On November 17th at 7pm, The Blue Slipper Theatre and ASPEN will co-host a public conversation about men’s mental health at the Blue Slipper Theatre on East Callender Street. An informal panel discussion featuring clinical psychologist Dr. Chris Spromberg, provisionally licensed counselor Samuel Mascari and educator Brett Ozment, the conversation occurs in conjunction with The Blue Slipper’s production of Annie Baker’s The Aliens (showing at the Blue Slipper November 14 - 16th & 21 - 23rd.) This discussion will be moderated by filmmaker/The Aliens director Sarah Sherman and is free and open to the public.
The Aliens follows two disillusioned young men, KJ and Jasper, who spend their days talking life and Charles Bukowski outside the back of a small coffee shop in Vermont. Seventeen-year-old Evan is eking out his summer working at the cafe, and is soon drawn to KJ and Jasper’s world of magic mushrooms, philosophical musings and great-bands-that never-were. Gentle, engaging and deeply funny, the Denver Post has hailed this play as “deceptively simple” and “utterly accomplished.”
Amidst its levity, The Aliens also places modern America under the microscope by asking what happened to the generation who never grew up, and it questions outcomes for men constrained by poverty and/or psychological and emotional difficulties who have little resources or support to navigate such aspects of American life. The Blue Slipper/ASPEN’s November 17th event on men’s mental health comes at a time when men nationally and locally face unique barriers to seeking out and accessing the mental health support many need. Men frequently face behavioral health issues like substance abuse, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety but are less likely to seek help than women or other marginalized genders. (Recent studies show that 70% of young men avoid seeking mental health help altogether.) Males in Montana battling with their mental health can have a particularly hard time of it, with factors like geography, culture, long winters, homelessness, high veteran population, high poverty rate, the prevalence of guns, high alcohol consumption and more influencing the amount of the population struggling. According to the University of Montana Byline Magazine, “Even in places where professionals are available, there’s a deep-seated stigma against seeking treatment. Some have described it as a remnant of the rancher lifestyle where being resilient was the only choice. Others have described it as being proud and not wanting to use mental health issues as an excuse.”
Montana is currently one of the most at-risk states for suicides, with rates that are double the national average (in 2022, Montana had the second highest suicide death rate in the country) and a reality that men are nearly 4 times more likely to die by suicide. University of Montana student Josie Libby states, “If you fall apart because of one suicide, you won’t be able to live in Montana.” According to the Department of Health, every completed suicide yields around six severely affected people, each of which are three times as likely to attempt suicide themselves. At around 300 completed suicide deaths every year in Montana, nearly 1,800 residents of our sparsely populated state become at risk.
Author Richard V. Reeves offers, “People know these problems are real because they are seeing them play out in their own lives. They just need space, and even permission, to talk about them in a way that does not negate the ongoing problems of girls and women.” Also from Reeves: “We can hold two thoughts in our heads at once: that is, we can be both passionate about women’s rights and compassionate toward vulnerable boys and men.” And from Psychology Today: “Men are expected to be dominant, strong and in control of their emotions — the pressures and stereotypes that men face are very real and difficult to surpass. While talking to a loved one or a therapist may be the best approach, men are more likely to turn to alcohol, drugs or even suicide as a solution — [yet] it doesn’t have to be that way.”
ASPEN (Abuse Support & Prevention Education Network) has previously hosted a public talk with Dr. Chris Spromberg titled Engaging Men in Violence Prevention, and they and the Blue Slipper Theatre hope you’ll join for this informal panel discussion on mental health, with questions and answers/audience participation welcome. No RSVP is required for this event.
Tickets for The Aliens — a sharp and funny drama by Pulitzer Prize winning writer Annie Baker about three men navigating the difficulties of connection as they try (and fail) to care for one another, and to ask for the care that they need — can be found on www.blueslipper.org.