Chap­ter 20: In the world of act­ing, it’s often said that the true essence of a char­ac­ter isn’t some­thing you sim­ply put on but rather dis­cov­er with­in your­self. The actor does­n’t fab­ri­cate a per­sona but instead taps into an expand­ed ver­sion of their own iden­ti­ty, bring­ing out qual­i­ties they might not have ful­ly real­ized were there. This process of self-dis­cov­ery is cru­cial in both pro­fes­sion­al and ther­a­peu­tic the­ater, where act­ing becomes more than just a per­for­mance; it becomes a method of heal­ing and self-expres­sion.

For many, the ther­a­peu­tic poten­tial of the­ater is most evi­dent in how it can help indi­vid­u­als recov­er from deep per­son­al trau­ma. One exam­ple of this is seen through the sto­ry of Nick, the author’s son, who suf­fered from chron­ic fatigue syn­drome and became with­drawn and iso­lat­ed due to his health strug­gles. When his moth­er rec­og­nized that Nick found some ener­gy in the evenings, they enrolled him in an impro­vi­sa­tion­al the­ater class. Ini­tial­ly, it was a way to get him engaged with oth­ers, but over time, Nick­’s par­tic­i­pa­tion in the­ater pro­vid­ed him with some­thing much deep­er: a chance to embody a dif­fer­ent ver­sion of him­self. The more he per­formed, the more he redis­cov­ered his con­fi­dence and sense of self-worth. The act­ing exer­cis­es, such as play­ing tough, author­i­ta­tive roles like Action in West Side Sto­ry and the Fonz in Hap­py Days, gave him a new sense of agency and phys­i­cal­i­ty, allow­ing him to imag­ine him­self as some­one pow­er­ful, respect­ed, and in con­trol. This trans­for­ma­tion in Nick­’s self-per­cep­tion, thanks to the­ater, was instru­men­tal in his emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal recov­ery, ulti­mate­ly help­ing him embrace his cre­ative and con­fi­dent adult­hood.

The ther­a­peu­tic effects of the­ater extend beyond indi­vid­ual sto­ries like Nick’s, reach­ing entire com­mu­ni­ties and groups, espe­cial­ly those deal­ing with trau­ma or emo­tion­al dis­tress. The author draws a par­al­lel with vet­er­ans, not­ing how their par­tic­i­pa­tion in a the­atri­cal pro­duc­tion in the late ’80s helped them process their expe­ri­ences with PTSD. When these vet­er­ans, who had been receiv­ing ther­a­py at a VA clin­ic, joined forces with play­wright David Mamet to cre­ate a script about their expe­ri­ences, the pow­er of act­ing took hold. This involve­ment was transformative—far more so than tra­di­tion­al therapy—as the vet­er­ans were able to con­front their trau­ma pub­licly, with the added sup­port of pro­fes­sion­al actors like Al Paci­no and Michael J. Fox. Their per­for­mance was not just a way to raise aware­ness but a pro­found heal­ing expe­ri­ence that allowed them to pub­licly process their trau­ma and recon­nect with their human­i­ty. This form of cathar­tic the­ater allowed these indi­vid­u­als to trans­form painful mem­o­ries into a col­lec­tive nar­ra­tive, help­ing them regain their sense of self and a deep­er under­stand­ing of their own emo­tion­al jour­neys.

The role of com­mu­nal rhythms and the­ater in trau­ma recov­ery also echoes through var­i­ous cul­tur­al prac­tices, where col­lec­tive move­ment and expres­sion have been used for cen­turies to heal and unite com­mu­ni­ties. From ancient Greek tragedies to mod­ern-day rit­u­als, the­ater and com­mu­nal per­for­mance have long served as vehi­cles for con­fronting deep emo­tion­al pain and soci­etal issues. In fact, the ancient Greeks used the­ater as a form of civic heal­ing, espe­cial­ly for return­ing war vet­er­ans, who were often the audi­ence for plays like Aeschy­lus’s Oresteia. The com­mu­nal aspect of theater—where the audience’s emo­tion­al reac­tions are vis­i­ble to all—allowed for a col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence of grief, trau­ma, and rec­on­cil­i­a­tion. This approach of inte­grat­ing the­ater with the lived expe­ri­ences of indi­vid­u­als fac­ing war, loss, and injus­tice has con­tin­ued through mod­ern projects like Bryan Doer­ries’ The­ater of War, which has used Greek dra­mas to help com­bat vet­er­ans and their fam­i­lies nav­i­gate the effects of PTSD. By immers­ing audi­ences in these ancient sto­ries of trau­ma, sac­ri­fice, and jus­tice, mod­ern the­ater has pro­vid­ed a space for sur­vivors of vio­lence to con­nect, process, and heal.

Through the con­tin­ued explo­ration of the­ater as a ther­a­peu­tic tool, var­i­ous pro­grams have emerged that help peo­ple con­front trau­ma by engag­ing with the deep, emo­tion­al themes present in the­atri­cal works. One notable exam­ple is the Pos­si­bil­i­ty Project in New York, where youth in fos­ter care write and per­form their own musi­cal pro­duc­tions, delv­ing into per­son­al sto­ries and col­lec­tive themes. This process empow­ers young peo­ple to express emo­tions they may have repressed, pro­vid­ing them with a plat­form to process their past while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly devel­op­ing skills that will help them nav­i­gate life’s chal­lenges. In this envi­ron­ment, the­ater becomes a path­way for self-empow­er­ment, allow­ing par­tic­i­pants to take con­trol of their sto­ries and trans­form their trau­ma into some­thing cre­ative and pow­er­ful. Sim­i­lar­ly, Shake­speare in the Courts pro­vides juve­nile offend­ers with a struc­tured space to con­front their inner con­flicts through the lan­guage of Shake­speare, a ther­a­peu­tic tech­nique that encour­ages emo­tion­al release and con­nec­tion. By engag­ing with these pow­er­ful works, par­tic­i­pants learn to chan­nel their per­son­al strug­gles into art, find­ing solace and strength in the process.

Ulti­mate­ly, the ther­a­peu­tic poten­tial of the­ater lies in its abil­i­ty to fos­ter a deep con­nec­tion between indi­vid­u­als and their emo­tions, allow­ing them to safe­ly explore com­plex feel­ings of grief, anger, and loss. It is a pow­er­ful tool that can help indi­vid­u­als reclaim their agency, find their voice, and recon­nect with their bod­ies and their sense of self. Through act­ing, whether on the stage or in ther­a­peu­tic set­tings, peo­ple are giv­en the chance to embody and express emo­tions that might oth­er­wise be too over­whelm­ing to face. As these sto­ries illus­trate, the­ater is not mere­ly an artis­tic endeav­or; it is a form of emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal heal­ing, one that taps into the deep­est parts of our­selves and helps us con­front the past, process our trau­ma, and step into the future with renewed strength and pur­pose.