The theatre of self-expression

This chapter is concerned with using theatre processes in clinical dramatherapy. It is a form of a ‘cookbook’ of recipes in three acts; each act is divided into scenes which focus on dramatherapy practice with particular in-patient or out-patient populations. It derives from two areas of practical study: first, my theatre work with Pathfinder Studio and second from my work as a full-time dramatherapist at Lancaster Moor Hospital. The result of this research is a form of therapeutic theatre I call the theatre of self-expression. The work with Pathfinder Studio took place in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It involved practical research into creating a theatre form where members of the public could engage in their personal development using the arts of theatre. This work was influenced by my contact with Peter Brook (see Mitchell 1990), Grotowski’s Laboratory Theatre (see Mitchell 1991), Anna Halprin’s Dancers’ Workshop (see Roose-Evans 1989),1

Gabrielle Roth (see Roth 1989) and Paul Rebillot (Rebillot 1993). The philosophical orientation of this model gives primacy to two important

notions: first, the need for the expression of our ‘inner life’ and the need to do this in a creative way; second, the healing qualities which are engaged when we live in the ‘present’ rather than experiencing the world through screens of past

perceptions or future expectations. For those who wish to pursue these assumptions from a theoretical stance I would particularly recommend the work of Abraham Maslow (1970, 1971), Irving Yalom (1985, 1989, 1990), Silvano Arieti (1976) and George Kelly (1955; see also Fransella and Dalton 1990) from the world of psychology, and the ideas of Gurdjieff (Ouspensky 1977; Wilson 1986) and Alan Watts (1973a, b, 1976a, b) from Eastern philosophy.