Melissa DuPrey sits across from me, in an updo she swears she never wears, positively radiant even as she discusses one of the most tender topics in America—grief. This contrast in presentation underscores the motivation behind DuPrey’s work on her upcoming solo show, Good Grief, coproduced at Free Street Theater. “It was not going to be Good Grief. It was going to be the story of me and my mother, and exploring mother-daughter relationships. The third installation [in DuPrey’s series of autobiographical solo shows] was always going to be about her. Unfortunately she passed, she was physically and mentally unwell, and suffering.”
When DuPrey’s mother died three years ago, she sought bereavement counseling. Even with the assistance of insurance, DuPrey was unable to find this help amid a forest of waiting lists and sliding scales. She began to seek healing outside of the medical industrial complex, something the show explores by bringing healing to the performance space. DuPrey decided that this piece could be both a “response to the inaccessibility of mental health resources” and “a love letter, the answer to somebody’s prayer.”
This practical healing component, which brings practitioners to the audience, is a revolutionary aspect of this performance. DuPrey, a Reiki practitioner herself, has intentionally embedded herself in healing circles for the last ten years. At all ten performances of Good Grief there will be between three to five health practitioners on-site, including herbalists, ancestral healers, and Tibetan practitioners of Ayurvedic sound healing able to offer information about the benefits of their healing practices; subsidized or free sessions to audience members via a grant from the National Association of Latino Arts and Culture are also available. DuPrey received the association’s highest-possible monetary award of $5,000 to support the project.
Through 12/21: Mon, Thu, and Fri 6:30 PM, Sat 2:30 PM (performance on Mon 12/16 is industry and also ADA-accessible), Free Street Theater, 1419 W. Blackhawk, 773-772-7248, freestreet.org , advance reservations online for $5-$100 donation, pay what you can at the door.
