Theatre Workshop Research Articles

Secret agent meets pirate professor on zoom. Collaboratively creating characters in a digital space

This Window-Of-Practice contribution focuses on a teaching experience where elements of on-site teaching were successfully transferred to an online theatre workshop for English learners at a German university in 2021. The sequence of activities was also presented at the 8th Scenario Forum Symposium. The text describes the stages of trust-building, character-creation based on a visual prompt, character-exploration and improvisation of short scenes with the created characters and focuses on how the online environment (in this case the video conference platform Zoom) can be creatively used to let learners make theatrical experiences and foster a collaborative atmosphere between participants in physically remote locations

Social theater as an inclusive educational-educational device

In this short essay the A. intends to analyze the scientific coordinates of social theater as a pedagogical-didactic device in an inclusive perspective for the development of the intellectual welfare of communities in the 21st century. The reference model is that of Inclusive Education, which represents, as Unesco has specified several times, a true guideline in the field of education, education and training; it develops through the guiding principles of equality, social justice, freedom, the right to citizenship, the right to education and social equity, without any discrimination based on race, gender, language, or different cultures. This is possible through inclusive theater workshops at school.

Didattica del teatro e Teatro didattico

In the essay I will analyse in depth the teaching of theatre in high schools. I will point out one of the contradictions of Italian high school about theatre teaching: in the morning theatre is taught as a form of literature in the field of Humanities, in the afternoon a theatre workshop is organized at school and in the evening teachers take their students to see live performances. Theatrical literature and theatrical activity are therefore distinct. In Italian schools, the rigid distinction between text and performance remains. I will try to suggest some solutions by referring to recent studies on Aristotle’s Poetics.

Time, grief, and hope on film

Time, grief, and hope on film

Application Of Theatre In Digital Space For Mental Health Care During Covid-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic, psychological problems have increased due to social distancing under lockdown. Theatre in the digital space, as a healing approach for mental health, is playing a role in helping people adapt to a new environment and confront mental issues, such as isolation and oppression. The nature of theatre online provides a safe environment for individuals to play, act and express themselves. Online meeting platforms allow people to connect and interact through video and audio calls. Based on the theatre workshop online sessions through electronic devices, such as internet-connected smartphones and computers, the researcher, as the facilitator with theatre acting and directing background, carried out theatre training in the digital space in partnership with the Cultural Affairs Bureau. The workshop provided a safe space for theatre education, communication, self-development, challenge acceptance and coping with life in the pandemic. Being aware of the strengths and weaknesses of the theatre online, this study investigated it in the digital space as a viable tool for enhancing individuals’ capacity to accept the challenge and satisfy the need for mental health during the pandemic and post-pandemic period.

Health inequalities, ethnic minorities and COVID19: interactive theatre workshop drawing on a qualitative interview study

BackgroundThe COVID19 pandemic revealed and deepened existing inequalities. These were exacerbated by institutional and interpersonal racism and poorly conceived public health messaging. As a result, people from minority ethnic backgrounds in the UK were disproportionately affected. We conducted a creative interdisciplinary session to support interactive reflection and discussion on these inequalities between the actors and the audience, who was comprised of public health scientists and NHS practitioners, to come up with practical ways to address ethnicity-based health inequalities going forward. MethodsWe prepared a 45 min interactive scenario drawing on forum theatre approaches, which are based on the Theatre of the Oppressed: a set of dramatical techniques created by Augusto Boal. To understand what to include the interactive scenario we carried out a workshop built on a narrative interview study with 70 adults who had Covid between March, 2020, and November, 2021. We adopted a maximum variation sampling strategy focusing on people from minority ethnic backgrounds (45 of total sample). Interviews were done remotely and recorded via video or audio. Study participants were invited to tell their story in their own words, alongside semi-structured prompting. After thematic analysis, the research team worked with theatre practitioners from the Performing Medicine company to create scenarios from verbatim interview content. The format allows audience members to watch scenarios and interact directly with actors, giving advice on how to improve the situation. The study was approved by Berkshire Ethics Committee. Informed verbal and written consent were obtained from all participants. FindingsFive themes from analysis explored in the workshop emerged: (1) existing racialised disadvantages that impacted COVID-19 exposure: employment, housing, and caring responsibilities; (2) unequal access to care, welfare, and support; (3) fears about the health-care system regarding quality of care and vaccine safety; (4) perceptions that the media and public health messaging blamed minority ethnic groups for spreading infection; and (5) increases in acts of direct racism. These informed the development of a 45-minute interactive scenario, which will be performed at the 10th UK Public Health Science conference. InterpretationThere is an urgent need to re-evaluate public health messaging and care for people from minority ethnic backgrounds. This theatre workshop will support reflection to refine workshop content for further dissemination. FundingUK Economic and Social Research Council.

