Caring from behind the face mask in healthcare: Learning from the dramatic arts

The COVID-19 pandemic has made its impact across the globe with great voracity. New routines have displaced older more established ones with ruthless efficiency—no more so than in healthcare. In meeting these challenges, many healthcare workers have had to prepare for and enact many new ways of working. Regardless of their speciality or stage of training, health professions educators (HPEs) have helped train our healthcare workforce in developing new skills with great tempo. Throughout all of these efforts one constant has guided our endeavours—the humane connection with those that provide and those that seek healthcare.However, with COVID-19 we have had to distance ourselves from our patients, and colleagues, and clad ourselves in various items of personal protection equipment (PPE). The protective barrier also acts as a barrier to personal interaction and therefore presents challenges in how we connect with each other on a humane level. Few disciplines have engaged with the complexities of verbal and gestural communication as thoroughly and consistently as the dramatic arts. Actors in Ancient Greece would perform wearing masks and used oratory as well as gestural communication to enrapture the audience.Drawing upon the dramatic arts, we aim to explore the relationship between face and mask and thereby provide reflective insights for HPEs to help guide healthcare workers in their communication from behind the face mask.

Stars in their eyes: magazines and celebrity content

The purpose of this research paper is to examine the celebrity phenomenon as it relates to consumer magazines produced in the United States. Boorstin's definition of the term celebrity is a broad one, encompassing all persons who are known simply for their "well-knownness," regardless of vocation (Boorstin 57). For the purposes of this paper, this classification will be abridged, focussing solely on well-known persons or celebrities engaged in the dramatic arts. George Simmel, a first generation German sociologist whose work has had a seminal influence on the development of modern philosophy and sociology, addresses the role of the actor in shaping public opinion and, in turn, reality. More recently, scholars across a diversity of fields from sociology to film studies, such as Alberoni, Dyer, Gamson, Kellner, and Moran, have examined the influence of celebrities on societal values and culture. Film critic Richard Schickel has gone so far as to call celebrity "possibly the - most vital shaping (that is to say, distorting force) in our society" (xi).

Stars in their eyes: magazines and celebrity content

The purpose of this research paper is to examine the celebrity phenomenon as it relates to consumer magazines produced in the United States. Boorstin's definition of the term celebrity is a broad one, encompassing all persons who are known simply for their "well-knownness," regardless of vocation (Boorstin 57). For the purposes of this paper, this classification will be abridged, focussing solely on well-known persons or celebrities engaged in the dramatic arts. George Simmel, a first generation German sociologist whose work has had a seminal influence on the development of modern philosophy and sociology, addresses the role of the actor in shaping public opinion and, in turn, reality. More recently, scholars across a diversity of fields from sociology to film studies, such as Alberoni, Dyer, Gamson, Kellner, and Moran, have examined the influence of celebrities on societal values and culture. Film critic Richard Schickel has gone so far as to call celebrity "possibly the - most vital shaping (that is to say, distorting force) in our society" (xi).

Applying Theatre Principles to SoTL Research

The same principles of engagement that actors use to engage deeply with the script and their roles can also be used to more engage deeply SoTL scholars in their lines of inquiry. In this paper, we draw parallels between actors’ approaches to theatre performance and deep engagement with SoTL inquiry. We build on a relational perspective to help others generate SoTL questions about interactions between instructor and students. We describe activities that draw on dramatic arts theory and through a process of “defining the issue, agitating the inquiry, and discerning the questions” (Simmons & Simmons, in press), we outline sample activities to help support others in honing SoTL questions and transforming the questions into successful SoTL project implementation.

Becoming an Activist: Ruth Harrison’s Turn to Animal Welfare

This chapter focuses on Harrison’s life prior to writing Animal Machines. Together with her siblings, Harrison was brought up in close contact to Britain’s cultural elite. After attending schools in London, Harrison commenced her university studies in 1939. The outbreak of war had a transformative impact on her life. Harrison was evacuated to Cambridge where she likely came into contact with ethologist William Homan Thorpe. She converted to Quakerism and subsequently enrolled in the Friends’ Ambulance Unit. The Quaker principles of non-violence, humanitarianism, and bearing witness to injustice would serve as important reference points throughout Harrison’s campaigning. After the war, she completed her studies in the dramatic arts but abandoned a potential career as a theatre producer. In 1954, she married architect Dexter Harrison. Similar to many Quakers, Harrison’s humanitarian concerns motivated her to become involved in the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and protest perceived technological, moral, and environmental threats to society.

