Monologue 2: Up the Down Staircase: Projective Technique in Drama Therapy
Up the Down Staircase Print Book Cover
Projective Technique in Drama Therapy
This monologue offers a glimpse into the emotional world of a thirteen-year-old girl, her parents’ desperation and search for support, a distant therapeutic approach and the search for a creative path towards healing. Adolescence can be a difficult and confusing time for teenagers and their families. As parents and caregivers, being around your teen might feel like you are walking on eggshells or a minefield. As a teen, it could feel like nobody understands you and everyone, parents most of all, are speaking a different language. Rather than wishing parents “good luck” during this time and telling our teens to “calm down”, we need to find ways to support feelings and offer recommendations that inspire harmony. This scenario shows how a slight annoyance like Carole getting upset with her mother for not braiding her hair, has the ability to turn into an emotional earthquake that disrupts the entire family. Many of these emotional outbursts are a part of normal adolescence, but when does it become something more and when is intervention necessary? Building a creative communication with our children and teens will help everyone navigate unpredictable times. With drama, music, art, movement, and mindfulness as a key, we can unlock tension and turbulence during this time and provide an anchor to gain balance.
Projective Technique in Drama Therapy
In working with Carole, I would focus on her strengths; theater, creativity, insight, her desire to be better and self-awareness. With this in mind, I would invite her to participate in theater games to connect, lighten the mood and build a safe container of self-expression. To instill confidence and self-assurance, I would give Carole creative choices. It might be working with a written text or play to help focus and gain stability. Stories and narrative work is a Projective Technique in drama therapy and a way to offer distance from one’s feelings until they feel ready for deeper self-expression. Dramatic Projection involves placing aspects of ourselves or our feelings into other people or things. As Phil Jones says in Drama as Therapy “ In drama therapy individuals take on a fictional character or role, play with small objects, create scenery or enact myths. As this happens, they project aspects of themselves into the dramatic material”. (2007) The projective technique of working with a play will help Carole connect to different topics. From a place of distance, we can then build and work through more personal themes to gain insight and change.
Teenager-Adolescent-Juvenile-Minor-Youth-Youngster-Student-Kid-Young Adult-Child-I Have a Name Call Me Carole:
It was my last performance in Up the Down Staircase at middle school. I played Miss Sylvia Barret, the new teacher. Overwhelmed by the behaviors and dynamics of the students, she says, I say to my colleague on stage:
“I keep looking for clues in whatever the kids say or write. I’ve even installed a suggestion box in my room in hope they will communicate their feelings freely and eventually learn to trust me. I’m beginning to learn some of their names and to understand their problems. I even think I could help them if they let me”.
A note from the suggestion box: I wish other teachers would be brave like you and put in a suggestion box. They’re always telling us what’s wrong with us, what about the other way around? Boy, would I like to tell them off. But you’re OK even if you are a teacher. Thank you and I’d rather not sign my name.
Lights fade. Blackout. Curtain Call. Goodbye Miss Sylvia Barret. Take a bow. My art teacher approached me and said: “You are so quiet in class, who was that on stage?” In class I was silent and small. At home I was loud and big. But on stage, I was brave like Miss Sylvia Barret. When it came to an end, I mourned that part of myself. If there was a suggestion box for my life it would have said: Dear mom, please braid my hair for the cast party. Specifically, a French braid, tight and perfect. Not messy or loose. It can’t fall apart and needs to stay in place. Please braid my hair. Please comfort me, take my pain away, touch my face, tell me I’m beautiful and that everything is going to be ok. Love, Your Desperate Daughter.
I guess I didn’t ask too nicely and when she refused, I became Braids Gone Wild: HOW COULD YOU DO THIS! I HATE YOU! I’M RUNNING AWAY FOREVER!
Cut to the next scene of me sitting in a chair at the Bridge for Runaway Youth with a duffle bag and glass of water. “Did you drink the water?” An older girl said to me with a suspicious laugh and side glances to the other girls. “No”, I said. “Good, because they spit in it”, she said and walked away. That night as the other girls did very bad things, I buried myself in the covers and tried to disappear.
We had group therapy, field trips, I heard stories from the others that left me confused and terrified. Individual therapy was awkward. Me talking about my problems to a man in a chair with a notepad. What was he writing? And where was a suggestion box when you needed one? From the Suggestion Box: Dear therapist, you should listen more instead of taking notes. Here is a note for you, this isn’t helping.
From: Confused and Scared, which you would know if you looked up to see me
After a week at The Bridge, I returned home feeling fragile, but relieved to not be eating pretzels and graham crackers and living the circumstances of those I had met. I tried to be better for myself and my family, but I longed for a place of connection. I didn’t find it in my new therapist Dr. Katz’s office with her huge desk, huge hair and notepad. What’s with all the note taking? The stage was my real therapist and the theater was the way back to myself.
I stand on stage as Sylvia Barret as she speaks to a student like me. To me she says:
“My dear, my dear-It is not so dreadful here. I want to tell you, I want you to know. I care, I do care”.
From The Suggestion Box: Thank you, Miss Barret. You are the most understanding person I ever knew and the best English teacher I ever had and that includes other subjects. This comes from the heart and not the mouth. Sincerely, Finding My Way
Unlock the places that are holding you back from being your authentic self. Keyhole Therapeutic Arts offers a variety of expressive techniques, drama, art, music, movement, creative coaching, and one-on-one care to support you in your journey towards balance and harmony. One of the tools offered is the Keyhole Monologues which serves to show the different ways we use drama therapy to help clients. It serves as a design and reference to how you can use creativity to support and guide yourself or your loved one.
