Artburst

The Power of Art in Mental Health Therapy

The First Brazilian Theater Festival Miami 2024 will spotlight the power of art in treating mental health disorders. The festival will take place from Wednesday, November 6, to Sunday, November 10, at the Black Box Theater at the University of Miami in Coral Gables and at La Casona in the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center (MHCAC) in downtown Miami.

This innovative event is organized by Brazilian-American actress Ana Bugarim, who also stars in the solo performance "Echoes of Madness." The monologue is inspired by the life and writings of Brazilian author Lima Barreto and psychiatrist Dr. Nise da Silveira.

From Bugarim’s perspective, madness is not something external but something inherent in all of us. She believes that those labeled as mentally ill are simply more sensitive individuals and asserts that everyone’s mind harbors “a touch of madness.” For her, art provides a creative path to navigating reality.

Having pursued a successful acting career in Brazil, Bugarim moved to Miami six years ago with her daughter, who was born in the United States.“Although I’ve been a U.S. citizen since 2002, I chose to live in Brazil for the theater,” she shares. “But when my daughter started growing up and I saw the increasing violence there, I decided it was time to make a choice for her.”

In addition to being an actress, Bugarim is also a yoga instructor—a practice she focused on after arriving in the U.S. and during the pandemic. “I believe yoga and art come from the same place, but when you’re an artist, you must always return to art,” she says.

Having studied classical dance for over a decade in Brazil, she quickly discovered the courses offered at the Hispanic Cultural Arts Center in Miami. “I started to miss theater,” she recalls. “I learned about the possibility of applying for a grant to fund an artistic production. Since my passion has always been alternative theater, I decided to propose this project.”

Inspiration from Brazil

The foundation of the project comes from theater classes Bugarim once taught at a mental health care center in Brazil, Casa das Palmeiras, founded by her then-husband, psychiatrist Jean Pierre Muller Hargreaves, who is also a participant in the festival.

‘The Cemetery of the Living’

“The first play I performed in Brazil over thirty years ago was based on Lima Barreto’s ‘The Cemetery of the Living,’ inspired by his own writings during his time in a mental asylum for alcoholism,” Bugarim explains, referring to the Hospício Nacional dos Alienados in Rio de Janeiro.

For this project, she combined Barreto’s texts with those of Dr. Nise da Silveira to craft the monologue "Echoes of Madness," which she performs under the direction of Djalma Thürler. The play will have five performances during the festival: November 6 and 7 at the Black Box Theater, and November 8–10 at the Hispanic Cultural Arts Center, all at 7:00 PM.

“This is not a realistic play,” she explains. “The protagonist, Clara, has been sent to an asylum and speaks from there, surrounded by mannequins, dresses, and colorful fibers… or perhaps from within her own mind. Her passions are art and literature, and she writes quotes from her favorite author, Jules Verne, on her clothes.”

As the play unfolds, Clara begins to question everything: what mental illness is, what it means to be normal, and she engages the audience in these debates until, in the end, she proposes a “solution” to the problem, the actress reveals.

Short Films and Art Therapy

Dr. Jean Pierre Muller Hargreaves will present the short film "Right to Dream," featuring extraordinary paintings by Jair Goes, a profoundly schizophrenic patient, along with texts by French philosopher Gaston Bachelard. The festival will also exhibit 13 of these paintings alongside the short films "Right to Dream" and "Being Normal," the latter created with Jean Pierre’s brother, Fernando Muller Hargreaves.

The art exhibition will also include works by Maria Eduarda, Darcilio Lima, Francisco Noronha, and Mauricio Martins.

A Multilingual Experience

Although the monologue opens and closes with a multilingual chorus speaking in Spanish, English, and Portuguese—featuring Cynthia Hamm, Marcia Negri, Madson Luis, and Nathan Medina—Bugarim considered which language would best convey the play’s message.“If I performed it in Portuguese, it would be limited to Brazilian audiences, and if only in Spanish, it would exclude English speakers,” she explains. “That’s why I decided to perform it in English.”

The short films will feature English voiceovers during the Black Box Theater performances and Spanish voiceovers at the Hispanic Cultural Art Center, she adds.

Panels and Collaboration

The festival will also include a panel discussion on mental health, featuring Dr. Jean Pierre Hargreaves, Dr. Gabriel Chagas, and director Djalma Thürler. Simultaneous translation from Portuguese to Spanish or English will be provided, depending on the audience’s primary language. “The idea is to make it accessible to everyone,” Bugarim emphasizes.

Collaboration and Creativity

Bugarim has known Thürler since they studied theater together in Brazil. Now, he runs his own company in Salvador, Bahia, and teaches at the local university. When she invited him to direct the play, he coincidentally was already scheduled to attend a seminar in Detroit the week before the festival.

The play’s assistant director is Laurita Karam, who also handles photography. Set and costume design are by Anna Biondo; movement direction by Eriberto Jiménez and Cynthia Hamm; lighting and video by Ismael C. Requejo; graphic design by Marcela Ferreira; and social media outreach by Felipe Fabres.

“This is the result of many people’s work, supported by the generosity of Eriberto [Jiménez, director of the Miami Hispanic Cultural Arts Center]; a very, very small grant from Miami-Dade County; help from the University of Miami’s Portuguese Department, and Sagrado Café. We are deeply grateful to all our sponsors,” Bugarim says.

Event Details

• What: "Echoes of Madness" – First Brazilian Theater Festival Miami 2024

• Where:

  • Black Box Theater, University of Miami (280 Miracle Mile, Coral Gables, FL 33134)

  • Hispanic Cultural Arts Center (111 SW 5th Ave, Miami, FL 33130)

• When:

  • November 6 and 7 at Black Box Theater

  • November 8, 9, and 10 at Hispanic Cultural Art Center

  • All performances at 7:00 PM

• Tickets: $25, https://www.creationartcenter.org/tickets

• Information: https://braziliantheaterfest.org/