Raising the Curtain on Drama Therapy: Healing Benefits for Youth and Older Adults

The vast majority of people around the world have been exposed to dramatic arts in some way, shape, or form, but only recently has drama therapy been accepted as a therapeutic treatment for individuals across the lifespan. This paper provides a general introduction to drama therapy and some of the techniques (e.g., role playing and storytelling) employed in its delivery and hands-on practice. In addition, the paper explores how drama therapy has been used to treat young people (approximately 10-17 years old) who have autism and/or social, emotional, and behavioural difficulties, and older adults (approximately 60-90 years old) who are experiencing normative or non-normative aging. The findings presented here suggest drama therapy may be an efficacious, healing treatment for a myriad of age groups. For instance, its positive effects on individuals with dementia have been observed, and an assortment of intra- and inter-personal improvements have been documented in youth. Considering drama therapy is still a growing field, less drama therapy research exists in comparison to its alternative treatments.

Confronting Otherness through Theatre: On Directing The Merchant of Venice for Thai Audiences

This article analyzes on a new directorial approach to Venice Vanija (เวนิสวาณิช), a Thai version of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (written 1596–99) and translated by King Rama vi (r. 1910–1925). It aimed to create a new space and new rules that would encourage Thai audiences to embrace new perspectives by watching the performance. The production was directed by the author in 2018 in the Department of Dramatic Arts in the Faculty of Arts at Chulalongkorn University. The directing approach focused on the play’s famous line “all that glitters is not gold;” (Act ii, scene vii, line 65), and stressed how struggles between majorities and “the Other” are connected to identity conflicts that contrast with tensions with other people and conflicts within the whole community. The above focus was elaborated by using alienation effects, including a grotesque modern fairytale-like look, a nearly all-female cast, a distinctive traverse stage and set design, effeminate costumes for male characters portrayed by actresses, and mixed acting techniques. The director achieved his goals by concentrating on the message and the main conflicts in the play, transforming “aliens into the allies” through using good surprises and friendly attacks, and respecting every party.

L’impromptu en question : de Molière à Giraudoux et à Ionesco

"The Impromptu in Question: From Molière to Giraudoux and Ionesco. The starting point of this research is a line from Eugène Ionesco’s play The Alma Impromptu: “theatre, of course, changes, for the theatre is life. It’s changing like life”. The author of this article aims to verify the viability of this assertion by analysing the following plays: Molière’s The Versailles Impromptu, Giraudoux’s The Paris Impromptu, and Ionesco’s The Alma Impromptu. This constitutes an investigation on some grounding points of the topic. The critical meta-text is focused on aspects such as the status of the playwright, the purpose of theatre, the fabrication of the dramatic text, the relation author/text/comedian/public and the status of theatre as a social phenomenon rooted in the lifeline of collective existence. However, the meta-text is constantly scrambled by a certain form of auto-referential writing unveiling its own mechanisms, the creative process being the play on its own. Molière puts himself on stage while writing his play, as author, director and comedian, Giraudoux shows himself through his character Jouvet, Ionesco places himself on stage while writing his play, being disrupted by three characters, “Ph.Ds in theatrology” who write a play themselves, encasings present in Molière and Giraudoux’s works as well. Consequently, the reflection on dramatic arts shows, in its essence, the same poetics and/or poïetics, the mirroring games favouring structural and thematic duplications, and depicts the evolution of technical devices and creative specificity shared with an audience more and more discerning. Keywords: poetics, mise en abyme, meta-text, meta-theatricality, verismo, illusion."

Using Picture Books as a Tool for Creating a Culturally Inclusive Elementary Music Classroom

The use of picture books in the elementary music classroom not only promotes imaginative play but also contributes to exposure and involvement in the dramatic arts. Picture books can also assist teachers and students in developing cultural knowledge and help promote inclusivity in a meaningful way within the classroom. The inclusion of ethnically diverse children’s literature, in tandem with music activities and experiences, can cultivate an environment where students see themselves. Mini-lessons presented in the article offer examples of music and literature activities that reflect the various cultures that make up today’s classroom.