PROTOTYPE THEATRE for Health
An Active Pathway to Communication & Innovation I have just came across this Master of design research paper from university of Dundee 2014 which had some write up about Theatre Nemo so thought I would share a small bit of it.
Nemo Latin meaning "NO One" Theatre Nemo is a non-profit organization based in Glasgow using theatre and creative arts as approaches to support people who have mental health problems. They work with local communities, psychiatric hospitals and prison to help people get their voices through and have social connections. Isabel, the director of Theatre Nemo claimed that people who have mental health issues need more understanding besides medical support. Using theatre and animation as methods to show public the real life of people who have mental health problems is powerful and straightforward. Members from Theatre Nemo talked about the change that theatre has made in their lives, “In an engaging and fun way, theatrical methods help us speak out our stories bravely” “ we got friendships here” “ it is my social life”. And the carer of one community member who comes to Theatre Nemo every week from hospital indicated that their service user has become more willing to talk and more comfortable to be with her friends.“she loves being here!” The idea of transforming real stories to scripts which is the same as Healthcare Theatre, shows the importance of “real” in using theatrical methods on the stage. And using theatre as a presentation way to generate empathy.
The workshop is one of a series of workshops aiming at making improvised sketches which will become a show for Mental Health Arts and Film Festival in October 2014. Two facilitators were cooperating to conduct in an informal but efective theatre workshop. The workshop consisted of body stretch warm up, previous outcomes review, themes discussion, team building, script development and short play presentation. There was lots of laughter and creating coming through these activities and participants showed their satisfaction particularly in warm up and improvisational rehearsal.