Music and Mental Health: A Mad, Burning Desire

Join us for engaging music and dialogue about the ways mental illness was portrayed in early modern England and to think about the ways we can address the mental health crisis in contemporary society. The first English actresses to legally take the stage capitalized on early modern society’s fascination with mental illness and catapulted themselves to fame by portraying characters who descended violently into lovesick madness on the Restoration stage. Women were legally permitted to take the public stage in England in 1662, but this gigantic advancement for women’s rights was fraught with immense political and sexual tension. Malina Rauschenfels, soprano Dr. Paula Maust, harpsichord