BREAKING A LEG TO HEAL A HEART

Dramatic workshop offered to children recovering from trauma and abuse

The Children’s Campus is partnering with the South Bend Civic Theatre to provide children in residential treatment with a very special opportunity to participate in a dramatic workshop program on campus.  The cumulative goal of the theater project is to expose children with severe emotional and behavioral challenges to the dramatic experience.  The program launch is funded through a matching grant from ArtsEverywhere, an initiative of the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County.

Drama, as many teachers and therapists are discovering, is not only fun and natural for children, it also encourages emotional growth, motivation and engagement.  Participants will have the opportunity to continue with theater activities after the workshop is completed.  These children will create a play from the ground up, integrating reading, writing and critical thinking skills. They will write, direct and produce an original play that will reflect their own life experiences.  The culmination of this dramatic project will be a performance of the children’s original work at the South Bend Civic Theatre.

“The point of the workshop with TCC is to allow these kids the opportunity to appreciate the arts with a discerning eye, to understand more fully how many healthy and safe methods of communication are available to them, and, most importantly, to learn to appreciate the diversity of life,” Scot Purkeypile says about the program.  Scot is Director of Theatre for Young Audiences at the South Bend Civic Theatre, and will teach the program along with SBCT staff members.  “The children living at TCC virtually all come from marginalized, dysfunctional families and have spent a good portion of their young lives isolated from mainstream educational and social programs because of their severe emotional problems. This project will be one of the few opportunities they have to find their eureka moments.”

 Anyone wishing to help match the funds from the ArtsEverywhere grant should contact Jory Fitzgerald Kelly at (574) 855-5822, or via email at jfitzgerald@fccin.org.