Changing Identities through Staging Recovery: The role of Community Theatre in the Process of Recovery

This study aimed to explore the experiences of six performers following their engagement in a community arts intervention called Staging Recovery. Staging Recovery is a three year drama project, delivered by The Geese Theatre Company, working with people marginalised within society and recovering from substance abuse. The study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to collect and analyse the data as IPA allows the exploration of sensitive and unique experiences; more so, it encapsulates the voices and experiences of participants, ensuring they are central to the phenomenon under examination. Nine themes emerged from the analysis, with five of these relating to Social Identity Theory. For the purpose of this paper, discussion centres on one theme: A Changed Identity is experienced through Staging Recovery but the Addicted Self is ever present. This theme highlights the identity transformation made by participants as a result of engaging in Staging Recovery; however, it also provides a spotlight to the inequalities and social barriers experienced by participants that continue to thwart their efforts to change and thus compromising efforts to true identity transformation