Theatre for Children in Hospital

Persephone Sextou is a reader in Applied Theatre and research director of the Community and Applied Drama Laboratory(CADLab) at Newman University, Birmingham, UK.

Foreword



Prologue



Introduction



Motivation and beliefs



Arts and health



The structure of the book



Chapter One: A TCH definition and more…



Applied theatre in hospitals



Theatre as an ‘antidote’ to clinical stress



A playful ‘marriage’ of two cultures, the artistic with the clinical in audience participation



The artist–child synergistic relationship



Ethical concerns



TCH and therapy



Chapter Two: The distinctive features of TCH practice and research



Background information of the study



Understanding the clinical context



The study: Methodology



Findings and discussion: TCH practice comes alive!



Chapter Three: TCH as a choice: ‘I want to make a difference!’



A philosophical approach to TCH



Aristotle



Heraclitus



My philosophy



Chapter Four: Concluding thoughts



Summary



The future of TCH



Appendices



Appendix One: Breathing with Love, the script



Appendix Two: The shape of our bedside theatre rehearsals 



Appendix Three: Writing a TCH proposal plan (bid)



Appendix Four: Example of application letter



Appendix Five: Guidance for applying for NHS Research Ethics Committee approval (for researchers only)



Note on the author



Bibliography



Index