Persephone Sextou

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• Doctor of Philosophy
• Professor at Leeds Beckett University

Hospitalisation can be a challenging experience for young people, including higher levels of anxiety, social isolation, and depression. In this paper we identify the possibilities of an applied theatre pilot that aimed to combine co-designed virtual reality (VR) approaches with intermedial work with young people in hospital. Within the pilot study...

This paper relays the findings of the evaluation of an applied theatre project for children in hospital as perceived by hospital teachers. A mixed qualitative approach was used. Data were analysed using thematic analysis to explore the teachers’ views on children’s engagement with learning and the improvement of the hospital experience as a whole t...

Recent decades have seen a new appreciation develop for Applied Theatre and the role of art in arts-based activities in healthcare. In this book, Persephone Sextou looks specifically at the place of theatre for children who are hospitalised, showing how powerfully it can enhance their social and mental well-being. Child-led performances can be used...

Applied theatre for health and wellbeing suggests itself as an effective tool for social and emotional interaction and communication of emotions, developing creativity, imagination, and regulation of emotions during hospitalisation. In this article, we define it as a therapeutic complex artistic practice. This paper aims to explore the therapeutic...

This book explores applied theatre practice for children in environments of illness and cure and how it can powerfully normalise children’s hospitalisation experience. It is an essential tool for making meaning of children’s illness, putting it into a fictional context and developing better control of their clinical experiences. It can be central t...

A cyclic performance project enabled Australian tertiary drama students and primary school students to connect through stories written by children in hospital in the UK. University drama students undertook a semester of puppetry and created performances of children’s stories from Sextou’s book. The university students’ learning process involved exp...

Everyday creative activities, facilitated at the bedside, offer an essential respite and therapeutic intervention to children with cancer. Our presentation explores the integration of everyday bedside creative activities for children in paediatric haematology/oncology settings. We will emphasize the co-design approach, involving children as active...

This presentation presents my work exploring applied participatory theatre practice with children in healthcare settings. I refer to my research with NHS Trusts in the UK and the Queensland Children's Hospital in Australia and how the participatory arts with digital assets can be a powerful tool for helping children to normalise, understand and mak...

A cyclic performance project enabled Australian tertiary drama students and primary school students to connect through stories written by children in hospital in the UK. Tertiary drama students undertook a semester of puppetry and created performances of children’s stories from Persephone Sextou’s book, Applied Theatre in Paediatrics. Children, Sto...

Background: In the context of ongoing underrepresentation of disabled people and shifts in the theatre industry, this article examines the significance of personal disability understandings and how these are interpreted in relation to the wellbeing of disabled people in theatre. Methods: The findings presented are part of an Interpretative Phenome...

This narrative literature review aims to provide a broad scope and objective analysis by identifying and summarizing published works surrounding the current research into how different forms of non-pharmaceutical and non-invasive arts-based methods can be used to reduce children’s peri-operative anxiety in paediatrics. While our search focuses on t...

Welcome to this webinar recording of the launching of my latest monograph titled 'Applied Theatre in Paediatrics. Children, Stories and Synergies of Emotions' published by Routledge in 2023. The book launch event was hosted by CREATE at the University of Sydney. Content In the video, the audience will find information about my arts-based interd...

Since March 2020, artists have lost their access to patients on NHS sites in the U.K., causing arts-based projects to pause indefinitely across the country due to Covid-19. Creative ways had to be implemented to help young patients access the arts during isolation. This presentation focuses on children-patients as audiences and introduces ‘Rocket-a...

Title: Arts-based digital storytelling in paediatrics: Enhancing hospitalized children’s emotional wellbeing through animation films during COVID-19. The project has been informed by the extensive literature on integrating applied theatre with new technologies, as well as my research in understanding the unique qualities of theatre work in hospita...

The Editorial introduces the reader to the contents of this double special issue on applied puppetry and health. It starts with the Editors’ definition of a Puppet to move on to important theoretical articles, revealing notes from the field (projects and practitioners), fascinating interviews with experts in performance in healthcare and beautiful...

This double special issue is about Applied Puppetry and Health, including major articles (theoretical perspectives), notes from the field (the practitioners’ view), interviews of practitioners and academics and an editorial that reflects on the 3 Broken Puppet symposia that were hosted by the University of Cork, the University of Bath and Newman Un...

Artists such as actors and puppeteers in healthcare face emotional challenges in their work. This article investigates the interpersonal competencies and emotional skills of the artist, who uses puppets in their practice, in healthcare contexts and settings. We present initial findings from phase B of a wider longitudinal study. Phase A focused on...

Inspired by Socratic dialogue, we have chosen to explore how our experiential understanding has informed our views of performing to children bedside in clinical settings as a dialogue. We will explore the conditions of performing in healthcare and the possible methods of training available to community actors and puppeteers who may be interested in...

References Citations Supplementary Data Article Media Metrics Suggestions This article aims to explore the required skills and competencies of the actor who works in health-care systems. A narrative inquiry gave the opportunity for participants to elaborate on their understandings of their direct or indirect engagement with theatre in hospitals. Da...

This article aims to explore the required skills and competencies of the actor who works in health-care systems. A narrative inquiry gave the opportunity for participants to elaborate on their understandings of their direct or indirect engagement with theatre in hospitals. Data were collected in the form of ten narrative interviews with experienced...

