The Care and Collaboration of a Co-librettist
Sizing up Dr. Kenneth Wells
Dr. Ken Wells is the right man to take on an opera about schizophrenia. A psychiatrist, a Senior Scientist at RAND, Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the David Geffen School of Medicine and Professor of Health Services at the UCLA School of Public Health, Wells also directs the Health Services Research Center of the Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. The Research Center focuses on improving quality of care for psychiatric and neurological disorders across the lifespan, bullet points that are near and dear to the heart of his opera production, The Center Cannot Hold.
The man is also the Principal Investigator of the NIMH-UCLA/RAND Center for Research on Quality in Managed Care and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Community Partnership Initiative, on top of his roles as Co-Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation UCLA Clinical Scholars Program, Chair of the Community Health Improvement Collaborative and — last but not least — elected member of the Institute of Medicine (IOM). It’s a mouthful of initialisms, I know, so let me sum it all up with one of my own: KWITCH
Kenneth
Wells
Is
The
Center—
Held
What? It will make sense soon.
Ken Wells’ current research interests focus on community-based participatory studies for the improvement of mental health services in disadvantaged neighborhoods. How perfect, then, that this long and ongoing list of career accolades has come to a theatrical head: the doctor’s scientific and artistic passions are in perfect alignment to bring The Center Cannot Hold to life.
The musical work which he both composed and wrote as co-librettist debuted in Los Angeles at the UCLA Louis Jolyon Semel Auditorium this past summer. Based on the best-selling memoir by Elyn Saks chronicling her personal experience as someone living with schizophrenia, The Center Cannot Hold is a chamber opera in two parts which premiered during a limited engagement in July 2016.
Perhaps to better understand Dr. Wells’ propensity for illuminating pathways of hope, we should backpedal over a decade to a time when he and Victoria Vesna (Director of UCLA’s Art|Sci initiative) collaborated in October of 2005. Joined by Professor Henri Lucas and Dr. Bowen Chung, they tag-teamed a communication strategy project for Hurricane Katrina survivors.
The dialogue of Media + Medicine : Environment + The Mind lecture + symposium — which was organized to help facilitate the launch of the Katrina project — centered on the collaboration with the Media and Medicine group. Students contributed and exhibited their design proposals as part of a special class held by Henri Lucas, its central theme being the development of a better communication system for the New Orleans community.
Today Wells has a new endeavor, one which involves the raising of awareness surrounding schizophrenia in a way that creatively engages attendees of The Center Cannot Hold. With Prof. Elyn Saks as his co-librettist and original source material, he’s well equipped to do just that.
The center, as it were, is Dr. Kenneth Wells—and as long as he commits himself to being the gravitational stronghold around which the issues he remains passionate about swirl in orbital harmony, everything will hold.
We took a brief moment to exchange words with Ken Wells and ask him a few questions, so read our interview to learn what motivated him to begin writing operas, how the idea to collaborate with Elyn originated, advice on balancing art and science plus much more!
