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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
Time: 11:55 pm
Time: 11:55 pm
Results for theatre programs
4 results foundAuthor: James, Nalita Title: Theatre As A Site for Learning: The Impact of Drama on the Development of Oracy Among Young Adult Offenders Summary: This report documents the development of, and findings from, a nine month pilot project joint funded by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and Arts Council England. The project explored and evaluated the use of theatre as a site for learning, and the methods and processes of drama as ‘learning tools.’ Of particular interest was the impact of theatre and drama in supporting the personal and social development of young offenders, with particular emphasis on the development of oracy. The project was developed in response to the research gap in exploring the impact that drama and its creative processes can have on young adults at risk of offending, particularly in relation to oracy. Further, this project will explore the under-researched area of the role drama plays in young offenders’ resettlement. The project is situated within the current policy context, which seeks to reduce young adults’ exposure to risks of offending and re-offending, and simultaneously increase their social inclusion. A key strand of this policy development is the recognition of the potential of the arts to engage young adults and positively contribute to their personal and social development. Simultaneously, skills development particularly around literacy, language and numeracy is also seen as an effective response to (re)engaging young offenders with learning and education, and in contributing to a reduction in re-offending. Many art forms such as drama offer excellent opportunities for promoting expression and communication, and are increasingly being used as an explicit means of skills development among young offenders. The project team worked with two groups of young male offenders held in a prison estate in the East Midlands. The young men were aged between 16-25 and were either on remand or had been sentenced to custody at Glen Parva YOI, Leicester. A central element of the research project was engaging the young men in a dedicated ten-week drama programme run once a week in the custodial estate. A grid was created that enabled a shared comprehension and context within which the research team could reflect upon the demonstration and situational appearance of elements drawn from the speaking and listening framework within the Adult Literacy Core Curriculum. The findings demonstrated that: Theatre provided the young men with an informal site for learning. It offered them an environment for learning that involved creativity, and enabled them to challenge preexisting behaviours, beliefs and experiences within a supported, inclusive and managed context. The skills required to access the theatre making process are absolutely concerned with effective communication. The activities the young men were involved in during the drama sessions involved a rich diversity of opportunities to speak and listen. The informality of theatre gave the young men an opportunity to invest themselves in a creative process of discovery; to identify with real situations and draw on their own personalities and experiences in shaping the drama scenes. The creative processes involved in drama provided an opportunity for the young men to shape their identity and skills by reinventing or drawing upon existing personal identities and life experiences. The young men recognised that they were not just learning ‘how to be actors’, but also developing a range of other transferable skills and qualities. The young men’s ‘journeys’ through the drama programme, and following the development of oracy, were never linear. Critically, the drama programme allowed them the time and space to reflect upon their own speaking and listening, as well as explore issues and experiences relevant to their own lives. This had introduced new perspectives and knowledge about themselves specifically in terms of what was achievable for them in employment and/or education, and also in attitudes and behaviour towards other people. In other words, the drama programme had acted as a ‘structural enabler’ in the young men’s learning transitions. The artists’ role to facilitate and support the learning process as a ‘creative facilitator’ as opposed to being a ‘teacher’ was an important approach to learning that underpinned the drama programme, and one which the artists continually reflected upon, and evaluated as part of their practice. The effectiveness of theatre as a site for learning, and the methods and processes of drama in developing the young men’s oracy and personal and social development, contributed to developing an understanding of the processes of their identity formation, and the transition pathways the young men took. This is evident in the (re)engagement of the young men in both the learning taking place throughout the drama programme and the future learning the young men could imagine for themselves. Details: London: Arts Council and the Department for Education and Skills, 2006. 74p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 1, 2012 at: http://shop.niace.org.uk/media/catalog/product/d/r/drama-final-report.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://shop.niace.org.uk/media/catalog/product/d/r/drama-final-report.pdf Shelf Number: 126230 Keywords: Arts in PrisonsArts Programs (U.K.)At-risk YouthRehabilitationTheatre ProgramsYoung Adult Offenders |
