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This article will investigate how performance can identify racialized archetypes, stereotypes and roles located in therapeutic spaces. It will present ways we can utilize these stereotypes to create and expand upon Landy’s role method and role theory to empower Black Americans to claim their identity. This research has been conducted as an autoethnographic study in order to create an open dialogue about racialized roles that surfaced in a therapeutic theatre production and in clinical practice. Issues regarding race are difficult to discuss and present fierce levels of discomfort in clinical spaces. This article highlights the necessity to continue meaningful conversations about race in the field of drama therapy. Further, this work looks to contribute to the development of cross-cultural practices in drama therapy.

Following the production of Turbulence, an original play featuring the experiences of creative arts therapists and creatives who identify as Black and people of colour (BPOC), members of the ensemble agreed to engage in an arts-based participatory action research process in which co-researchers drew on dramatic, visual, musical and poetic forms of inquiry to ask themselves about the realities and hopes faced by this community and the environmental conditions that would support their movement, growth and mobility. Findings emphasized the value and necessity of creative affinity groups together with sustainable structural, financial and relational support to encourage the hopes and dreams of BPOC students and professionals.

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