University of Chicago Physician Becomes Playwrighter

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Dr. Doriane Miller turns the mic over to audience members during the extensive Q&A with mental health professionals that followed the play. Photo: Tracy Loope
Dr. Doriane Miller turns the mic over to audience members during the extensive Q&A with mental health professionals that followed the play. Photo: Tracy Loope

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L-R: DeShawns grandmother (Lena), mother (Sharon) and father (Willie), form a circle of love and concern around the traumatized youth secretly grieving over the murder of his best friend.

Doriane Miller, MD, saw herself as a physician, researcher, and community member but never a playwright until now.

In a unique collaboration between the University of Chicago Medical Center and eta Creative Arts Foundation, Millers play about youth violence and depression, It Shoudda Been Me, is now part of etas Showfolk Cultural Enrichment Series for Youth running through June 15.

Millers play comes at a time when Chicago has seen a slew of shootings among young people. From January to September, 142 young adults ages 17 to 25 were murdered, and gun violence accounted for three-quarters of those murders, according to the Chicago Police Department Crime Summary.

Miller, an associate professor of medicine and director for the Center for Community Health and Vitality, was struck by the numbers and nonchalant attitudes of her patients who had experienced this type of violence. When I asked for information about these experiences and how my young patients felt about them, their response made it seem like a normal rite of passage, Miller said. However, many of these young people exhibited symptoms of anxiety and depression, not unlike people exposed to war.

In It Shoudda Been Me, 15-year-old DeShawn goes from making exceptional grades to poor grades in a matter of months after his best friend is killed in a drive-by shooting, Miller explained. The play illustrates the need to recognize signs of depression among youth and seek out options for healing.

Addressing teen depression through drama came from a brainstorming discussion developing programming for Millers Community Grand Rounds, community-focused dialogues meant to engage youth and adults about health and social issues affecting the South Side of Chicago.

Everyone loved the idea, Miller said, except no one knew how to write plays. Miller began researching playwriting techniques until she sat down one evening and wrote. By the early morning, she had written half the play.

After sharing the script with a few colleagues, Miller felt encouraged and finished the play, she said. Her team recruited a professional director and found a cast made of up local community members.

I performed the role of the troubled teens teacher/mentor in the original production and its very exciting to see that the production has evolved to the next level of reaching larger audiences. said Ernest Sanders, New Communities Program Manager/Director of Communications.

With funding from the Universitys Institute for Translational Medicine, It Shoudda Been Me debuted as a community focused event in October 2010 at the Perspectives Charter School in front of about 150 community residents, youth and Medical Center faculty and staff.

After the play, Miller led a question-and-answer session with mental health experts. Attendees stayed more than an hour after the program ended to keep asking questions about youth violence and mental health.

Pastor Torrey Barrett, founder of the K.L.E.O Center (Keep Loving Each Other), a center that productively engages youth in the Washington Park Community said, I think dramatic productions, and honest dialogue are a valuable way to help youth discuss and resolve issues around the conflict and violence that permeates their lives.

Over the past year, the play has aired three times on the Chicago Access Network and DVDs have been distributed at various community events to help educate teenagers, parents and community members about mental health. Now, the play is reaching an even broader audience at the eta Creative Arts Foundation.

Performances of It Shoudda Been Me take place from October 31 through June 11, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m., at eta Creative Arts Foundation Inc., located at 7558 S South Chicago Ave.

By Tracy Loope

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