Julie Hard was a former student of T.L. Kennedy Secondary School where she studied Dramatic Arts for a period of four years. I had been one of her Drama teachers. At the time of this interview, she was a third year student in the kinesiology program at McMaster University. She hoped her studies would lead her to a career in education, physiotherapy, or something that would "deal with people".

Julie was a member of the executive in the building she lived in on campus and she used Drama activities for various purposes but especially as icebreakers to "get to know you" due to the constant turnover of students in the building. She would play improvisational games, or other such icebreakers that she had learned throughout her study of High school Drama. "It helps so that people will come out of their shells to talk to others and get to know them. The ice- breakers create a common ground. Everybody is acting ‘silly’, being performers in their own way and expressing him or herself in order to get to know everybody else." As a member of the hall executive at McMaster, she also had an opportunity to apply her knowledge and skills to set up the Drama presentation for the university orientation week at university.

Julie had learned about Drama-in-Education essentially from me. After she had completed the Drama program, she assisted with one of my classes, and with the directing of my grade eleven class’ final exam performance. She taught them about staging and blocking of their play for their final presentation. She had been cast in a production of Departures and Arrivals and helped with its adaptation to a one-act format and the direction of it as well. Julie become aware of Drama as a Therapeutic Medium when she was in a workshop at the T.L. Kennedy school site with Stephen La Frenie who taught the students a method of "getting into" character by pushing themselves beyond normal limits. She has applied this skill at University as well as in the business world.

I have to learn to relate to other people. The method is kind of like finding something inside of yourself so that you can understand what somebody else is going through; for example, a break-up on the floor, someone has an emotional crisis. You try and remember back when you felt that same pain and you are able to relate to that person a little better. In one exercise, Stephen assisted me to achieve an intense state of anger that I had trouble reaching on my own. Intellectually, I understood that the character was upset and wanted to stand up for herself but releasing that anger was the challenge. My own, easy-going personality, rarely allows me to lose the control that this character needed to.

Stephen had used his critiquing of the scene to push her until she literally had her "back up against the wall". It was only at this point that she felt the anger that duplicated the character’s anger "welling up inside of her". She was then able to effectively portray the role because she felt the explosion of anger, which she used to push Stephen back again. "The released explosion was fantastic and made me feel as though a weight had been lifted even though I had no seeming crisis in my life at that time. I also gained an appreciation for the intensity of anger that the character had felt."

Julie’s early introduction to Drama, had been primarily through her friend, Ryan Kennedy. And although she explained that she was never involved directly with him in his Drama classes, she liked to watch his performances since he had a magnetic personality and a strong stage presence.

Watching him I realized how much fun Drama could be. At the time I was just beginning high school, finding a course that looked enjoyable was high on my priority list. I wanted to share in the enjoyment that Ryan was experiencing and that’s how I decided to take a Drama program. From there, the teachers have been a great influence, especially Sandi.

In a unit in Greek theatre, masks were used to put on and explore a different persona. That unit intrigued and inspired Julie to take Greek studies at University. "Being able to "put on" a face applies to the business world as well; for example, you put on a face that says, "I am serious now and I mean business and people know that I mean it." After she had worked for the Marriott Corporation she understood those shortcomings of wearing the "business face". It made her "bottle up" that same anger that had exploded in Stephen’s workshop.

Julie’s relationship to me has changed over the years. "Initially our relationship had been a teacher- to-student relationship. Outside of that relationship we became the director and the stage actor, the director and assistant director. Surviving that, we became friends. It’s interesting to see how the roles change!"

Julie believes that Drama is an integral component to the educational process because it deals with the expression of human emotions which must be regarded in all human interactions. Social and personal values are established and shaped primarily in the framework of these interactions. Therefore, taking a Drama course can affect a student’s social life. And especially,

Quiet students who are in class and never say anything to anyone change as soon as the lights are down and the stage lights come up, and they transform into a completely different person. At this point, you actually begin to identify with them. Maybe it’s not even that you are identifying with the character but acknowledging the fact that the transformation has taken place. So, socially, people are coming out of their shells and doing things that they normally would never do. Those same quiet students would really have no reason to come out of their shells unless there was a Drama class.

However, Julie does not see herself as one of the "quiet ones". She sees herself as outgoing and active. Therefore, "to witness a social transformation is exciting and a way to look at another who is less expressive with a new and refreshing perspective."

Drama, in Julie’s opinion, also teaches individuals to speak in front of people more effectively. "Students are made aware of their body language, how it is sometimes interpreted and that it can be used to their advantage or disadvantage, depending on what meaning they are trying to get across to their audience." She said that, "in Drama, students make more friends and develop close relationships. For instance during a performance of a school production of Fame, while we were backstage waiting and watching others, we encouraged each other as we each took to the stage. Everybody is supportive of each other making it more like a family than anything. In that particular performance the family atmosphere provided a comfortable and light-hearted social framework."

