In a not so surprising turn of events, Kai Parham, junior and Theatre major, seals the “Every Brilliant Thing” performance with a Q&A that leaves audience members feeling seen and heard. 

In an intimate and interactive performance, Parham took audience members on a mental health journey that gave them nowhere to hide, resembling a journey through the psyche of the human mind. After his one-man show performance, Parham outlines every brilliant thing he found along the way on his journey to embodying each character in his performance and delivering the most authentic experience possible to his audience in this Q&A talk-back.

Parham was faced with an incredible challenge that many people would shy away from. Parham said, “I hesitated because my first week of rehearsal was hard. Everyday I would go home and say, ‘You’re just talking to yourself, Kai. Is this what people have to deal with everyday? It was tough. Once I realized the discipline of rehearsal was going to give me the freedom of performing, it stopped being a love and hate relationship and more of a ‘Let’s nail this’ so that I can be free and as open as possible to not be held back by uncertainty.”

There were many moments along the way that Parham had to step outside of himself and embody who he needed to become to best represent the metamorphic stages of mental health. 

Rehearsals required a constant change of character. Parham stated, “I had to really break it down. I thought, ‘Okay, now I’m a kid. Now, I’m a teenager. Now, I'm an adult.’ Those are three different stages of thought. Throughout the stages of the show, it had to be transformational whether it was intentional or not.” 

Parham replicated the way we visit our inner child and grow from past traumas into adulthood. He stated, “The process really was a great challenge and test at the same time. There were definitely times where I found myself in places and feelings I had not visited since a child. But, when I was there, I was there.”

Parham used his personal trials as fuel for triumph to emerge himself into “Every Brilliant Thing.” Much of this performance relied upon imagination, taking risks and taking a leap as he searched inward.

At times, it was difficult to memorize a script for a one-man show. Parham stated, “I am naturally a very animated person. I just felt it was a challenge that came easy for me because it was something I really wanted to do because there’s no way to memorize this script in a way that is not in sections. So I had to really break it down and walk through each process.”

“The way it happened, I would say the first month it was empty seats. It was just imagination. We did not get to rehearse with an audience until tech week.” Parham added, “It really came down to whoever was around. I would snatch people from outside the theatre and just grab random people. That was something different I never experienced before.”

For Parham, mastering such a groundbreaking role was solving each puzzle piece in pursuits of grappling with mental health. Through “Every Brilliant Thing” the audience was treated to an astounding yet intimate performance reminding us that we must all look inward and meet ourselves with a hug at every stage of life.

Tags: Alexander Carr, event

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