Theatre as a Transformative Practice (original) (raw)
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2011
An exploration into the psychosomatic dynamics of theatre-based practices was undertaken using heuristic methodology (Moustakas, 1990). Twenty-two practitioners, some working independently, others working collaboratively, were interviewed about their approaches, focusing on their experiences of self-expressive performance as a way to work on the self and to induce healing and/or transformative growth. The heuristic approach also allowed for the researcher's direct involvement and participation in the practices under investigation, enabling her to explore firsthand the potential of theatre-based practice as a means to work on the self. Following heuristic methodology, the researcher created a Composite Depiction and a Creative Synthesis, juxtaposing the individual approaches of the research participants and highlighting the core elements of Theatre as a Transformative Practice. In doing so, she proposed that the practices explored facilitate an attunement of ego, some leading to ...
COMPLEXIFYING THE SELF: THE BREAKING THROUGH OF THEATRE IN PSYCHOLOGICAL EDUCATION
Applying Education in a Complex world, 2023
The following text frames and describes main orienting principles and recent results of Irromper [Pt. breaking through], an empowerment lead, artistic and psychoeducational project within the field of theatre, which was devised with a group of patients diagnosed with different psychological disorders. The methodology used in this article is mainly based on auto-ethnographic description. This theatre project was one of the latest outcomes of a line of post-doctoral research initiated in 2014, intersecting Theatre, Psychology, and Education, in collaboration with Encontrar+se [Pt. to find oneself] an institution for the promotion of mental health, in the city of Porto, Portugal. Since then, we have been conducting, every week, theatre sessions that interweave artistic and scientific methodologies, to help individuals diagnosed with different psychological disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, among others) to cope with complex mental and bodily issues in a collective context. After several years of collective theatre practices and experiences by the Encontrar+se users (hereafter referred to as participants), in 2021, during the pandemic, the Portuguese General Directorate for the Arts (DGArtes) opened a call for artistic projects relating to theatre and mental health. The fact that the proposal Irromper was chosen in the highest funding threshold validated the artistic dimension of our proposal in addition to the therapeutical one, reinforcing the relevance of the arts as an important activity to address complex issues in the contemporary world.
Participatory theatre and mental health recovery: a narrative inquiry
Perspectives in Public Health, 2017
This is a narrative inquiry focusing upon the stories told by participants of Teater Vildenvei, a theatre company that has been part of the rehabilitation programme for mental health service users for over 20 years in Oslo, Norway. As a methodology, narrative inquiry has been increasingly employed in health sector research, 1 although the potential for narrative research in Public Health is still being explored. 2 Furthermore, in Norway, there has thus far been little attention given to exploring health narratives in the context of public health, let alone those of personal experience related to the participation in culture and health initiatives. The perspective of service users is therefore often lost in the discussions about the value of arts and health initiatives for the promotion of public health. Despite the fact that user involvement is a statutory right in Norway, research shows that users' voices are not sufficiently listened to. 3 Narrative inquiry is therefore one way of enabling people's voices to be heard. Teater Vildenvei can best be described as a community mental health theatre company working to promote mental health among participants with various mental health problems. The company does not work within an overtly therapeutic paradigm, and the emphasis is not on working through personal issues to achieve psychological change, as it is in many forms of dramatherapy. 4 Instead, the company is resource oriented and focuses on the health-promoting properties of collaborative theatre-making to produce positive change in people's lives. As such, Teater Vildenvei belongs to a long tradition of using theatre performance to enhance wellbeing and health. 4-6 This tradition of theatremaking in the service of health and wellbeing is at least as old as the ancient Greek rituals performed in the Ascleipions and Aristotle's theory of dramatic catharsis, 7 which acknowledged the
Applied theatre: performing health and wellbeing
Studies in Theatre and Performance, 2017
The version in the Kent Academic Repository may differ from the final published version. Users are advised to check http://kar.kent.ac.uk for the status of the paper. Users should always cite the published version of record.
An ethno-phenomenological study of actors’ experiences of performing in theatre
2017
This thesis contains an ethno-phenomenological study of actors' experiences of performing in theatre. The methodology of the investigation was developed from the traditions of phenomenology and ethnography, with particular attention given to phenomenological reduction as espoused by Husserl. There are two distinct threads of inquiry that are juxtaposed with each other in order to understand actors' experiences and the contingencies that accompany such experiences. First, there is a 'wide' examination of factors that impinge on or foster experience for actors. Second, there is a 'deep' and 'narrow' examination of the performance experiences themselves, gathered from a small selection of actors. Both threads, while different in approach, are complementary and are necessarily positioned together. The study also examines the sedimentation that undergirds such experiences, including actor training, with 'sedimentation' conceived to be a set of accumulated memories and practices embodied in an actor that are often linked to training. 35 Carrithers, Collins, et al. (1985) explore the complex history and cultural specificity of the term 'self'. Markus & Kitayama (1991) suggest that different cultures have vastly different notions of the individual self. In Asian cultures, they suggest, there is a greater notion of connectedness, compared to the West. I want to locate 'self ', phenomenologically and auto-ethnographically, as both that position which a person conceives him or herself to be in within their socio-cultural and familial frame and their own internal self-awarenesses. Zamir (2010) considers acting to be an existential amplification of the 'self' of an actor, where imaginative possibilities are actualised in an expansive rendering of the 'self' of an actor. 36 The term 'baggage' is used in the popular colloquial sense of what a person carries that weighs them down. These could be memories, conflict or issues of personality, even concerns with body and interpersonal perception. The term is not meant in a derogatory sense but implies what weighs on an actor as a preperformative condition.