Author: Nugent, Briege Title: Evaluation of the Theatre Nemo Pilot at HMP Addiewell Summary: Theatre NEMO' is Glasgow based charity theatre company that specialises in improving and promoting positive mental health and wellbeing through creative workshops in the community, in psychiatric hospitals and in prisons. This type of project has never been undertaken before and therefore the evaluation has the potential to bring new learning and establish good practice for working with families and widening the scope of throughcare interventions. The Evaluation has involved interviewing all participants and analysing prison officer observations of those taking part both before and after the pilot. Prison and Theatre Nemo Management were interviewed as well as observational notes taken during sessions attended by the researcher. MAIN FINDINGS - Although all participants felt that they already had good interaction, they appreciated the opportunity to do something together as a family and found the action of doing things together bonding, and also more enjoyable than simply going through the motions of a visit. - The prison officers felt that all the families who took part were interacting better and having more fun as a result, they also felt that the prisoners were calmer and happier than usual during the weeks of the course. One woman who has mental health problems said that she felt better able to cope generally during the course. The benefits of the arts to help people with mental health problems has been noted in the feasibility study and also re-emphasised in this current evaluation. The impact of the arts as this study shows goes beyond helping those with identified mental health problems, participants have felt a general improvement in levels of happiness and well being, and this significant impact should not be underestimated. - Prison management described the officers as being sceptical about the pilot, but after witnessing the positive impact on participants they were said to be 'converted' to supporting this initiative fully for the future. - All participants, but particularly the women attending had their levels of self-esteem and confidence recorded improve. - The men said that the sentence they are doing in prison is harder on their family than it is on them and they felt that there should be more in prison to involve families. Equally it was clear from the interviews with all three women that having someone in prison has made their life difficult. For example, the two partners spoke about the loss of income and the reality of bringing up children on their own on a day to day basis, these testimonies further evidence the importance of support services such as Circle and Families Outside. - The women greatly appreciated being connected to support in the community and it noted that although they want help they are often reluctant to ask for it, this shows that possibly services needed to do more to reach out to this population. - Theatre Nemo have provided transport for participants and without this in place they would have struggled to attend. Transport to prisons is an ongoing problem and the main inhibitor identified, for future projects this cost should be factored in. - The support offered by HMP Addiewell has been invaluable; Theatre Nemo and Prison Management have worked well together and established strong communication which has been a key factor in the project's success. Details: Glasgow: Theatre Nemo, 2011. 17p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 20, 2015 at: https://lemosandcrane.co.uk/ Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: https://lemosandcrane.co.uk/ Shelf Number: 135267 Keywords: Families of InmatesMental HealthPrisoner Rehabilitation Programs (U.K.)Theatre Programs |
Author: Cox, Scott L. Title: Living Shakespeare at the Lansing Correctional Facility, Kansas: Rehabilitation and Re-creation in Action Summary: Living Shakespeare is an all-male, all-inmate theatre program offered under the auspices of Arts in Prison at the Lansing Correctional Facility in Lansing, Kansas. It was founded by Scott L. Cox in September 2011 and has produced four full-length productions of Shakespearean plays to date. The program, inspired by Shakespeare Behind Bars at the Luther Luckett Correctional Center in LaGrange, Kentucky, operates under the belief that participation in a Shakespeare-based theatrical production program offers the inmates opportunities to develop skills necessary to their successful reintegration to society. This dissertation explores the first three years of the Living Shakespeare program with the aim of determining whether the program aids in the prison's stated goal: rehabilitation. The dissertation includes a brief historical account of the development of prison theatre, focusing on the use of Classical and Shakespearean drama with incarcerated populations, culminating in a case study of Shakespeare Behind Bars. The primary case study, which makes up the bulk of this dissertation, is of Living Shakespeare and its ensemble members. The author frames the study as Practice-as-Research (PAR), an approach to performance studies which values performance and theatrical practice as a valid research model. Knowledge is ascertained not solely through an account of the practice but by applying the methodology of ethnography. Observations of the process, field notes, conversations with the participants, questionnaires and interviews all figure into a qualitative analysis of the Living Shakespeare program. The author aims to demonstrate that a Shakespeare-centered theatre process provides the prisoners with the means of attaining twelve specific goals related to rehabilitation and offers rare opportunities for transcendence. Details: Lawrence, KS: University of Kansas, 2016. 316p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed March 12, 2019 at: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/21835 Year: 2016 Country: United States URL: https://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/handle/1808/21835 Shelf Number: 154899 Keywords: Arts in PrisonsArts ProgramsCorrectional ProgramsOffender RehabilitationTheatre Programs |