141 THE INTENSE PROJECT: IMPROVING DEMENTIA CARE THROUGH SIMULATION OF SELF-EXPERIENCE

Abstract Background The EC is concerned about the growing shortage of experienced health and social care professionals to care for people with dementia. Although specialized dementia education programs have begun to appear in recent years, a lack of consistency and adequate level of knowledge of dementia to anticipate the required treatment remains across Europe. The Improving demeNtia care Through Self-Experience (INTENSE) project supports the creation of skills improvement paths for professionals across Europe that incorporate and promote successful self-experience methodologies and practices to increase knowledge and understanding of the lived experience of dementia (e.g., Virtual Dementia Tours, role plays and practices of theatre workshops). Methods A systematic review of self-experience tools, training and interventions was conducted. Participatory stakeholder workshops were then held in Ireland, Italy, Germany and the Netherlands to explore ways in which self-experience could be used to better understand the experience of the person with dementia and how the simulation of self-experience could be incorporated into existing (or new) training programmes. Workshop discussions were transcribed and thematically analysed along with workshop outputs to develop the INTenSE toolkit and supporting platform. Results An INTenSE toolkit was developed containing interactive no-tech, low-tech and high-tech approaches to simulating self-experience. Training scenarios, facilitation approaches and sustainability plans were designed and a prototype of the INTenSE Platform (website to house and support use of the toolkit) was developed. Beta versions of each will be presented. Conclusion INTenSE has illustrated how participatory research can strengthen cooperation and exchange of experiences between organizations working in the field of dementia care; improve social awareness of the ability of self-experience to improve dementia care; promote the integration of self-experience practices in the training of health and social care professional; and highlight the potential for self-experience simulation to be incorporated into carer training and dementia awareness education, subject to the provision of appropriate supports.

Governing Care

This article compares the practices of care developed by theatre makers and teachers with those performed by research ethics committees. These two different ways of working through how to care – one an institutionalized, medical-juridical process and the other a relational set of practice-based principles of care – do not always align, but rather, create conflicts of care, exacerbated by the liminality of performance, which positions it as a problematic object of study, particularly when held alongside medicine and even the social sciences. Moreover, the institutional frameworks and committees that govern the collection of ‘human data’ in Western, Anglophone universities have considerable implications for undertaking performance research. After offering some context regarding the formation of the research ethics review committees, this essay draws on the authors own experience attempting to negotiate the way that consent might be informed, given, and confirmed in a theatre workshop environment, making explicit the different methods and conceptions of care, and the lack of recognition given to the skilled care practised by scholars and practitioners in the field of performance. What emerges, this essay contends, is a conflict of care, that raises complex ethical challenges as well as entwined methodological and epistemological issues for our field, as ethical review is increasingly an institutional requirement for performance research – yet these review processes are often ill-equipped to consider the complexity of performance as an object of research. This paper concludes with a research ethics thought experiment, an imagined project that attempts to exploit the loopholes of institutional ethical governance, but draws out the problematics of participant anonymity and the paradox of attempting to make a relational practice of care visible as a research object.

