Jeffery Chen is a senior undergraduate at Princeton studying neuroscience and theater. His debut musical, A Life Worth Living, combines aspects of both these fields, while also drawing from a deep well of personal experience. The show recently finished showing on campus at Princeton University, where it ran from 11/8 to 11/16, and was directed by Chesney Snow.

First conceived over 3 years ago as a stand-up comedy routine, the show invites the audience to find humor in the wake of death, compassion in the face of severe mental illness, and comradery in the midst of uncertainty.

“I wanted this show to explore the usually opaque world of mental health treatment, while also ultimately telling a story about hope and resilience,” Chen said.

The play tells the tale of a teenager, named Gavin, during his internment in a mental health facility for teenagers after his attempted suicide. There is a content warning for the play, which focuses on suicide and other sensitive topics, and the show lives up to its warning—being in the audience is, at times, challenging and emotional. From Gavin’s strained phone calls with his father, to his roommate’s near-violent spiral into paranoid delusion, to his imagined conversations with a deceased best friend, the play is brimming with poignant scenes.

Chen, though, deftly softens the mood with light-hearted quips and musical numbers throughout the performance that elicit giggles, even as they follow characters through overwhelmingly difficult circumstances. 

For example, one young man in the facility suffers from paranoid delusions and hears voices. He is unhappy being in the treatment facility, but also worries what will happen when he leaves and goes back to an unstable home life. Despite the burdens he is carrying, he launches into an optimistic song about how life can be better when he and Gavin (his roommate) leave the facility, even doing a funny little dance as a metaphor for the next steps they will take in their new lives. By the end, the usually lethargic and depressive Gavin joins him in singing, and even cautiously copies a few of the dance steps. The piece is optimistic, endearing, and evoked smiles and giggles throughout.

Already, Chen has been hearing from grateful audience members who have seen the show. One recent attendee shared his appreciation for the production, which he said gave him a better understanding of what his own child went through during their challenges with mental health.

Despite a small cast and limited props, Chen orchestrated everything and everyone effectively to make it feel like a rich world on stage. If art requires emotionally moving people, then by that metric, Chen’s play was a success halfway through Act 1 as there was hardly a dry eye in the audience.

Chen’s passion for theater, personal experiences with mental health, and his academic knowledge of neuroscience blend together in a welcome balance of science-meets-the-arts.

Chen’s clinical knowledge informed the story arc for the character of Gavin’s roommate, whose episode of paranoid delusion was conceptualized by Chen as a rare, adverse reaction to psychiatric medication. On the other hand, the rich world of the treatment facility, the energy of the teens living there, and the complex portrayal of the love-hate relationships between the teens and their support staff (caretakers, therapists, and so on) was imbued with personal knowledge and a first-hand understanding of what one goes through being cloistered from society and forced to come to terms with their inner demons.

Chen’s clear talent for musical composition, play writing, and performance are woven with his technical scientific knowledge and his raw emotional impulse into a rich, compelling narrative that pulls the audience in and leaves them both teary eyed and smiling.

Having performed in the last production of the show on November 16th, Chen is now focused on completing his senior thesis under the guidance of neuroscience professor Michael Berry, Ph.D., which will comprise A Life Worth Living and a complementary summary of scientific literature on suicide and genetics. 

Though the curtains have closed, Chen hopes the show, like the relationships he formed while creating it, can live on. What began as a comedy piece, developed into a musical, and continues to evolve over time. He expects that the play may be performed again in the future and will continue to grow.

One of his biggest learning experiences in crafting the production mirrors Gavin’s discovery in the Washington Grove facility: that, even if together for only a matter of weeks, a small group of people, vulnerable with each other and bound by a common goal, can become family. 

“I feel so grateful that I got the opportunity to write and perform in a show that’s super personal to me, but also for getting to meet and work with a wonderful cast and creative team,” Chen said. “The last run felt especially emotional, since it sort of felt like a last goodbye to an experience where I’ve got to work with such talented and kind people.”