Julie has developed into a more artistically – aware and appreciative person. She appreciates just looking at a stage set, and having worked with my Grade Eleven class.

I never thought about how much work and effort goes into a performance. You take it for granted and it teaches you to appreciate more the artistic value of something or the Dramatic effect of something. Even driving down the highway, seeing a billboard, I appreciate that more. Just watching the painting of a backdrop, I say, ‘Wow! That really takes time, skill and effort’.

Julie feels that she, herself, has grown personally as a result of Drama. She referred again to her experience dealing with her own anger in Stephen’s workshop. "It had been an incredible realization that there was something inside that I hadn’t known before. Bringing it out requires a little bit more concentration, calming down and focusing. Focusing is a big part of Drama. I have learned to focus more than I did when I was younger."

To Julie, the special dynamics of human interaction has been altered by the influence of technology. "The distance between people imposed by computers and information technology has removed us from our physical expression."

Julie has been actively involved in Dramatherapy experiences as well as having had some minor associations with Drama as Therapy directly. She said that she "had experienced a kind of therapy in the relaxation activities that were done in classes, but these were never actually called, therapeutic. There was never a label used. But I always felt good coming out of the classroom; and after a high energy exercise like throwing a ball around, my day’s pace changed and I had a ‘pick me up’." She had been exposed to Dramatherapy in a number of ways and had observed other peoples’ exposure as well. She also had been a participant when she was involved in Drama activities and workshops with guest artists. She acted as an instructor with the grade eleven class and with the cast of Departures and Arrivals. And she was the instructor for an assignment in her own senior Drama class. "It was during the relaxation exercise when we would have everybody warm up at the beginning of the class. I would have everybody lie down and I would verbally go through a series of images while the lights were down low, and the students’ eyes were closed. The purpose was to have the students slow their breathing down and allow their muscles to relax by concentrating on the weight of their limbs and focusing on the medium around them." She acted in the role of a participant when her classmates led their various relaxation exercises. When she came in late to class, she could observe other people leading the relaxation warm-ups. For example, in Stephen’s exercise in which everybody wore a neutral mask, she purposely "stayed off to the side" frozen in a tableau that symbolized waiting on an imaginary dock.

Our tableau was watching the intensity build for five other people that were to imagine they were standing at the edge of the dock, being held back by some sort of rope or string, or "force". At the very end of the dock there was somebody leaving who they had to say goodbye to for some reason. Watching as the intensity of their urgency built was really exciting. The impressive part was how different people would bring that energy in and let it out. All the while I was still concentrating in my groups’ tableau; I was witnessing other exercises that could be considered therapeutic going on.

That exercise was therapeutic for Julie, because she was able to concentrate more and when people talked to her, she could focus on what they were saying. Now, when she is talking to me, she said that she "knows when I am listening to her and vice versa. It’s a body language thing."

I noted an interesting point for analysis. Even though I hadn’t asked Julie to define Therapy, it was clear that she understood the meaning of the term.

It was her reading of the chapter, by Terry Slater and myself, in Creating a Theatre in Your Classroom, which stimulated Julie’s awareness of authorship in the field. She told me that just doing the interview with me for this thesis further added to her awareness of the positive effects that Drama can have on people in general.

Authors write scripts for a reason, perhaps, to express themselves. It’s personally therapeutic to write about a social problem. Look at Dennis Foon or Carol Shields who wrote Departures and Arrivals. It’s kind of like writing about the human condition and maybe to them that is therapy. That’s what therapy is to me, to relieve yourself and if you have a problem, it works it out.

I assumed that she meant that problem-solving could be accomplished. Julie confirmed that she did not use the language of therapy in her work. She had experienced observing the practice of therapists she used to work for and could see how much time and effort that was required. She would feel like a therapist at certain times when she was responsible for the students in her residence building. "They came to me with their problems and I would listen to a lot of things that I couldn’t possibly relate to or couldn’t imagine relating to, but it was my job to imagine what they were going through. That is how I would use Dramatherapy."

With regard to using any therapeutic language, she said that she has only acted as an outlet and does not use any set phrases. Yet, in certain situations, she has used "trust words, or phrases". "I don’t use any Freudian, or psychological evaluations; it’s more of a social and personal one-to-one. I ask them if there is something wrong and once, they’ve confided in me, there’s an obligation afterwards to say, "Are you ok? I am here for you now", or "do you want to talk about it still?"

She had used therapeutic relaxation methods in her work with the first year university students. She also did a number of trust exercises such as standing in a circle and pushing the person in the middle of the circle back and forth. She did this at the end of the orientation week when everybody was getting to know each other.

