ABSTRACT
The Possibility Project (TPP) is a theatre-based youth development program in which teenage participants write, produce, and perform an original musical based on their life experiences. These shows have hard-hitting themes, such as sexual abuse, gang violence, homophobia, and depression. A mixed methods research design was used to evaluate the program outcomes. Multivariate analyses of TPP participants and a comparison group showed significant treatment effects in providing emotional support, self-disclosure to friends, and conflict resolution. Coding of interviews with TPP participants found that these skills were part of broader changes in the young people’s points of view about themselves and other people, a shift that involved greater openness to diversity and increased empathy for other perspectives, as well as greater self-acceptance, more confidence, and improved conflict resolution skills.
The original assumptions of the research were that the program impact came from the participants’ sense of ownership of their stories and control over their lives enhanced by improved communication skills. The research, however, pointed toward a different, less individualistic, view. The sharing of stories and sense that the stories are owned by the group seems to facilitate the changes in points of view and the “transformative” impacts the participants consistently describe. This revised view of how the program works aligns with both well-established views of creative development as well as newer theories of distributed creativity. This case also raises new questions for distributed creativity research to consider.
