Original. Unique. In-depth.

Custom Collaborations

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Erasing the Distance creates or co-designs custom shows for communities interested in exploring mental health and/or disability from different perspectives. Perhaps a community wants to explore mental illness and how it affects a particular ethnic or racial group, or how mental illness is connected to larger societal issues like violence. These shows are built from the ground up and involve close collaboration with the partnering group or agency.

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Examples of Custom Collaborations:

FALLING PETALS
A custom production created in collaboration with The Asian American Suicide Prevention Initiative (AASPI) to shed light on how mental health issues and suicide impact the Asian and Indian communities. Before the show, audiences participated in an interactive multi-lingual art exhibit. Falling Petals was remounted at University of Illinois Chicago and will be remounted again at Governors State University in the fall.

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STRONGER THAN SILENCE: SURVIVING OUR SECRETS
This theatrical collaboration with Community Counseling Centers of Chicago (C4) Quetzal Center featured stories from people who have suffered sexual assault and chronicled the impact it has had on their mental health. The show was staged at Center on Halsted during National Sexual Assault Prevention Month.

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WILL YOU STAND UP?
This three-part violence prevention project was a collaboration between Erasing the Distance and Affinity Community Services. Beginning with a community forum in September 2010, the project continued with a theatrical performance and community workshops on violence awareness and prevention.

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LAKE COUNTY CENTER FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING
Using interviews from LCCIL’s staff, board, and clients, Erasing the Distance created a custom performance chronicling the faces of the disability movement, which was performed at LCCIL’s annual fundraising gala.