This Year’s BroadwayCon Raises the Curtain on Mental Health

Watching a Broadway musical can be an overwhelming experience — to say nothing of the actors performing in it.

“If you die onstage, or your character’s screamed at, your body believes that’s really happening to you every night,” said Hannah Cruz, who made her Broadway debut this spring in the women’s suffrage musical “Suffs.”

For decades, the industry fostered a “suck it up” culture of steely toughness. But one focus of this year’s BroadwayCon, which will draw thousands of theater lovers to the New York Hilton Midtown from Friday through Sunday, is to facilitate conversations about how performers deal with mental health, both on and offstage.

The planned discussions and events address a variety of topics, including the challenges of staying sober while working in the business and increasing accessibility for autistic audiences. Here are six events you’ll want to catch.

Autism and accessibility discussions

Theatergoers who want to share their experiences being on the autism spectrum, know someone who is or just want a safe space to learn more can take part in this event hosted by Skylar Reiner, a longtime Broadway fan.

“Autism and Broadway: What It Means To Be a Fan While on the Spectrum,” Friday, 10 a.m.

Five autistic performing arts professionals — including Conor Tague, Desmond Luis Edwards and Madison Kopec, who recently made their Broadway debuts in “How to Dance in Ohio” — will discuss their personal experiences with accessibility in the arts, as well as best practices for collaborating with autistic creators.

“Nothing About Us Without Us,” Saturday, 11:15 a.m.

Prioritizing self-care

Not too long ago, actors were expected to grapple with the toll of performing a demanding role eight times a week in silence.

“Even as a younger actor, I dug my heels in the ground, like, ‘I don’t need this waste of time and energy,’” Cruz, 32, said of her attitude toward discussions early in her career about mental health in rehearsal rooms.

But then, she said, she landed the role of Eliza Hamilton — a character whose oldest son, Philip, dies onstage every night — in the national tour of “Hamilton” in 2018.

“I was having a hard time recovering after Eliza loses Philip in Act II,” she said. “It was tough to do that eight times a week and come back to myself. I learned the hard way that the tour was going to take a lot more work on my part to feel OK.”

Cruz and three other Broadway actors — Mary Testa (“Oklahoma!”), Alton Fitzgerald White (“The Lion King”) and Max Crumm (“Grease”) — will discuss theater and emotional well-being, including self-care, managing anxiety and the effect of oppression and marginalization on mental health.

“Coming up, I was really stubborn — I thought I could do everything on my own,” Cruz said, “but speaking about it and seeing that other people have very similar experiences has been so helpful.”

“Musicals & Mental Health,” Friday, 2:30 p.m.

Grappling with body image

Performing artists have often had fraught relationships with their bodies, and this session, led by the psychotherapist Kimberly Hershenson, a former dancer with the Joffrey Ballet, aims to bring those conversations into the open. She will share strategies to understand and treat those struggling with negative body image and eating disorders, including strategies for dealing with unhealthy relationships with the body and food.

“Eating Disorders and Body Image,” Friday, 5 p.m.

Sharing strategies for staying sober

It’s one thing to give up alcohol if your job involves, say, operating heavy machinery. But when it comes to the arts and playwriting, the field is synonymous with well-known alcoholic geniuses such as Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams.

“It’s kind of baked into our industry that using whatever substance you have helps unlock the real you,” said Sean Daniels, whose play “The White Chip,” a dramatized version of his own experiences as an alcoholic, was recently staged Off Broadway. “But so many artists, like Terrence McNally, wrote the best work of their life after getting sober.”

Daniels; two fellow artists in recovery, the director Elizabeth Addison and the actor Gregory Treco (“Hamilton”); and Alisa Hurwitz, a clinical psychologist at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in New Hampshire, will discuss how they got help for addiction while working in the performing arts, as well as strategies for maintaining sobriety. Panelists will also share how addiction affected their work and personal lives, and the unexpected gifts of recovery.

“I really thought at one point that I was the only person in American theater who couldn’t hold my liquor,” Daniels said. “But so much of what keeps people sick is silence. It’s so important to talk about it openly.”

“Sober in the City,” Saturday, 11:15 a.m.

Dancing your way to wellness

Chryssie Whitehead, a veteran dance teacher whose Broadway credits include roles in “A Chorus Line,” “Chicago” and “Company,” will lead an interactive workshop in which participants will learn choreography from “A Chorus Line” — no experience necessary — while discovering tools to care for their mental health.

“In My Own Little Corner: Dance and Mental Health Workshop,” Saturday, 2:30 p.m.