Applied Theatre is an inclusive term used to host a variety of powerful, community-based participatory processes and educational practices. Historically, Applied Theatre practices include Theatre-in-Education (TiE), Theatre-in-Health Education (THE), Theatre for Development (TfD), prison theatre, community theatre, theatre for conflict resolution/r...

Sextou, P. & Smith, C. (2017) ‘Recreational drama activities for the elderly in UK care homes’ Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture. University of Lodz, Poland. (In Press)

Sextou, P. & Smith, C. (2017) ‘Recreational drama activities for the elderly in UK care homes’ Text Matters: A Journal of Literature, Theory and Culture. University of Lodz, Poland. (In Press)

Mental health difficulties remain a major source of burden and distress for individuals, families, health and social care providers with stigma a key target for educational campaigns attempting to improve care pathways and access to support. Stigma is a multifaceted concept having a range of drivers including shame and is thought to act as a barrie...

Recent decades have seen a new appreciation develop for applied theater and the role of art in arts-based activities in healthcare. This book looks specifically at the place of theater for children who are hospitalized, showing how powerfully it can enhance their social and mental well-being. Child-led performances, for example, can be used as a te...

Focus: The Applied Theatre practitioner’s training. Holding on Philosophy. Challenges encountered. Evaluation. Concluding thoughts.

The paper reflects on the need for a mixed methodology of more traditional qualitative research methods and tools (i.e. pre-performance questionnaire, post-performance interviews, filming and journals to document the rehearsal process and the experience in hospitals) with practice as research (evidence from bedside theatre performance in hospital)...

Children in hospitals often experience clinical stressors and anxiety during their stay and while undertaking treatment. My speech aims to address some questions that challenge our thinking as artists. How can bedside theatre interventions support child optimism and moderate their hospital experience during difficult times? Can one to one, playful...

This article examines the delivery of a theatre initiative with child audiences in a hospital context. It reports on a mixed-method evaluation of a bedside site-specific performance at high-risk wards based in a Children’s Hospital, NHS Trust in England. It acknowledges the circumstances of the children and the conditions of the location, and exami...

http://www.newman.ac.uk/applied-drama-lab 'Give to our community' REPORT (2010-2014) Compiled by: Dr Persephone Sextou

The paper describes an approach to theatre as an educational intervention in society linking the artist, the psychiatrist, and social groups with an interest in mental illness. An exploration of narratives and diagnostic criteria from psychiatric case studies led to the creation of two dramatic monologues focusing on awareness and impact of bipolar...

This article reports on practice-based pilot research being undertaken at Birmingham Children's Hospital in England on the impact of bedside theatre performance on hospitalised children's well-being. It discusses the process of creating theatre for sick children, connecting with the hospital and working within the hospital tight routines, dealing w...

This paper explores a cross-disciplinary approach to performance studies (devised drama) and creativity, and their role in contemporary communities. Specifically, it discusses the possibilities of using drama practice and Shakespeare’s themes as a means of learning about ourselves and the world we live in. Drawing on observations and discussions co...

The exploration of devised theatre towards producing case study scenarios and films is at the core of current drama practice as a powerful means of both giving voice to vulnerable community groups and contributing to inter‐professional education training purposes. The focus of the paper is on collaboration with colleagues working on ‘Daphne’, a Eur...

This article reports on practice-based pilot research being undertaken at Birmingham Children's Hospital in England on the impact of bedside theatre performance on hospitalised children's well-being. It discusses the process of creating theatre for sick children, connecting with the hospital and working within the hospital tight routines, dealing w...

The present study deals with the pedagogy of drama supervision in higher education with an emphasis on Applied Drama Research. The paper uses pilot evidence on the students' reliance upon their tutors, the perception of tutors as authority by the students and, the tutors' ability to use their own research experience. Evidence aims to generate discu...

This article reports on a small-scale participatory research project exploring student’s use of imagination and verbal expression trough drama. It focuses on findings from video recordings made on the theme ‘Dreams and Nightmares’. Konstantin Stanislavski’s method of ‘magic if’ for actors and the Neuro-Linguistic Programming method of Bandler and G...

Theatre for children in hospitals is categorised under the umbrella of Applied Drama but it needs to be a flexible term because it includes a multitude of practices and practitioners, involving different circumstantial details concerning who is performing what in hospitals, how children are participating as audiences, what the effects of theatre ar...

This research uses Theatre-in-Education (TiE) drama as a multicultural tool to engage students in the experience of cultural issues in a school context. It concludes that drama may have a positive effect on student expression of attitudes to immigrants and helps in questioning stereotypes and prejudices toward developing cross-cultural communicatio...

This article is based on discussions with artistic directors and administrators of British Theatre in Education companies about past and current practice and changing funding resources. Persephone Sextou reviews developments in TiE practice since its beginnings in the 1960s, focusing upon the situation in the 1990s following the enforcement of Nati...

The provision of drama teacher education in Greece is discussed. Its past and current states are examined and new trends in drama teaching are outlined. The pros and cons of specialist drama teachers are considered. The provision of specialist drama teachers is supported with the proviso that they should be fully integrated into the life of the sch...