Playback theatre in adult day centers: A creative group intervention for community-dwelling older adults

Abstract

The literature indicates that theatre and drama-based interventions have the potential to improve older adults' well-being and health. The goal of the current study was to characterize the process of a creative group intervention in adult day centers (ADCs), which integrates playback theatre and life-review principles. Our objective was to provide an evidence-informed framework for drama therapy interventions, which would allow older adults to bring up and explore their life-stories in a dramatic creative process in their own community. A total of 27 participants ranging in age from 63 to 91, took part in one of three playback theatre groups. The playback theatre group intervention comprised 12 weekly sessions. All sessions were videotaped to capture the lived experience of the creative process and were analyzed in post-intervention interviews. In addition, focus group meetings were conducted with 13 ADC staff members to decipher further the effects of the participation as perceived by people outside the groups. Three types of potential transformation were identified in the qualitative analysis: the evolution of life stories, evolution of playfulness, and expansion of social engagement. The results indicate the potential of the integrative framework to serve as a creative intervention in ADC communities, as well as its potential to bring about a personal transformation and expand it to enable a person's social engagement in the community. The findings imply the potential benefits of using playback theatre groups to supplement the routine care provided in ADCs.

Expanding the Role Repertoire While Aging: A Drama Therapy Model

“…The quantitative findings suggest that the integrative process of playback theater and life review can be regarded as a drama therapy intervention with firm therapeutic potential to enhance mental health while aging (Keisari and Palgi, 2017;Keisari et al, 2020b). The qualitative findings (Keisari et al, 2018(Keisari et al, , 2020a) provide a better understanding of the process, and support the mechanisms that leads to the positive effects on the participants' mental health. These results are also innovative in documenting the positive effects of the process beyond the group setting in the surrounding environment of the adult day center communities and the participants' families, and in the improvement in mental health indices at the 3-month follow up.…”

“…Taken together, the results from the four studies suggest that the participants underwent significant transformative processes in a relatively short time (Keisari and Palgi, 2017;Keisari et al, 2018Keisari et al, , 2020a. Therefore, playback theater group participation, integrated with life-review therapy, can be regarded as a drama therapy intervention for the aging population, with solid therapeutic potential.…”

“…The results indicated that this empathic attunement enhances a sense of connectedness in a shared experience that occurred in the dramatic improvisation (Keisari et al, 2018(Keisari et al, , 2020a. The results also showed that during the creative process, most of the participants could identify their own personal experiences in the teller's story in a manner that fused the theatrical improvisation with their own life stories to create a unified collective experience: a fusion of experiences (Keisari et al, 2020a). These aspects of the process; namely, the empathic attunement toward the other, the shared experience and the fusion of experiences led to the expansion of the participants' social engagement.…”

“…As shown in Table 1, three studies were based on playback theater as the primary approach to the drama therapy group process (Keisari et al, 2018(Keisari et al, , 2020a and one was based on a set of drama therapy techniques, including playback theater (Keisari and Palgi, 2017). Three studies involved participants with normal cognitive functioning in various settings.…”

“…In addition, the results point to the flexibility and spontaneity of the improvised dramatic action as a main component that encouraged the emergence of new meanings and perspectives to co-evolve. The ability to create various perspectives on the story enhanced the participants' reflective point of view as was positioning the teller as a spectator (Keisari et al, 2018(Keisari et al, , 2020a.…”