Creating community resilience: theatre for young audiences and the mental health crisis

Abstract

The authors explore the assertion that TYA in schools can play a significant role in addressing the mental health crisis affecting young people in the UK, with implications globally. There is growing consensus that the current mental health crisis is impacting on attainment. However, government remains reluctant to recognise the value of arts education in schools, as narrow instrumentalism continues to feed the ‘exam factory’. This paper proposes not just a reinvigoration of professional TYA in schools, but also a framework to evaluate ‘quality’. Braverman’s Dialogue Across Difference, inspired by the work of Jill Dolan (2008)/Victor Turner (2011), uses the exemplar of Theatre Centre UK. David Johnston’s (Artistic Director 1977-1986), leadership is placed within this framework to explore Hunt’s practice-as-research project Journeys of Destiny (2019). The authors reframe the notion of ‘resilience’ as a community-social paradigm in contrast to an individualistic-medical model.