Author’s personal battle with Mood Disorder:

As a freshman in college at Baylor University, Lacy was having some problems sleeping and focusing and was having hormonal mood swings. She was diagnosed with a mood disorder, alongside the ADHD. She experienced first hand the negative stigma that is associated with mental health diagnosis. She registered with the office of disabilities, a well-intentioned guidance councilor advised her that it might be easier to withdraw from Baylor and attend a community college in her hometown of Colleyville, TX, so as not to exacerbate her “problem”. She ignored this advice. Because of her time commitments to theater, her sorority, and everything else combined with the fact that it took her longer to organize her thoughts because of her disability, she spent 3 years of holidays’ and summers writing papers! And with the encouragement of a few key professors and professionals—and her family telling her not to give up—she went on to become the first theater major and the first person with a registered disability to graduate from the honors college in the history of the school.

Featuring the World Premiere of

What do Van Gogh, Ben Stiller,
Ernest Hemingway, Vivien Leigh
and Ashley Judd have in common?

They are all artists who have struggled with depression and disorder. The original new play REASON FOR REFERRAL explores the cultural myth of the "tragic artist" and poses the question is there an element of chaos in creation? Is madness often the muse? In the world of art, where there are no boundaries--how do you know where creativity stops and disorder begins?

REASON FOR REFERRAL will make its world premiere as a full-scale production at the Dallas Hub Theater as a part of the 3rd Annual DFW Fringe Festival in April.

The play was well received as a staged reading at The Ensemble Studio Theater in New York, Baylor University in Waco, TX, TX A&M University-Commerce in Commerce, TX, The Dallas Hub Theater in Dallas, TX and at the Kennedy Center American College Theater Festival where it won an original work award at the regional level.

REASON FOR REFERRAL is an intense, heartfelt, and sometimes humorous look at the tie between creative expression and mental disorder. It combines live, original music by William Jordan Barrick, visual art by Jann Lynch, and drama in a one-of-a-kind theater experience that follows three young college theatre students, Cameron, Jack, and Jill who are struggling to create relationships and make sense of a world that doesn’t understand them.

REASON FOR REFERRAL is directed by Atseko Factor. Lynch chose Factor because of his innovative style and his intuitive understanding of the human experience.

“When people aren’t allowed to talk about their issues and celebrate their differences,” Factor said, “we steal their hope and their ability to deal with the disorder that they have.”
“Intelligence doesn’t come packaged the same way in every person,” Lacy added, “some of the men and women who wrote our history and enriched our lives the most showed symptoms of professionally confirmed mental illness.”

The show runs 1 hour 15 min and is suitable for most audiences. It contains moderate language and some adult themes.

Famous Historical Figures and Mental Illness:
Some of the most famous historical figures of all time showed signs of professional confirmed mental illness. These include Abraham Lincoln, Vincent Van Gogh, Beethoven, Tennessee Williams, Ernest Hemmingway, Robert Schumann, Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Vivien Leigh, and the list goes on and on. Van Gogh, Vivien Leigh, and Hemingway, for example, were all three in and out of asylums; two, like many in their day, were given shock treatments, all were substance abusers; and two of them committed suicide. All three were prolific figures who made brilliant and lasting contributions in their field.

"It is only too true that a lot of artists are mentally ill - it's a life which, to put it mildly, makes one an outsider. I'm all right when I completely immerse myself in work, but I'll always remain half crazy."
-Vincent Van Gogh-

Modern Celebrities battling Mental Illness:

Many modern celebrities have come forward with their own personal accounts of mental illness. Examples: Marc Summers (OCD), Ben Stiller (Bipolar Disorder), Ashley Judd (Depression), Marie Osborne and Brooke Shields (Postpartum Depression), Patty Duke (Bipolar Disorder) and Howie Mandel (OCD)

"Supposedly, my sister was the 'messed-up' one, and I was the 'perfect' one. They said, 'No one ever does an intervention on people like you. You look too good. You're too smart and together, but I needed help. I was in so much pain." -Ashley Judd-

Psychological labeling system and Stigma: “Crazy” is just a word. “Depressed” is just a word. “Bipolar” is just a word. But what effect do these “words” have on the people who are associated with them? Mental disorders are the leading cause of disability in the US and Canada right now, yet a recent poll found that 59% of people surveyed felt comfortable with someone who was in a wheelchair, but only 19% had the same level of comfort with someone who had a mental illness. Would you shun someone at a dinner party for revealing that they had diabetes? Imagine telling a cancer patient that their disease was brought on by emotional weakness and immoral choices. Many people with mental issues are afraid to get diagnosed— those who do often struggle with guilt and shame because of the negative stigma associated with their diagnosis. This play addresses how we categorize and label one another socially, medically, and personally.