Playing with performance: how theatre brings creativity, communication, and empowerment to children facing hospitalization and life changing disorders

Thesis (M.A., Theatre Arts) -- California State University, Sacramento, 2010.This thesis traces the presence of theatre???s involvement in the lives of children facing long-term hospitalization as well as children diagnosed with Autism, a neurological disorder affecting socialization skills. Theatre???s involvement begins in the hospital, through the unconscious use of theatrical elements brought to children by child life specialists and continues through the consciously used element of performance by hospital clowns used to empower hospitalized children. Also examined is the play, This is a Test: One Girl???s Fight with Cancer, written by twelve-year-old Shenita Peterson, about her battle with cancer and hospitalization experience. Her play lived a life of multiple performances in the Chicago area including one performed in a teaching hospital for medical students. This case study shows how theatre not only entertains, it is a teaching tool. The final relationship explored is the one between theatre and autistic children. I discovered that theatre has maintained a strong presence in the autistic community through different kinds of therapy used to help teach children with ASD how to communicate and recognize emotion. Like the relationship between theatre and the hospital setting, autistic theatre has not always been a conscious one. The final chapter traces the relationship from unconscious to conscious.Theatre Art