Author: McHugh, Richard Title: Applied Performance Arts interventions within Justice Services: Moving 'Forward' Toward an Integrated Sustainable Evaluative Approach Summary: The work of Odd Arts focuses on engaging vulnerable groups in arts based programmes who may experience multiple forms of exclusion. This work is largely carried out with and within organisations associated with crime and criminal justice. Much of the work of Odd Arts utilises applied theatre and related performance and creative arts as a mechanism in exploring a range of issues relevant to the lives of beneficiaries. Odd Arts contracted the Manchester Centre for Youth Studies (Manchester Metropolitan University) to carry out a small scale study of the Forward programme within two criminal justice service settings. These two sites included a secure children's home and an adult supported housing project for ex-offenders. 1.2 Methodology -- The research required a multi-method approach, which consisted of the following four strands: i) literature review ii) interviews with young people who participated in the Forward programme within the youth secure estate iii) interviews with youth justice professionals who supported the interventions within the secure estate iv) interviews with adults living in supported accommodation for ex-offenders who participated in the Forward programme v) ethnographic observations of the Forward programme within one youth secure estate venue (secure children's home 1). 1.3 Literature review A literature review was conducted to provide a theoretical basis for the research and this assisted in the development of the research instruments used (interview schedules and ethnographic observation). The literature review examined English language literature published between 1994 and 2017, which focused on: applied theatre within the secure estate; forum theatre; applied arts provision within justice services. 1.4 Interviews - beneficiaries: young people The young people who were available to take part and chose to be involved in the follow up interviews (n. 9) presented a range of opinions about their experiences and perceptions of engaging with the Forward programme. Most prevalent amongst these opinions were themes including: - Appreciating the game elements of the programme - Having a sense of choice and agency within the programme - Opportunity to engage with a larger group of young people beyond the scope of everyday contacts It is important to note that all of the young people had some previous experience of engaging with Odd Arts interventions in some way. Likewise, it is noteworthy that in the follow up interviews, it was apparent that the young people had appeared, to varying degrees, to lose some enthusiasm for the programme. This latter point was a stark contrast to the observed levels of enthusiasm during the delivery of the intervention. 1.5 Interviews - beneficiaries: adult supported housing Interview responses from the adult service users living in the supported housing project closely aligned with those of the young people. Predominantly, respondents from the supported housing project described how they felt that the Forward programme had generally been a positive experience. However, more specifically, the participants described how the programme had significantly raised their confidence levels and provided a meaningful activity, which gave them something to look forward to. Moreover, the participants from the supported housing project explained that engaging in the Forward programme had provided a space in which the residents (who took part) could gain deeper mutual understanding, empathy and mutual peer support. 1.6 Interviews - practitioners: youth justice, resettlement and arts professionals Practitioner interviews yielded some similar themes to those of the beneficiaries. However, practitioners specifically referred to the Odd Arts approach as being unique and highly professional. Without exception supporting staff from within host organisations had complete confidence in Odd Arts and specifically the delivery staff. Additionally, supporting staff (as indicated earlier) were very keen to outline how they perceived huge value and potential in the idea of having an embedded and integrated planning and evaluation process which would be carried out collaboratively between Odd Arts and the host organisation(s). This, they felt, has the potential to further generate positive outcomes for beneficiaries in future interventions. Details: Manchester, UK: Manchester Centre for Youth Studies - Manchester Metropolitan University, 2018. 78p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed march 14, 2019 at: http://www.artsevidence.org.uk/media/uploads/180213-odd-arts-moving-forward.pdf Year: 2018 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.artsevidence.org.uk/media/uploads/180213-odd-arts-moving-forward.pdf Shelf Number: 154966 Keywords: Arts ProgramsAt-Risk YouthCorrectional ProgramsPrison ProgramsTheatre Programs |