What is Theatre of The Mind?

A theatre education program led by experienced visiting specialists, which uses active learning to support the PSHE curriculum. This program supports early intervention by increasing knowledge and understanding of mental health and wellbeing in young people.

It reduces stigma and improves awareness of self-resilience and coping strategies, using drama as a tool for engaging students and rehearsing skills. It cultivates a safe learning environment for participants to understand and connect with their emotions through drama and creative practice.

This programme could also be financed by your Pupil Premium funding and used as part of your PP package / provision.

Available as a 3-session Foundation Course or a 6-session Full Course.

Themes & Curriculum Connections:

• Mental Health & Wellbeing (KS3 PSHE)
• Relationships (KS3 PSHE)
• Solving Conflict: Friendship & Relationship Challenges
• Living in the Wider World (KS3 PSHE)
• Emotional Literacy, Coping Strategies & Resilience
• Active Learning

Do you work with KS2 instead? Visit our KS2 Theatre of The Mind Page here.

Watch this video to learn more:

Email erin@doorsteparts.co.uk for more information or to request this programme for your school.

Download a full PDF brochure with details & costings here.

This programme has been co-developed by an experienced team of Teaching Artists, in collaboration with psychotherapists, teachers & mental health professionals. The program incorporates the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ in each session, and covers key areas of the KS3 PSHE curriculum. It utilises Augusto Boal’s Forum and Image Theatre techniques, combined with dialogic theatre practice, to open up conversations with young people about the things that matter to and affect them, in a meaningful, embodied and creative way.

After attending the Theatre of the Mind programme, students will:

• Have an increased awareness and understanding of their feelings and their mental health and how to maintain it.
• Develop coping mechanisms to deal with transitional times in their life.
• Feel an increase in self-esteem and build on their skills in positive communication, assertiveness and confidence.
• Understand the very basics of theatre making and performance skills and learn how to think about situations creatively.

Click here to read our blog post about why this programme is so important for young people after the Pandemic.

In this programme, students will:

Feel – participants will explore emotions they feel in different situations, through creative active learning methods. They will develop a tool kit of strategies to help them negotiate stressful situations and promote good mental health and wellbeing during times of change.

Think – participants will feel more able to name feelings, understand how difficult situations make them feel and therefore be able to take a pause and think about how they will respond, without acting on impulse. They will therefore feel more equipped and resilient to deal with these situations.

Be Creative – participants will be given the space to explore and create new worlds using Forum Theatre methods; they will learn basic theatre making and performance skills and use these creative tools to help them think differently about situations, given them a greater depth of understanding and widening perspectives.

Outline of the 3-week Foundations programme

Week 1

Introduction – things we say vs things we don’t, getting to know group and understanding the basics of active learning using Forum and Image Theatre.

Week 2

Understanding Triggers – developing a deeper awareness of their emotional responses to the things that trigger us in life. We also focus on peer to peer advice sharing on how different people deal with difficult situations.

Week 3

Difficult situations – creating scenes and sharing them to the rest of the group. Peer to peer learning as the group will offer new perspectives and suggestions on how best to deal with the challenge, leading to facilitated discussion.

Foundation Course (3 sessions) £495

Full Course (6 sessions- or 3 two hour long sessions) £990

Staff CPD workshop £300