No More Drama, our new theatre project for women

In this new project we will be using drama to tackle negatives, build self-esteem and confidence. We offer a safe space to reflect, explore, challenge, be creative and to have LOTS OF FUN in the process.

Project beneficiaries are young women between the ages of 19-25 (or younger 13-18) at risk of social exclusion that may be struggling to get into employment or obtaining other training opportunities as a result of lack of confidence, low self-esteem or self-doubt. Furthermore, the beneficiaries might come from a disadvantaged background or live in a deprived area, they may have poor social skills, a history of anti-social behaviour, victims of violence or abuse, vulnerable to offending or at risk of engaging in substance misuse.

The exposure to traumatic events, witnessing or being a victim of violent crime, abuse, eviction or illegal substance use can have lasting effects from an early age. Such exposure can have further behavioral, emotional or social outcomes such as anxiety, learning difficulties and poor social skills. This can then manifest further into consequences such as aggressive behaviors, substance misuse, depression or offending – causing social exclusion and impacting on the wider community.

The project will comprise of a series of workshops culminating in the production of a theatre performance.

Phase 1 will consist of 5 taster sessions over 5 weeks:
Saturdays between 1 pm – 3 pm at the Christ Church on Christchurch Street, Cambridge, CB1 1HT.
The first session will be held on Saturday the 16th June 2018, 1 pm.

Brief outline of the processes involved in the work undertaken:
- Acting: enabling participant’s creativity by using drama (games, voice exercises and interactive observer scenes).
- Exploring: thoughts, feelings, attitudes and beliefs using drama. - - Reflecting: identifying high risk factors and skills needed to address these.
- Review and reasses attitudes, beliefs, patterns of thoughts, feelings and behaviours.
- Practising: cognitive and behavioural skills.
- Testing: new behaviours.

At the end of these processes participants will adopt a collective approach to creating dynamic theatre pieces, where outcomes from difficult situations are constructed by the performers themselves. This performance will be a close and direct reflection of real life to raise awareness and generate change. The performance will be shown at local venues. Through this performance piece participants will be able to raise difficult questions with the audience, initiate debate more widely and work towards achieving profound and positive change.

The project provides young women the opportunity to develop their creativity in an informal learning environment, giving them quality time and space to address their individual triggers and barriers. The project focuses on the social and emotional aspects of learning and aims to provide beneficiaries with effective, lifelong skills such as consequential thinking and empathy.

Young people participating in arts projects are no longer simply criminals, depressed individuals or unemployed low-skilled people: they are actors, dancers and singers. Many young women in high needs communities are beset by low confidence and self-esteem issues, but the performing arts shake up their self-perceptions, helping them to realize what they are capable of achieving. Throughout the process they can come to develop positive friendships and strengthening coping mechanisms that can shape and change perceptions in an invaluable way.

Participants can use these new-found skills to maximize their strengths and better understand their patterns of behaviour. Hence becoming much more self-aware and less likely to engage in risky behaviours.

The project is about giving young vulnerable women in the community a chance to undergo personal growth and self-discovery by working through life experiences that may have developed internal blockers, hindering personal development and fostering old habits and ways of thinking that may have trapped these young women’s lives into vicious circles. These vicious circles are moreover continuously fed by behaviors that are difficult to change. The sessions will explore root causes in individuals for such behaviors and in stages work through acknowledging, understanding, accepting, releasing and ultimately changing.

At the end of the project, the participants wishing to continue attending the project will have the opportunity of joining the next phase and develop a mentoring role for the new members joining the group.

Would you like to participate?
Contact Babette: 07828 189509 / babettelind@gmail.com