Former Rockette and Broadway star Chryssie Whitehead visits Bloomington this weekend to spark conversations about mental health.
The triple threat dancer, singer and actress will perform her one-woman show, “In My Own Little Corner,” on Saturday at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts. Whitehead is touring with the production to tell her story about living with bipolar II disorder—a diagnosis she received at age 38 after her mother’s death.
To the average person, Whitehead’s 25-year career trajectory reads like a fairy tale. She got bit by the theater bug doing a community theater production of “A Chorus Line,” in South Carolina.
But there were lots of twists and turns, and ups and downs, on the journey from "A Chorus Line" in South Carolina to "A Chorus Line" on Broadway.
Friends and family noticed volatile life shifts. Whitehead didn't recognize anything was wrong until her mother died.
“My mom died of a slow suicide,” Whitehead said in an interview for WGLT’s Sound Ideas. “My life went from bumping into cameras, life is good, I’m ‘Chorus Line’ Chryssie, to my mom’s falling down in the streets. She’s not telling me anything, she’s losing a ton of weight, I don’t know what’s going on with her, she’s secretive and I’m scared. And then she died.”
Whitehead fell into a deep depression and sought support from a therapist.
“I was very alone in my head,” she said. “I didn’t want to be here. Luckily, I didn’t get too far down in the hole that I was still able to see that this person I was being, I didn’t recognize.”
“In My Own Little Corner” shares Whitehead’s personal stories from her early dance training and career on stage, television and film. She tells her mother’s story and details her own journey with mental illness.
“This isn’t Chryssie Whitehead coming back out to have a Broadway show,” she said. “If it gets to Broadway, great. That means more people will see it. Because the mission for our show is just to normalize conversations around mental health.”
This Saturday's show, directed and choreographed by Bryan Knowlton and set to live music orchestrated by Nick Wilders, is part of a six-city tour that includes community engagement with local therapists and agencies. Integrity Counseling and Creative Healing Art Therapy will be on hand for talk-back after the show and free tickets are available for mental health professionals. When the tour ends, Whitehead has three engagements booked in New York City.
“It’s catharsis,” Whitehead said. "I am different talking about the show today. The more I practice—I say practice makes confidence, not perfect—the more I do the show, the more healing it is for me.”
But she’s not sure she wants to do it forever.
“I think there is going to come a time where I’m like—I think I’m good," said Whitehouse.
The production team behind “In My Own Little Corner” has plans to film the show so it can continue after Whitehead reaches that point. In the meantime, she’s staying accountable for looking after her mental health while touring a show about mental health.
“I practice my daily routines,” she said, which involves a healthy lifestyle including meditation, refraining from alcohol, nutritious food and plenty of water.
“I’m not perfect,” she said. “I just set myself up to do the best I can that day. One day is going to be better than another, and that’s OK. The show keeps me accountable—how about that?”
“In My Own Little Corner: My Work in Progress with Bipolar Disorder” takes place at 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 17, at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts, 600 N. East St. Tickets are $9-$19 at 309-434-2777 and artsblooming.org.
If you or someone you know is in crisis or may be considering suicide, call or text 988 to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.
