Move from Yellowknife to NYC is ‘surreal’ for this theatre lover

Jessica Bruhn has recently made the leap from Yellowknife to New York City to pursue her passion for theatre at Berklee College of Music.

Bruhn moved to Yellowknife in 2017, where she opened a private practice in clinical counselling and psychotherapy as well as counselling supervision.

The transition from Yellowknife to New York City has been “surreal,” Bruhn said, “but it’s something that I’m very proud of and constantly adapting to.”

It may not seem like the most natural jump to go from healthcare to theatre, but Bruhn said she finds “there’s a tremendous overlap between therapy and art production.”

“Both require an intimate knowledge and engagement of the human condition,” Bruhn said. “Both require a tremendous amount of bravery to inquire as to, you know, what makes you happy? What makes you depressed? What can rehabilitate you?

“How can you support your community, your loved ones, your beloved, your children, to further expand in our way of existing in connection with one another, not independent of one another?”

After years of Covid-19 and the stress of being a healthcare worker through the pandemic, Bruhn also needed to take time for herself.

“I knew in my heart I needed to take a bit of a break from full-time psychotherapeutic practice after the pandemic,” Bruhn said.

“It was such a high demand, and such an intense array of symptoms that anybody in healthcare was treating… a lot of us were burning out. It wasn’t uncommon for any healthcare worker, whatever discipline you’re practising in, you were feeling compassion fatigue.”

Bruhn finds it healing to tackle those struggles within an artistic venue. “I needed to kind-of turn my practice on its head for a while and prioritize my own healing … as someone who was exposed to some challenging stuff.”

The opposite of that kind of psychological traumatic burnout, Bruhn said, is to play.

“I had to do baby steps,” Bruhn said, as she slowly allowed herself the freedom and acceptance to play.

She had always been a “theatre person.” As a youth, she played in the pit orchestra during high school musicals, sang vocal jazz, and performed original song sets at the Richmond Night Market.

Eventually, allowing herself the freedom to play again led her to apply to music schools. Getting into Berklee, she said, was “a wonderful and extremely lucky series of events.”

Bruhn’s year-long program will focus on musical theatre writing and design. Among many others, she’s inspired by works such as Waitress by Sara Bareilles and Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda.

To her, musicals are “some of the last artefacts of a respect for human beings working together to create something enthralling … to help you understand the lived experience of a group of people.”  

Her work in the North has inspired her as well.

“What the North really taught me was how to centre in, how to be clear on how to treat people with respect no matter what was going on,” Bruhn said. “We’re here together. We’re walking each other home. We can learn and grow. And no one is better than anyone else, intrinsically.”

She also thinks her experiences in the North will help insulate her from the “chronic ambition and the tendency for people to work themselves out or burn out quickly in this city.”

“There is such a pulse to New York City,” Bruhn said. “It’s constantly moving. It feels like it never sleeps. But in order to be well, in order to continue to hold yourself in a kind way with grace – and with that empathy and compassion for yourself and others – you need to be able to practise stillness, and to value what you have and what’s around you.”

All the people she was exposed to in the North helped her recognize the importance of “being able to come home to yourself and to your community and to your relations as a way of grounding,” Bruhn said.

“So that no matter what happens, no matter how powerful AI becomes, no matter how technologized our world is pushing us to be, we can maintain our humanity.”

Her program at Berklee starts in September, but Bruhn is already in New York City to act in a play, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in the city’s prestigious East Village.

Bruhn is playing the roles of Hippolyta (Queen of the Amazons) and Titania (Queen of the Fairies). The shows take place on July 18-21 and July 25-28, and can be watched remotely via live stream. Those interested in watching the show can join the advance list here.