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Az Theatre at the Biennale Festival of Theatre and Psychiatry in Padua, Italy

Jonathan Chadwick was invited to give a presentation of Az's work to a one day conference entitled: 'Trauma and Performance, clinical and integrated treatments of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder' which was held at the end of the festival. This conference was attended by 170 health professionals and artists at the Papa A. Luciani Congress Centre. There were presentations by academicians on the extent, symptoms and treatment of PTSD. Work by an institute in Rome with refugee victims of torture and of a Sri Lankan company who were working with victims of the Tsunami were also presented. The afternoon consisted of small group discussions of the morning's presentations.

The festival and the conference was organised by a partnership based on the Padua's University Hospital Department of Mental Health and involved international participation. We were grateful to be invited back in 2008 to show more of our work.
For an account of Jonathan Chadwick's contribution to the Seminar and for his thinking about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder click here

Az Theatre working with Il Torchio in Somma Vesuviana, Naples, Italy

Following on from an initial visit in July 2006, Az Theatre worked from October 16th to October 20th with artists from Il Torchio theatre company, who are based in Somma Vesuviana near Naples.

By the end of the first evening, when we worked until nearly midnight, each participant had constructed two images relating to their story of recovery. On the second day we explored turning point moments in the stories. We explored figures or characters that embodied qualities which might hold back or advance recovery. Each participant constructed an image of the turning point moment including these figures. Each was asked to name the quality embodied in the figure which advanced recovery. This gave us eleven titles and eleven propositions relating to the human capacity for recovery.

On the following evening each participant brought music which they associated with the work. Some invented music, performed live. Another sung. We then started to work with dance, linking the images of the stories, until we had eleven short pieces of dance theatre. We made a presentation of these eleven pieces to an invited audience of 20 people on the last evening.

What we called eleven propositions about the human capacity for recovery had the following titles: LISTEN, SOUL, STRUGGLE, TO FIND ONESELF AGAIN, CONSCIOUSNESS OF ONESELF, CONSCIOUSNESS, LIGHTNESS, THE TREE OF LIFE, LIBERATION FROM PAIN, REASSIMILATION.
A selection of these pieces can be seen on the site. Alternatively, a DVD entitled Eleven Propositions about the Human Capacity for Recovery (recording this work in Italy) is available on DVD on request and a payment of costs.

If you would like to contribute a story or image, or give feedback please click here.