“I look too good to be on medication!”
With that declaration, Wambui Bahati begins a funny, moving, and unflinchingly honest journey through the highs and lows of living with bipolar disorder.
In *Balancing Act: The Musical*, Wambui uses storytelling, original songs, humor, and vivid character work to take audiences beyond the diagnosis and into the life of the person experiencing it. She moves from a little girl with dreams of becoming a star to a working actress and mother whose life is overtaken by mania, depression, suicide attempts, psychiatric hospitalizations, poverty, and separation from her children.
Along the way, she reveals what mental illness can look and feel like from the inside: the racing thoughts, sleepless nights, impulsive decisions, isolation, anger, confusion, and the painful experience of being treated as a diagnosis rather than a human being.
But *Balancing Act* is not a story of defeat. It is a story of survival, recovery, self-discovery, and learning that mental illness may be something you have, but it is not who you are.
Available in two formats, the program may be presented as a solo musical keynote featuring Wambui’s stories and selected songs, or as a full theatrical production accompanied by three or more professional musicians. The full version gives organizations the experience of an Off-Broadway-style musical performed at their own event.
Honest, humorous, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, *Balancing Act* reminds audiences that recovery does not always happen in a straight line—and that a meaningful life is still possible after a mental health diagnosis.