Intergenerational Theater Workshops as Unique Recreational Activities among Older Adults in Japanese Care Facilities: A Qualitatively Driven Mixed-Methods Multiple-Case Study Design.

Intergenerational theater activities have been recently employed in recreation for older adults. We held a series of four intergenerational theater workshops in two older adults’ care facilities in Japan and sought the experiences of older participants, younger participants, and the facility managers. With a qualitatively driven mixed-methods multiple-case study design, we obtained data from field observation, interviews with participants, and preworkshop and postworkshop changes on a well-being scale (Ikigai-9) among older participants, and the results of the two sites were compared. “Immediate effects” were seen in older adults because they responded actively and demonstrated surprising faculties during the workshop. Facility staff members and younger participants received “extended effects” because they gained new ideas regarding the remaining skills of older participants and a sense of reuniting with old neighbors through the exercise. In the Ikigai-9 scale, the items measuring “present happiness” significantly improved at Site 1 but not at Site 2. Better results at Site 1 might have been caused by the lower care needs of participants and the inclusion of children. Less support from facility staff members during the activities also might have promoted the voluntary participation of older adults. Involving children and engaging the facility staff in preparation could enhance the quality of activities.

Asserting Boundaries and Conflict Resolution with "A Midsummer Night’s Dream"

This paper explores an applied theatre workshop using William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for educating university students on techniques to assert boundaries, communicate effectively, and resolve conflict. Choosing to focus on the four major relationships within A Midsummer Night’s Dream provides theatrical scenarios for students to learn about unhealthy desire, miscommunicated feelings, unrequited love, and consenting relationships. Using these predetermined scenes, a barrier is created between students’ potential personal experiences and the work they will do in this workshop to reduce the possibility of retraumatizing participants. By the end of the workshop students are expected to have the confidence and techniques to assert physical and emotional boundaries, and have the language to communicate problems and resolve conflict.

Action theatre to explain and debate food democracy injustice

Alternative food structures, despite their core sociocultural justice values, experience difficulties in attracting members from diverse backgrounds. This article attempts to gain insight into the reasons for this paradox by assessing the findings of a specific survey conducted among inhabitants and members of a cooperative supermarket in Brussels, as part of a participatory research project on the sociocultural inclusion capacities of this cooperative structure. The survey method was based on a unique approach involving theatre workshops, which led to: (i) clarification of the representations and affects that the neighbourhood inhabitants associated with the cooperative supermarket, particularly regarding its accessibility and the food sold there; (ii) formalization of inhabitants’ critical narrative; and (iii) debate on the structure’s sociocultural justice principles. The findings above all highlighted the importance of taking experiential and affective dimensions into account in the definition of sociocultural justice principles to ensure that they will be shared by all actors concerned. We thus aimed to jointly address the analytical and methodological challenges of clarifying these dimensions so as to take them into account in food democracy projects.

Little words BIG ISSUES: co-creating an applied theatre workshop with young women

ABSTRACT Recognising young women’s authorship as a powerful force for civic change, we developed a creative framework for applied theatre that cultivates a space for young women to co-author little words, BIG ISSUES: a diversity and inclusion workshop facilitated in cooperation with U.S middle school students. Activating girl-led activism through performance-based methods, students envisioned a more inclusive community by practising how to author responses to the hurtful little words that relate to big societal issues. We describe and analyse the programme design and workshop facilitation, and emphasise the value of young women’s leadership in pursuing inclusivity in a variety of contexts.