The Changing Theatre: A psychological approach to the experience of acting
2012
The investigation aims to study the transformational processes in art, more precisely in the art of theatre. A number of particular features has made us elect theatre in its relation with change, as the main focus of our study, namely that to talk about theatre and not talk about change would certainly seem to be a harder task than the opposite. In fact, in the theatrical practice everything is connected into change processes, whether we are talking about transforming emotions into aesthetical forms; written texts into tridimensional plays (props, sets, costumes, lights, sounds, living characters); actors transform themselves into characters; and the characters themselves are constantly transforming and changing, as well as the developing relationships amongst each other. Depending on the lens we choose to look at this phenomenon, we can observe different scale related processes of change, but on the base of each, we constantly find a dialectical process and a dynamical developmental logic of constant transformation. In our case, we have chosen to focus on the experience of acting, from the voice of its practitioners: the actors. We are envisaging the actors (and theatre makers) as "experts" in the art of change, and hope to find in the voice of their experience, knowledge and information that helps us to broaden our understanding of the phenomenon of change, namely from a psychological perspective. For that purpose, the research design that has been developed mixes both quantitative and qualitative methods: The qualitative component consists of collecting implicit theories of change from actors and theatre directors, and is its main contribution; the quantitative component consists in the development of an instrument to measure cognitive complexity for the theatrical context which we have called "Escala de Complexidade Sociocognitiva no Domínio do Teatro" (Sociocognitive Complexity Scale in the Domain of Theater) [ Silva, Ferreira, Coimbra & Menezes (2011)], adapted from the "Escala da Política" (Politics Scale) by Ferreira and Menezes (2001) and from the Portuguese version of the IDCP (Parker, 1984) developed by . Preliminary results of this study will be presented and discussed as well as further developments and implications.
Autobiographical Dramatic Theatrical Performance as a Therapeutic Intervention
PÓS: Revista do Programa de Pós-graduação em Artes da EBA/UFMG
This paper articulates the basic features of Autobiographical Therapeutic Performance (ATP). Contextualizing it in drama therapy practice as a performance-based intervention, the paper describes ATPs roots in experimental theatre and grounds its features in psychotherapy concepts. The paper outlines the main therapeutic constituents of ATP: Narrating lived experience, shaping the material into aesthetic forms, embodying, and rehearsing personal stories that have been processed, performing in front of an audience, and integrating new insights in the post-performance reflection. Finally, a “warning” is voiced about the potential danger of using this intervention when it’s not adequate.
This thesis explores Playback Theatre (PBT) as a site for learning and healing, with meaning-making as the linking dynamic. This is done through: 1. the researcher’s own meaning-making of a performance; 2. a model locating PBT at the nexus of Narrative, Performance, Health and Education. 3. an analytical heuristic where the propositions implicit in the literature were made explicit, and used to search for empirical evidence using the lived experience of its participants; and, 4. the development of an emergent theory of PBT that was informed by this evidence. The research questions are in two categories— Empirical and Theoretical. The empirical questions asked about the lived experience of PBT, and the associated process of meaning-making. These questions were then re-ordered and expanded in light of the data, to include: what is inherent in the form that might make it rich with potential for learning-healing, processes used to work towards this potential, and impacts these may have on the social-emotional lives of participants. The empirical research covered one five month and one six month period. It involved interviewing 47 participants from nine performances and videoing rehearsals and a public performance. The investigation is post-positivistic and broadly humanistic using mixed methods: Phenomenology, Phenomenography and Grounded Theory. The theoretical propositions are established through review of literature, and NUD*IST (4) used to examine these in light of the interview data. As the propositions were supported by empirical evidence, they were used to construct an emergent theory of PBT. At the heart of this theory is a process of meaning-making. It asserts “telling”, “witnessing”, and “modelling” as essential elements of PBT and these activate individual and group learning that gives rise to new meanings. This can lead to emotional healing. The theory also asserts that healing increases potential for additional learning to occur because it makes telling, witnessing and modelling more salient. It is finally argued that the efficacy of PBT as a vehicle for meaning-making and, hence, learning-healing, reflects the particular social-aesthetic context of PBT. Suggestions are made regarding contributions that PBT can make to Education, and questions posed for future research.