Contact!Unload

George Belliveau is the head of the Department of Language and Literacy Education and a professor of drama/theatre education at the University of British Columbia. He is a professionally trained actor and has participated in over 100 theatre productions as an actor, director, or playwright. He is a member of the College of the Royal Society of Canada. Graham W. Lea is an assistant professor of theatre education at the University of Manitoba. He has also taught at the National Institute of Education /Nanyang Technological Institute in Singapore, the University of British Columbia, and the University of Prince Edward Island. He has been involved in theatre for thirty years, working as a playwright, stage-manager, director, actor, musician, and technician. Marv Westwood is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia. He is recognized internationally for the development of the Veteran’s Transition Program. Contributors: Michael Balfour, Elizabeth Banister, Marla Buchanan, Christopher Cook, Susan Cox, Britney Dennison, Heather Duff, Foster Eastman, Lynn Fels, Timothy Garthside, Alistair G. Gordon, Anna Keefe, Carson A. Kivari, Tim Laidler, Carl Leggo, Phillip Lopresti, Chuck MacKinnon, Candace Marshall, Blair McLean, Jennica Nichols, John S. Ogrodniczuk, Marion Porath, JS Valdez

Introduction / Graham W. Lea and George Belliveau

Part 1: Researching, Developing, and Creating

1 Staging War: Historical Contexts of Theatre and Social Health Initiatives with Veterans / Michael Balfour

2 Contact!Unload: The Cauldron / Chuck MacKinnon

3 Facilitating Therapeutic Change through Theatre Performance / Alistair G. Gordon, Marv Westwood, and Carson A. Kivari

4 A Soldier’s Tale: “Nobody Understood What I’d Done” / Britney Dennison

5 Listening through Stories: Insights into Writing Contact!Unload / Graham W. Lea

6 Suicides to Sydney / Foster Eastman

7 Coming Home / Tim Laidler

8 Reconnaissance and Reclamation: Learning to Talk about the War / Anna Keefe

9 Impact on Veteran Performers / George Belliveau, Blair McLean, and Christopher Cook

10 Holding on to the Script / Phillip Lopresti

Contact!Unload: Annotated Playscript

Part 2: Performing, Witnessing, and Evaluating

11 Finding My Truth / Timothy Garthside

12 Unpacking Contact!Unload Using Relational-Cultural Theory / Candace Marshall with Graham W. Lea

13 Contact!Unload Revisited: Degrees of Separation / Lynn Fels

14 Remembering / Carl Leggo

15 A Poet(h)ic Reflection on Contact!Unload: Voices of Women Through War

/ Heather Duff

16 Soldiers Lead the Way in the Fight for Mental Health among Men / John S. Ogrodniczuk

17 Audience Experience of Vicarious Witnessing in Performing War / Marion Porath, Marla Buchanan, and Elizabeth Banister

18 Understanding the Impacts of Contact!Unload on Audiences / Jennica Nichols, Susan M. Cox, and George Belliveau

19 Vulnerable Strength Seen / JS Valdez and Jennica Nichols

Conclusion / George Belliveau and Graham W. Lea

Contributors; Index