Break the stigma of unfair social judgment
The project of: Autobiographical Theater as a tool to fight against vulnerability, is presented under the acronym ATENEA. An Erasmus+ KA204 Project that aims to foster European cooperation between «different partners and relevant stakeholders» in adult learning «migrant integration, intergenerational learning, and social inclusion» through specific innovative pedagogical approaches using the «Autobiographical Theatre».
The ATENEA project aims to promote social inclusion by accompanying vulnerable groups in «epair, recovery and reinsertion» in their daily lives to help them have a «life project» achieve dreams «work, self-esteem and autonomy» be happy and integrated in society, using autobiographical theatre. ATENEA, is the «dissemination» of the theater project to combat the stigmatization of Mental Health designed by the director Domingo Ferrandis for the group of the Associació Àmbit, people who live with some mental illness, some ex-prisoners and with dual pathology «addiction together with mental disorder». Actresses and actors from the Asociación Ámbit group, the staff who attend them, including its director Javier Vilalta and director Domingo himself, staged the autobiographical piece by its own members A world apart inside the world, from which ATENEA was born, with the scenic objective of "raising awareness, making visible and raising awareness about mental health" premiered on March 13, 2019 in the Sala Inestable, Valencia, Spain, within the programming of the Festival 10 Sentidos,
Bestias edition, and financed by the Bancaja Foundation.
The ATENEA programme, which is the continuation of the scenic mental health programme, carried out with the Ámbit Association group, is a two-headed methodology «Dramatherapy and Autobiographical Theatre» designed by Domingo himself with two lines of intervention, the personal one, focused on participating person and their group, avoiding social isolation and reinforcing their self-esteem, helping them to plan aspirations, and giving them the space to expose their story, feelings and thoughts through dramatherapy techniques such as artistic expression and improvisation. Communicating is essential, listening is crucial. Words and gestures matter to confront discrimination and prejudice. It allows to know the reality of the stigma and its environment, and thus analyze the impact on their lives. With this information, create a truly strategic approach that addresses the vulnerability problems of the collective to correct them, addressing them through theater, the inclusive language of emotions.
We work with groups that share vulnerability to take advantage of the force of inertia, intuition and mutual support, facilitating self-love and empathy, friendship and reciprocity «creating ties to achieve the same goal». The second part is the autobiographical stage piece of the groups, to positively impact the environment and the community. «Stage to eradicate» the consequences of prejudiced stigmatization, in our opinion, serious for the well-being of those who suffer it, and for the health of society itself, with a greater risk of marginalization, poverty and indigence that can lead to a pattern of scattered and unhappy life, and consequently leading to even more serious «problems of mental health, drug addiction, delinquency, suicide, etc.» . Raise awareness through theater that these consequences, as covid, cancer or climate change show us, are not exclusive, but global, and anyone can be vulnerable to them. At the same time that we denounce the high human, social and economic cost of stigmatization.
For this reason, ATENEA wants to make the Autobiographical Theater methodology, guides, resources and dramatic tools available to society to use in vulnerable groups, repair the stigma so that its members recover their routines, hobbies and relationships. With «two objectives» the first, to accompany them in overcoming their stigma, and the second, the relationship with other people from other stigmatized groups.
The Mental Health program proposed by Domingo was achieved through the achievement of phases that decided to assemble them together, thus the methodology of the Autobiographical Theater «9 chained steps» was born 1. Confidence, we had to create the
right environment for them to want to be and express themselves . 2. Stories, that comfort provided them with the ideal environment to tell passages of their lives. 3. Transcription, we had to collect all those life stories and save them. 4. Investigate, we began to investigate what they had told us. 5. Narrative, pass all the information we had to a dramatic text, that is, pass from reality to fiction. 6. Aesthetics. Once we had the scenic argument, we began to design the atmospheres, the music, the lighting, the costumes, the props...etc. 7. Theater, staging with the public. 8. Colloquium, once the performance was over, the cast and the audience spoke about the stories that the piece makes visible. 9. Disseminate, spread and replicate good theatrical practice, which is ATENEA, and invite other groups that need it to tell their story.
ATENEA not only intends to educate society through theater against prejudices about problems related to vulnerability, including unconscious bias and the tendency to stigmatize, it also wants to «link culture with social inclusion», contributing to generate care policies with local programs. Generate care and integration initiatives and policies. Culture can play a key role in having the tools and resources to manage your own vulnerability and to help others. ATENEA also intends to educate and train professionals to use this theatrical methodology. The evaluation of the project affirms that artistic expression and scenic models offer groups the opportunity to positively interfere with the emotional well-being of their members and improve their quality of life. These impacts can generate advantages of autonomy, operability and happiness.
ATENEA worked the methodology with 6 groups: Former prisoners with mental health problems; People with mental health problems; Women facing geographic barriers; Women in search of their professional path; Long-term unemployed; Asylum seekers/refugees. The result was 6 scenic pieces «six cultural bubbles» favorable to social inclusion, where situations of silence that encapsulate lives were recounted, and the way out of them was shown, as a way of giving tools to return to everyday life. The impact goes beyond what we expected. For a beautiful, autonomous, dignified and pleasant life «without stigma».
