The creative team of theatrical memoir Crazy Mama (writer Sharon Scott Williams, director Anson Williams, and performers Linda Purl and Will Huse) are headed Off Broadway! The play, subtitled A True Story of Love and Madness, first premiered in 2025 at Ventura’s Rubicon Theatre (see review here). Based on Scott Williams’s memoir, Crazy Mama focusses on a mid-century family dynamic shattered by schizophrenia. Linda Purl’s primary character is 8-year-old Sharon, but she also plays all other characters, including her father, aunts, doctors, nurses, and neighbors, as well as Sharon’s mentally ill mother.
The playwright describes the piece as working toward the dissolution of harmful stigma surrounding mental illness. Before the September/October run in New York City, Williams, Scott Williams, Purl, and Huse will participate in a panel discussion at a congressional briefing (sponsored by Congressman Josh Gottheimer) about live theater’s ability to inspire productive conversation about mental health. Visit the Rubicon’s website to sponsor or support this production.
