Towards Community Resilience: Theatre for Young Audiences and the Mental Health Crisis (original) (raw)
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Perspectives in Public Health, 2017
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This paper gives an account of a collaborative project between staff and service users of a statutory day service which, in the context of mental health service user involvement, aimed at examining the impact of a theatre performance devised and performed by mental health service users on improving care practice and mental health service delivery. The paper will consider the background of the project as well as giving a detailed account of the project itself and a reflection on the outcomes. In the context of dramatherapy, it opens possibilities for the use of performance as a platform for dialogue, and the identification and implementation of strategies for change at a collective level.
Actup!' Theatre as Education and its impact on Young People's Learning
This paper was published as Working Paper 46 by the Centre for Labour Market Studies, University of Leicester. It is also available from http://www.clms.le.ac.uk/research/wpapers.lasso This paper presents the findings from a study which explores the role of theatre as a site for learning in a community context and how it can provide informal learning opportunities for young people experiencing social exclusion. The study involved 'Actup!' a theatre group for young people on Leicester's Saffron Lane Estate and run by Speakeasy Theatre Company. Observations, interviews and visual records were used to explore practitioners' and young people's experiences of 'Actup!' The research findings suggest that theatre as education has a number of important functions for these young people. Using structured processes such as rehearsal techniques and exercises that involve the experiences of young people, theatre can positively contribute to the transmission of their sk...
Nordic Journal of Social Research, 2017
Introduction: In Norway one of three young people drop out of high school. For young people to be on the outside of education or work may develop feelings of isolation and lack of control, resulting in alienation from both authority and community that may further marginalize them. Some develop mental-health problems.Aim: The aim of this study was to describe and interpret the experiences of young persons neither in school nor working who participated in a one-year inclusive-theatre project. The research questions were as follows: How do the participants describe their experiences with inclusive theatre related to self-image? How does participating in inclusive theatre affect their social belonging and participation? Method: Three multi-stage focus-group interviews with participants were carried out. The data material was analysed with thematic content analysis.Findings: The main theme was ‘a changed self-image’ and four sub-themes emerged: ‘increased self-confidence’, ‘increased abi...
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.
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.
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Arts Education Policy Review, 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic raised concerns that academic skills would wither away during the lockdown and with it, social-emotional skills. This is assumed to be as true for neurotypical students as for neurodiverse ones. When students return to their schools, how will they function again in their social environment? The key to addressing the transition back to the “new normal” is the arts, which encompass the whole child: cognition, emotions, social, and physical aspects. This article highlights how creating Barrier-Free Theatre programs that include drama, music, dance, art, and creative writing could help all students regain the academic progress they have lost, and with the support of creative arts therapists, could lead to the blossoming of a welcoming and inclusive school community in which everyone, regardless of difference, is valued for their innate creativity and human spirit. Barrier-Free Theatre can be integrated in classroom curricula, after-school programs, or with community-school partnerships. Creative arts therapists approach students from a strengths-based perspective. Participants are provided the opportunity to make choices, be respected, and learn through solving problems together. This holistic group process allows the arts to heal trauma and disconnection, while enhancing executive functioning and social-emotional connections. Including creative arts therapies in schools are crucial in our technological, disconnected world; we share how this could be done. KEY WORDS: accessibility, creative arts therapies, drama therapy, executive functions, holistic education, inclusive education, neurodiverse students, neurotypical students, social-emotional skills, strengths-based perspective.