ConversAzioni
ConversAzioni is a project of community theatre on aphasia developed through the creation of a theatre performance generated from the encounter with aphasic people and its staging in sensitive places of the community in Turin and Piedmont. Aphasia is a form of disability occurring after a stroke, brain haemorrhage or head trauma.
ConversAzioni -Theater project for awareness and community development
January 2011 – January 2012
ConversAzioni is a project of community theatre on aphasia developed through the creation of a theatre performance generated from the encounter with aphasic people and its staging in sensitive places of the community in Turin and Piedmont.
Aphasia is a form of disability occurring after a stroke, brain haemorrhage or head trauma. It affects spoken language, reading and writing capabilities, but the injuries do not damage intelligence or the emotional sphere. Often, the people affected by it “disappear” in social and relational terms. ConversAzioni tells the story of the loss of language and the encounter with another communication mode which is made of emotions, important findings and rediscovered bonds during the dark period of the disease.
Objectives of the project:
- raise awareness on the subject, in order to deal with the difficulties of communication with the aphasic person;
- propose meeting moments to help aphasic people socialise and create relationships;
- involve the families and friends of aphasic people to improve sharing and mutual support.
Promoting Institutions ConversAzioni — is promoted by Fondazione Carlo Molo ONLUS in collaboration with Teatro Popolare Europeo and Master in Teatro Sociale e di Comunità dell’Università di Torino (Master’s course in Social and Community Theatre of the University of Turin).
Addressees — the performance is addressed to people who live with aphasia, their caregivers, the healthcare personnel involved in the hospitalisation phase and citizens in general.
Methodology and format- ConversAzioni was developed from the collection of stories of people who live with aphasia, through the direct contact with the patients taking part in the theatre workshop which has been active since 2011 at Centro Afasia CIRP – Fondazione Carlo Molo ONLUS in Turin and is directed by Lorena La Rocca.
Aphasic people have told their stories using the nonverbal narration tools which were proposed, to actively contribute to the dramaturgical research. It was the first step to resume communication making their experience useful to raise awareness and inform.
At Centro Afasia CIRP (FCM), social theatre has a rehabilitating and artistic value, as attested by the various activities on nonverbal communication and self-narration which are promoted.
www.cirpafasia.it www.fondazionecarlomolo.it
The show refers to the poetics of narrative theatre by integrating it with the musical component, live music and singing, and a physical theatre game to evoke, in a simple and engaging way, the condition of those who have difficulties in communicating. Real stories come to life on stage in the game of two actors and a musician, through the expressive languages in which words are nothing but a part of the whole.
Performing events — the performance was repeated in the ten Circoscrizioni (departments) of the city of Turin and at Palazzo Madama on the occasion of the national conference on aphasia. It is still repeated on the occasion of training courses and events related to Theatre and Health.
