OPEN Friday: May 22, 2026 [1:25-6:29]

Welcome back to Open Everyone, I'm Rina Valindy, your hosticaficoligia for the next hour and body you to get social with us online. That is, follow us on all social media platforms at BronxNet TV, and of course, why you don't forget, follow us on all social media platforms as well at Rina Valindy, and welcome once again to Open We are 20 years on air this May of 2026. And also, you know, May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and as you know, we advocate mental health awareness. And so in honor of this, our first guest is, he's going to share an exciting new play called Five Sessions, a War in Therapy, and this play is actually an intense psychological drama that questions society's systemic injustices and the limits of institutional care. It's sat in present day, New York City, and the play is about a recent graduate therapist of privilege and his patient, a Latino building superintendent, who's on the edge. By grief, exploitation, and systemic neglect, this is presented by your independent productions, the play confronts the uncomfortable truths at the intersection of human behavior and social reality. And here to tell us more about Five Sessions is actor Ivan Goras, who plays the lead actor. Hello. Hi, Ivan. I'm going to be real with you, I'm trying not to get too close because it's early in the morning, my breath, I smell it. So I'm trying not to get too close to you, respectfully. Well, you know, I appreciate that because you don't even look like yourself, but I was sitting. Yeah, it's been a rough two weeks, I'm hurting right now, but we're getting to that. We're getting to that. Right, off camera, no, because I'm saying like, well, I assume this is for the car, yes. This is why I have a hat on, usually when I come here, I'm really nice, I have my hair done, but my hair is a mess right now. My face is a mess. My spirit feels messy, like the play is very deep and it's taken a toll on me and I'm extremely tired, but I'm so appreciative of you, of open, I like when you do this, of open, I love Bronx and thank you for having us here. It's an experience and it's something that at least people that are in the working class should come see this play, the people of color should come see this play, because this play, the super is talking about a situation being born in a system that wasn't really made for him, it wasn't made for him, it was made for him to work in, so that's where he's at right now. Yeah, that's an interesting dynamic, right, you talk about to work in, not for him, right, and to, I mean, I gave like a summarized synopsis of the play and I emphasized on the ledge because, you know, in your promotion of materials, you show him on top of the building, so it's a serious play, it seems, and so the fact that you're expressing yourself in the way that you are, I can only imagine what you're going through because if you're very vulking those emotions and tapping into, I want to say, even a place that I don't think any of us really like to visit, right, right, and it's a thing that it's very taboo, we don't like to talk about it, right, we don't like to talk about the things that hurt us, right, we don't like to talk about the things that are like out there that we need to talk about, it's taboo, but we need to talk about it, right, right, mental health is a serious issue in our country, yes, this is not a game, no, it's extreme as it is, it's not a game at this point, it's extreme, it's on steroids right now, it's steroids, it's like on, it's a monster, it's a hope now, and we need to get a control of it, and the only way to do that is to really talk about it, to have pieces like this come out, have it make you feel uncomfortable, that's the point, that's the point, feel uncomfortable in that, feel uncomfortable because that might be your brother that's going through that, and you may not even know, it might be somebody in your family, your friends, it's important to talk about these things, because at some point he is on the edge, I don't want to give away the story, I know, but you put it on the promotional material, right, so it's kind of like, okay, he's on the edge, he's on the edge, and you're showing him on the edge, which leaves us to wonder, like, has he gone to that place, right, of questioning