ADCR

DEEP WORKING PARTY

(Dramatherapy European Exchange Project)

In september 2008, as the two co-convenors of the DEEP group, we proposed an experiential workshop at the BADth conference for people who were either already involved in DEEP or interested in knowing more about it. We felt that this would be an interesting way to feed back the results of the questionnaires we had sent out and try to determine our next step forward. As described in the Prompt (autumn 2008 edition), it allowed us to experience questions around being outsiders (as dramatherapists trained in Great Britain, but living in a foreign country), of being different and the challenges of trying to convey what dramatherapy is in contexts where it does not exist and is not recognized. It was a very thought provoking workshop as it allowed us to see on the one hand how difficult it was to feel marginalised, to be foreigners, and on the other hand how creative and inventive one had to be to find news ways to communicate , to share and create together. One of the outcomes of this workshop was the addition of two new people to the working party : Virginie Boury and Lucy Newman, who have since been active in the decision making processes of the working party as well as being very involved in the practical side of things, in making things happen. So we are now four in the working party !

(the 4 musketeers ?!)

We were thankful for this development, as it allowed us to organize a first DEEP meeting outside of Great Britain at the end of may 2009. A report will feature in the next edition of the Prompt giving an account of this weekend. Salvo Pitruzzella, the founding member of DEEP, made us a very generous and inspiring offer of hosting our weekend workshop in Italy. We therefore co-organized this event with SPID, the newly formed Italian dramatherapy association, (consisting of dramatherapists trained in Italy by Salvo and others). The event involved a lot of time and organization, through e-mails and telephone conversations, (so a great deal of virtual reality !), in order to clearly define what our objectives were and what we were trying to achieve. Initially we tried to have an established dramatherapist to run the experiential workshop for us, but due to financial and time constraints, this wasn’t possible. So in the end, we decided to co-run the experiential part of the workshop in several pairs, bringing together some people who had not worked together before and who had to work across country borders !

We also made time during the weekend in order to meet as the DEEP group and also as the DEEP working party so as to co-ordinate our future objectives and discuss issues which had emerged from the experiential parts. Our meeting took place in Milan, and we were received and looked after with wonderful warm hospitality and efficiency, by members of SPID. As Lucy wrote for the Prompt : « Intense processes and creations were born from the collaboration of the participants in a series of workshops co-facilitated by different pairs each time. « Identity and Belonging » was the overall theme for the day. » It was an amazingly inspiring and creative time spent together, using drama to meet and to share similar experiences in our struggles and achievements as dramatherapists, as Lucy goes on to describe : « The next workshop focused on the positive and negative experiences lived as dramatherapists. The groups were asked to choose a theatrical style to help convey those. Echoed again and again was the fact that the negative experiences belonged with institutions, whilst the positive ones were directly related to the DT work with the clients. » It was very interesting to see our different approaches, and the links we were able to make with the cultural and theatrical backgrounds of each individual country. The weekend brought up many questions about how we wished to develop as a group, how to define our future aims and objectives, varied discussions and disagreements on how we should function, what we should become… ? The very powerful theme of « fragmented identities » was to emerge over the weekend. Several members of DEEP are people who have left their country of origin, adopting and choosing to live in another country, and who develop, on a professional and on a personal level, a degree of complexity in terms of their identity.

The weekend also allowed us to increase our links and our mailing list ! There are now 39 people on our contact list and several European countries are represented within it.

The two co-convenors of DEEP, will be attending the Ecarte conference in London this september 2009, where we will be giving a presentation on DEEP entitled, « A question of identity and belonging – The self between familiar and unfamiliar, foreign spaces » in response to the theme of the conference on, « The Space between » the potential for change ». It will be an opportunity to exchange with other European organizations and associations in order  to have a broader idea of what exists and how we can link into the network, perhaps develop certain ideas in collaboration with others.

In conclusion of the meeting, there were several discussions around the structure of DEEP, as there was a question of it becoming a sub-committee of the BADth executive committee. As a European based organisation, how long could DEEP justify being based predominately in Great Britain ? We decided that it was important to be able to continue to debate and reflect on these important questions around DEEP’s identity and so asked the executive committee if we could continue as a working party for a further year. We greatly appreciate their acceptance in giving us this time. There are questions about whether we wish at a further date to create a European dramatherapy association. This is a very exciting prospect and one we are trying to further investigate. Our main aims for the future are to try and pursue the idea of having a meeting/workshop every 6 months and pursue our research into what exists in terms of dramatherapy at the present time in Europe, and how that can help us to develop a solid network. The DEEP contact list is open should new dramatherapists wish to add their name in order to be informed of, and or participate in our future meetings, etc., Virginie Boury is the contact person for the mailing list, (e-mail address is virginieboury@btconnect.com)

DEEP working party

Virginie Boury (Great Britain)

Tamar Brown (France) (co-convenor)

Jessica Williams-Ciemnyjewski (Germany) (co-convenor)

Lucy Newman (Switzerland)