We Mourn Acclaimed Advocate Bill Compton

Bill Compton, a renowned consumer/survivor activist and head of Project Return, California’s largest peer-run program, has died at 61 after a long battle with cancer.

The following comes from Eduardo Vega, M.A., chief of the Empowerment and Advocacy Division of the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health:

“With heavy hearts we need to share the news of Bill Compton’s passing due to complications of liver cancer. Memorial services are being planned and will be made available as soon as possible.

“Bill was a wonderful, positive leader whose optimism, intelligence and zest for life inspired all around him. Bill’s work with Project Return the Next Step, informed by his own journey of recovery, transformed that organization and invigorated the Los Angeles client community and mental health provider system with a new understanding of the value of peer support.

“In addition to being an important national and internationally active leader in the consumer movement, Bill was an endlessly generous friend; his loving compassion, warmth and humility touched all who knew him.

“Bill’s contribution to the Los Angeles mental health community is hard to overestimate. Though he will be sorely missed, his personal legacy will continue to spread the message of hope and recovery for all for many years to come.

“Thank you so much, Bill, for the example of love, dedication and joy you brought to so many. Even as your personal symbol of the lighthouse, you will continue to serve as a guiding light for all those who knew you.”

See also http://www.mhselfhelp.org/pubs/newsletter_view.php?newsletter_id=32#news246

Posted by Susan Rogers

A Memoir of Schizophrenia

A new personal account of mental illness has been published. Elyn Saks’ The Center Cannot Hold chronicles the author’s experiences with schizophrenia throughout her lifetime. The book has been compared to books like Girl, Interrupted by Susannah Kaysen and An Unquiet Mind by Kay Redfield Jamison. The story starts with the beginnings of the illness present in her childhood and proceeds straight through to her eventual recovery.

Source: http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1656592,00.html

Acclaimed One-Man Production of “Man of La Mancha” Returns to the Stage

Two-Face Productions, Philadelphia’s 15-year-old theater company of people who have mental illnesses and their friends, will produce a one-man version of “[One] Man of La Mancha” on Grandparents’ Day, Sunday, September 9, 2007, at 2 p.m., at TheManhattanRoom, 15 West Girard Avenue (between Front and Frankford Avenue), Philadelphia. The performance, by Dean Patrick Carvin, will be followed by Carvin’s “Manic” at 6 p.m.

Ticket prices are adults, $45; seniors/students, $35; children under 14, $20. Half-price tickets are available to all who say, “I am a friend of Two-Face Productions” when purchasing tickets. For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, contact Steve after 4 p.m. at 215-739-5577. Tickets may also be purchased at TheManhattanRoom.

“Two-Face Productions has enlightened audiences throughout the Delaware Valley about the plight of people who have mental illnesses, and helped to lessen the public’s fears and misunderstandings about mental illness,” said Carvin, its founder and producing director, who named the company after his own diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

Carvin has garnered critical acclaim in local papers. For example, the LaSalle Collegian praised his “exhilarating performance,” adding: “Carvin gives a seemingly effortless performance of all 16 characters included in the original musical. He injects a great deal of humor into his performance through his portrayals of females and his impromptu ad-libs.” Another reviewer noted that he “was able to capture his audience with laughter while generating insight into [mental] illness.”

About “Manic: Portrait of a Bi-Polar,” the City Paper wrote: “In this appropriately titled show, one-man star Dean Patrick Carvin delivers an impressive array of characterizations with skillful and cohesive transitions to an ‘audience’ of imagined psychiatric evaluators. . . . [Y]ou’ll emerge with a new look at your own unexamined life.”

Active in local theater since 1976, Carvin has at least 50 shows, including half a dozen solo pieces, to his credit. Fourteen years ago, at the Shubin theater, he performed a solo interpretation of Thornton Wilder’s rarely seen classic “The Long Christmas Dinner” – portraying 90 years of one family’s Christmases – to favorable reviews. He also directed a full ensemble cast for the Old Academy Players (where Grace Kelly got her start) in East Falls. “Two-Face Productions did this on a shoestring, dressing 11 characters in period costumes spanning the years from 1850 to 1940, when the play takes place, with the help of the Arden and Wilma theaters’ costume archives,” he said. In December 2001, Carvin directed the Wilder play with a cast of people who, like himself, have mental illnesses, at Project Transition (a residence for people with mental illnesses in Warrington, Penn.).

For more information, contact dean.carvin@yahoo.com or Steve (after 4 p.m.) at 215-739-5577.