discussing anything you want.”
Kennedy echoed those remarks: “I find that at this school students can have good relationships with teachers, and a lot of the teachers are willing to talk with students whenever they need it.”
Crossley students will continue to sell tickets as the show approaches. They will also be acting as ushers and ticket takers at the event itself.
Tickets can be purchased at Ticketscence.ca, or through Sue Kalchman at [email protected]. 100% of the proceeds will support health and wellness initiatives and organizations within the Niagara community. The show is a dark comedy and contains themes and language that may make some audience members uncomfortable