Using Forum Theatre to mobilise knowledge and improve NHS care: the Enhancing Post-injury Psychological Intervention and Care (EPPIC) study

Background:Evidence regarding the impact of psychological problems on recovery from injury has limited influence on practice. Mindlines show effective practice requires diverse knowledge which is generally socially transmitted. Aims and objectives:Develop and test a method blending patient, practitioner, and research evidence and using Forum Theatre to enable key stakeholders to interact with it. Assess this methods; impact on contributing individuals/groups; on behaviour, practice, and research; mechanisms enabling these changes to occur. Methods:Stage-1: captured patient (n=53), practitioner (n=62), and research/expert (n=3) evidence using interviews, focus groups, literature review; combined these strands using framework analysis and conveyed them in a play. Stage-2: patients (n=32), carers (n=3), practitioners (n=31), and researchers (n=16) attended Forum Theatre workshops where they shared experiences, watched the play, re-enacted elements, and co-produced service improvements. Stage-3: used the Social Impact Framework to analyse study outcome data and establish what changed, how and why. Findings:This approach enhanced individuals’/group knowledge of post-injury psychopathology, confidence in their knowledge, mutual understanding, creativity, attitudes towards knowledge mobilisation, and research. These cognitive, attitudinal, and relational impacts led to multilevel changes in behaviour, practice, and research. Four key mechanisms enabled this research to occur and create impact: diverse knowledge, drama/storytelling, social interaction, actively altering outcomes. Discussion and conclusions:Discourse about poor uptake of scientific evidence focuses on methods to aid translation and implementation; this study shows how mindlines can reframe this ‘problem’ and inform impactful research. EPPIC demonstrated how productive interaction between diverse stakeholders using creative means bridges gaps between evidence, knowledge, and action.

Lessons from a distanced stage: embedding a Zoom-mediated drama workshop in a language classroom

This paper will share the design and implementation of a Zoom-mediated theatre workshop in an undergraduate advanced Spanish language course and explore how this type of activity can support the development of a range of learners’ competences whilst generating virtual presence through playfulness and engagement.  Our aim is twofold: to provide practitioners with a sample of a drama-based activity adapted for the distanced language classroom that can be adopted in any synchronous online environment, and to reflect on how we believe this workshop and its related assessment enabled creative and critical forms of engagement with the original material through students’ performance of their own dramatic transpositions. We will discuss the role of technology, appraising the affordances it provided for creative multimodal interactions and online togetherness despite the pandemic-imposed separation between participants.

School-based self-management intervention using theatre to improve asthma control in adolescents: a pilot cluster-randomised controlled trial

BackgroundChildren with poorly controlled asthma have higher rates of unplanned healthcare use and school absences, as well as lower rates of medication adherence and knowledge. They also feel less comfortable using their medication at school, due to social fears and bullying. In this study, this was addressed through two school-based self-management interventions piloted to determine which one to use in a full trial.MethodsWe sought to assess the feasibility and acceptability of two school-based self-management intervention aimed at improving asthma control. Schools in London were randomised to (i) a theatre workshop for the whole year group aimed at raising awareness of asthma in schools, followed by self-management workshops for children (full intervention), (ii) theatre workshop alone (theatre only), or (iii) usual care (controls). Opt-out consent was obtained from parents. The study was a cluster randomised pilot trial, using London schools as the unit of allocation. Our primary aim was to assess the feasibility of delivering a self-management intervention in schools aimed at improving the asthma control test (ACT) score at 6 months. Secondary outcomes included acceptability of the school-based interventions, suitability of the theatre intervention and the full intervention with the self-management workshops, and generation of randomised data to inform future power calculations. Data were analysed by generalised mixed-effect models.ResultsThe recruitment strategy for this trial was effective. Five schools were randomised to full intervention (189 children), four to theatre only (103 children), and six to controls (83 children). Asthma control test (ACT) score at baseline and 6 months was obtained from 178/358 participating children. Compared with the controls, there were no large differences found in ACT score with the full intervention; knowledge and perception of asthma improved though. GP and hospital visits increased in the full intervention group. Compared with controls, ACT score was unchanged in the theatre only group.ConclusionThe asthma self-management intervention trial in schools is feasible and acceptable. The full intervention consisting of both theatre and self-management workshop for asthmatics tended to be better suited to improve outcomes than the theatre intervention on its own. This full intervention should be the one carried forward into a main trial if funding for further research was sought. Further work is needed to understand why there was evidence that unscheduled visits to healthcare professionals increased with the full intervention.Trial registrationThe study was registered on the clinical trials database on 14th May 2018 (ID NCT03536416).

