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Performance highlights Suicide Awareness Week activities
Martin Moran in a scene from “The Tricky Part.” Photo: Joan Marcus
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“I’ve come to believe that, at its core, the play is an exploration of compassion for oneself and for others. And this exploration of compassion, of what it means to be human, feels vital to bring to a university.”
A performance on Sept. 10 by actor and author Martin Moran of his award-winning, one-man play “The Tricky Part” will highlight Suicide Prevention Week activities at UB.
The Student Wellness Team has planned several free events Sept. 7-14 to raise awareness about suicide, the second-leading cause of death among college students. Activities are focused on teaching the campus community ways to identify and respond to suicide.
“The Tricky Part” will be performed at 7:30 p.m. in the Drama Theatre in the Center for the Arts, North Campus. Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. Admission is free, but seating is limited.
Moran also will participate in a post-performance talk and a signing of his book, “The Tricky Part.” The play, which chronicles Moran’s recovery from childhood sexual abuse—including suicide attempts—is an abridged version of his memoir of the same name.
Moran says it is important for him to bring his play to a sector of society devoted to inquiry—“to a campus teeming with the inquisitive young and the slightly less young who are serving as guides and teachers.”
“When I was walking around campus as a 19-year-old, I was full of volatile secrets, a shame I couldn’t comprehend,” he says. “In the very early stages of writing ‘The Tricky Part,’ I felt a crazy amount of fear and shame about what I was writing. It felt very secret. I’ve come to see how grappling with the deepest secrets has given rise to a piece of writing—of theater—that provokes fierce inquiry about religion, sexuality and forgiveness—about how we gain authority over our own pasts.
“I’ve come to believe that, at its core, the play is an exploration of compassion for oneself and for others,” he says. “And this exploration of compassion, of what it means to be human—the paradoxes and complexities that entails—feels vital to bring to a university.”
Other activities scheduled for Suicide Prevention Week include a session from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sept. 8 in the Student Union Social Hall in which participants can make “comfort kits” and get involved in the Missing the Pack Project to decorate backpacks representing college students lost to suicide in New York state.
Suicide prevention training will be held from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sept. 10 in 210 Student Union. Faculty, staff and students are urged to attend to learn how to identify signs of emotional distress and get help for those who need it.
The week will culminate with the Out of the Darkness Community Walk at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 14 in Delaware Park. The walk honors loved ones lost to suicide and raises awareness.
For more information on “The Tricky Part” and the other Suicide Prevention Week activities, visit http://wellness.buffalo.edu/ubwell.
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