Above right: Tane Danger (left) and Brandon Boat, members of The Theater of Public Policy, worked together to elicit plenty of laughs. Above left: “What the Health?” attendees were invited during dinner to leave comments on the paper-covered tables regarding what makes a community healthy. Left: Members of The Theater of Public Health (L-R) Carmen O’Halloran, Kelly Kohlbacher, Jim Robinson, and Brandon Boat listened to a discussion on community health to incorporate into the following round of improv comedy.
After enjoying a wonderful dinner catered by the Pie Place, an audience of around 100 people filed into the Arrowhead Center for the Arts on March 23 to watch and participate in a discussion of health sandwiched between two lively rounds of hilarious improv comedy. Members of The Theater of Public Policy started off the evening pulling out all the inside jokes that crop up in a small community.
According to Tane Danger, he and the rest of the cast had been mingling with their audience during dinner and the comedy to follow was the result of those conversations.
“You have yourselves as much as us to blame for this!” Danger added before introducing the rest of the cast.
After the first round of comedy, Mayor Jay Arrowsmith DeCoux, Dr. Paul Terrill from Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, and David Demmer from Cook County Planning and Zoning stepped up to the stage to participate in a mildly more sober discussion of community health.
Danger led the discussion with questions regarding how best to foster community health. All three community members seemed to agree that policies and more information were not what the public needed. Asking Cook County residents over 25 years old to leave, as was jokingly suggested by the Theater, was also shot down.
“We have to start looking at how do we influence people’s behaviors to choose the things that are more healthy,” Demmer stated.
Dr. Terrill fielded a question regarding how the community could be structured to facilitate healthy decisions.
“Create an environment where it’s easy to make those healthy choices,” Dr. Terrill stated. He went on to explain how maintaining sidewalks, among other things, would make a difference.
The three also noted that one challenge in making decisions that would benefit everyone was connecting with people who didn’t attend events or meetings meant to help move Cook County toward creating a healthier community.
“How do we connect with people who are not here?” DeCoux questioned. Determining the community’s values and condensing them into a comprehensive plan that helps leaders make decisions requires input from citizens throughout the county.
After taking a few questions from the audience, the comedic fun resumed. The event concluded with dessert, also catered by The Pie Place.
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