The creativity of the adolescent manifested in the theater workshop

During the period of development of adolescents, each and every one of the processes that make them undergo constant changes, it is necessary as an educational institution to provide a space for them to identify with their peers, and in turn, allow them to manifest their skills, abilities and attitudes. We propose the space of the theater workshop as the appropriate environment for students to manifest their creative capacity, encouraging its strengthening, to later materialize in a staging, this can range from the generation of dialogues for a play, the creation of characters, to the construction of scenarios and objects that should appear in each scene. The importance of the fact that students can learn in a meaningful way within an artistic environment is emphasized, in addition to contributing to the formation and consolidation of a positive self-perception as an individual, student, artist and social subject.

Enactive methods towards situational learning - engaging people with intellectual and developmental disability in design

In this paper we explore how enactive methods may support and enhance the design of mobile solutions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Our project deals with supporting independent public transport and applies enactive methods in order to account for the interdependent nature of technology, disability, and environment. We staged three iterations of a bus workshop and one theatre workshop where real, everyday scenarios were acted out to gain tacit yet crucial insights. These enactive workshops and the prototype testing showed that transport activities are context dependent and unique to each individual. In our case, enactive methods revealed that independent public transport goes beyond a need for reminders, time management and communication, towards the management of unforeseen events. Our work shows how a closer realistic setting may provide more nuanced, personal, and detailed design insights that support emotional and situational understandings of user experiences.

Preventing Marginalization and Radicalization through Theatre and the Expressive Arts: Empowering Intercultural Dialogue

Marginalization, radicalization, and encountering the Other are undoubtedly some of the topics on top of the agenda for social growth in our society. The roles that women, in general, and mothers, in particular, can play in prevention and inclusion strategies are certainly of great importance for an approach that goes beyond a simple intervention on effects, working on causes and facilitating intercultural dialogue. theatre and art have always been used as forms of storytelling, to generate emotions and make the audience identify with the stories they hear or watch. For this reason, in the field of methodologies and tools for the inclusion of people and the prevention of marginalization, over time excellent examples of the application of artistic approaches to facilitate the processes of growth and empowerment have emerged. Theatre and story-telling workshops, especially those for migrant women, represent good cases of facilitating the process of discovering and defining one’s own identity in a healthy way. This represents the basis for a path of integration through art,giving awareness and inclusion to participants and at the same time making them “ambassadors” of the intercultural dialogue.

Margaret Atwood’s Hag-Seed: Dramatic Encounters between Classic and Adaptation, Life and Art, Freedom and Imprisonment

This paper examines Margaret Atwood’s novel Hag-Seed (2016) as a metatextual adaptation of Shakespeare’s literary classic The Tempest. The terms “adaptation” and “classic” are employed to explain the relation of Atwood’s work to its source material. The performance of The Tempest prepared by the characters of the novel that engages convicts is a form of multi-media interactive theater, and the classical text of the Shakespearean play is considered a form of “sacra” (Turner), which has educational and utilitarian purposes. Michel Foucault’s analysis of prison, his concept of “heterotopia”, and Victor Turner’s concept of “liminality” are introduced to discuss the convicts participating in a theatrical workshop as liminal individuals during the ritual of transition while in the heterotopian space of a prison.

Participatory Theater as Fieldwork in Chinese Prisons: A Research Note

This methodological reflection is based on the author's own experience taking part in participatory theater projects in mainland Chinese prisons over the past 5 years. This article demonstrates how the author's participation in prison theater projects secured otherwise unattainable research access by forming collaborations with various organizations. Participatory theater workshops also offered the space for sustaining long-term rapport. This research note discusses why trusting relationships are the most important guarantee to obtaining valid data in Chinese prison research. The findings contribute to understanding methodological challenges and innovations of conducting fieldwork in criminal justice systems with no formal research access channels.