{"id":24554,"date":"2022-10-03T15:16:13","date_gmt":"2022-10-03T19:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/?p=24554"},"modified":"2022-10-04T10:56:29","modified_gmt":"2022-10-04T14:56:29","slug":"marshall-theatre-professor-joins-behind-the-scenes-mental-health-initiative","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/2022\/10\/marshall-theatre-professor-joins-behind-the-scenes-mental-health-initiative\/","title":{"rendered":"Theatre professor joins Behind The Scenes mental health initiative"},"content":{"rendered":"
Marshall University\u2019s Mike Murphy, a professor of scene design and technology in the School of Theatre and Dance, has been working on a national task force to develop a mental health and substance abuse support mechanism for the Behind The Scenes charity foundation.<\/p>\n

The foundation supports safety and health initiatives in the nation\u2019s entertainment and technology industry. The task force in which Murphy has been assisting is the Behind The Scenes mental health initiative. He serves as a representative of the Safety and Health Commission of the stagehands\u2019 union (IATSE), in which he is actively involved, as well as being a\u00a0 founding member of Stages Of Sobriety (SOS), providing peer support to entertainment professionals within the United States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT) who are in recovery from drugs and\/or alcohol.<\/p>\n

Murphy\u2019s work in recovery is even more extensive. He also has chaired \u201cCareer Recovery In Recovery\u201d panels, which provide options available to people trying to rebuild their careers after suffering the adverse effects of substance abuse. He also is authorized to teach OSHA General Entertainment Safety, an alliance curriculum developed by USITT and IATSE in collaboration with OSHA. He is a member of IATSE Local 369 of Huntington.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entertainment industry relies on artists and craftspeople from diverse disciples to produce a product that is greater than the sum of its parts,\u201d Murphy said.\u00a0\u201cThe support and encouragement of my professional colleagues have made me a beneficiary of that same collaborative effort in my own recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Behind The Scenes mental health initiative also benefits from the help of a staff psychologist from The Entertainer\u2019s Fund (formerly the Actor\u2019s Fund of Actor\u2019s Equity); a board member from Entertainment Technician Certification Program (ETCP); the vice president of ETC Lighting representing the Entertainment Equipment Manufacturer\u2019s Association; and the director of The Road To Recovery, an organization that provides life coaches and addiction counselors that travel with music industry road shows. All are certified in mental health first aid.<\/p>\n

The group has launched a website that addresses substance use and alcoholism in the entertainment industry and will be hosting a series of webinars that examine the challenges of substance use and alcoholism in professional work environments, including an informational webinar by the Substance Use Task Force. It will include a question-and-answer period and take place at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 17. Register at https:\/\/etclink.it\/DhHMfGPY<\/a>. For more information, visit Behind the Scenes online at https:\/\/wp.behindthescenescharity.org\/<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Marshall University\u2019s Mike Murphy, a professor of scene design and technology in the School of Theatre and Dance, has been working on a national task force to develop a mental health and substance abuse support mechanism for the Behind The Scenes charity foundation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134,"featured_media":22989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,45,26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cam","category-featured","category-news-releases"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24554"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24557,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24554\/revisions\/24557"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.marshall.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}