[photo credit: Lineage Performing Arts Center]
The two met as students at Pasadena’s Polytechnic School, becoming best friends through their shared love of music and art. As Brandon’s bipolar disorder intensified, the inseparable pair stopped speaking—a rupture Thomas explores through dance, live music, journal entries, letters and a suicide risk assessment manual.
Born in Glendale on December 31, 1974, Brandon Toh was diagnosed with bipolar disorder during his junior year at UC Berkeley in 1996. He later became an on-staff supervisor at Didi Hirsch Mental Health in Culver City, working overnight shifts at the crisis line, training volunteers and developing a pilot program for high-risk callers.
As a multi-instrumentalist and composer, Toh worked as a sound editor and designer at rOOm media studio in Venice. His credits include sound work for the Grammy-nominated video of “When You Were Young” by The Killers and scoring the feature film “Journey to the Center,” which won Best Adventure Film at the 2008 X-Dance Film Festival.
The production, directed by Marisa Echeverria with choreography and script by Thomas, is followed by a panel discussion with performers, Brandon’s sister and former colleagues from Didi Hirsch Mental Health Care Center.
“Ceiling in the Floor” will run on Friday, Jan. 24, at 7:00 p.m. Lineage Performing Arts Center, 920 E. Mountain St., Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 844-7008 or visit https://www.lineagepac.org/upcoming-events/ceiling. Ticket prices: $33.42–$43.82.