It’s like a seminar where we invite five hundred people; it’s kind of hard to get to know people. We’ll do the name games, tableaux, things like that. It gets the team working together and that’s how we have used therapy. And then there is the theatrical aspect of us putting on the black light show for them. It shows that we care that they are there; this is what we want to do for you. This is who we are. The executive introduced itself in an entertaining, humorous, low-risk way for the new students who were not directly involved, but, in a way they were, because they were applauding.

She has had many different responses to emotional occurrences in her work. "You get some people who are so accepting and trusting of other people and it’s like everybody brings their own baggage with them to university. " For Julie, it would be the same in any secondary school.

In dealing with such a diversity of students in the University, she has been impressed and surprised by some people’s response to Drama. During relaxation exercises, some people would fall asleep interpreting the activity as a "nap time", or an opportunity to escape the moment and sleep. Others would actually "get into the groove of it" and concentrate. Instead of responding negatively to that, she would say, "More power to you. At least you are getting something from it!" and she would feel gratified that she had done something worthwhile. "If five people fall asleep, and if one person actually does achieve a feeling of relaxation, then, it’s worth it."

I wanted to know what she thought about participants who go through emotional "working- outs" or have psychological revelations in Drama. Julie believes that it is helpful to have a trusting environment in which that can occur.

That person trusts you and then you develop the trust with them and then a friendship develops. Like between you and myself. I can trust you. Through all the exercises and with all the confiding in you that I have done, I would like to feel that you can trust me as well. And it’s a good feeling.

Julie thinks students need to experience the processes of Drama in their educational lives to help them mature. In Julie’s high school days, she felt frustrated watching other students "goof around". To her, the Drama process offers them opportunities to work at a higher thinking level but, if they don’t choose to participate in the process, they remain at the same level. "Grade ten or grade nine students who are just taking it so they can get their credit because they can’t take any other Arts program; they aren’t going to benefit from it because "it’s what you put in, you get out". She said,

Drama class, then, becomes a game where there isn’t any learning happening. You are just going to class to play. I mean, play is good, you get a lot out of play; it’s kind of an emotional release but it’s nice to think that there is something more intellectual behind that, and that will get you to that higher level that will interest your mind to expand and grow and that’s where the process part comes in; I think that’s important.

Drama permits individuals to express themselves in such a way that others can understand their feelings. This two-way form of communication is relevant during the educational process because students experience such an array of emotions; Drama provides students not only with a medium for expression but also with an experimental playground to test out human reaction scenarios. That kind of learning, in my opinion, doesn’t come readily in any math class.

The methods Julie used in her work at the university were confusing to those unfamiliar with the Dramatic approach. But she said that she respects those students "who are willing to let go and not worry about what other people think". She feels confident in her ability to motivate people but if they resist, she doesn’t push them; she lets them proceed at their own pace. " I haven’t had any complaints about my methods and I think I’ve been pretty successful considering that I have people who have come back to me. They have left the building and they are still phoning me up at home and asking, ‘Listen, I’m so stressed out, what can I do?’

For example, somebody had phoned Julie and was crying hysterically because she had seen her ex- boyfriend with another girl. Julie told her to:

Calm down, to focus on her feelings, to relax, to bring everything into perspective and concentrate on what’s really important. And if she wanted to continue to cry, she should just let it out. Let it out and cry away and I am here listening to you and when you are ready to calm down a little bit maybe we’ll take a step back and look at what you have done.

What Julie had learned from Drama was that if a person thinks they have failed, then she can always take two steps back and ask, "How can I make this better for the next performance?"

Administrative documents published by the Residence Life committee at the University contained therapeutic objectives from Julie’s perspective. These help students, deal with stress and include exercises that she had done previously in Drama classes. She thinks that people overlook Drama as important for teaching practice. She would recommend that her professors, give their classes a more human touch; students would be able to learn better; be more interested, and more imaginative. Even she would feel more comfortable to approach the professor to ask for an explanation. "Perhaps professors, in general, should look at their pedagogical methods from a different perspective and say to themselves, Drama is therapeutic and almost guarantees or draws the students’ interests more. It would definitely be worth observing or maybe even adopting a few new philosophies that aren’t my own."

Julie defined Dramatherapy "as the working out of inner conflict and inner turmoil, or inner thoughts through the use of Drama". In her view, Drama includes movement, thinking, concentration, focus and imagination with the key phrases being, "working through, or working out". Julie loved doing mask work and saw it as the best vehicle for long-term, personal, therapeutic results.

There are times when you don’t want people to know what you are really thinking or you don’t want to be a part of that and you can’t put on a face. Or if you are having a really lousy day and it’s the day when you are putting on a presentation in your class and you can’t show that you are having a bad day. As soon as you put on that mask, everything is good; you’re better at performing and your presentation goes better and you can always go home and take that mask off. People around don’t pick up on it and I think it’s kind of important to keep a little bit to yourself and the mask can be so secretive. There is something mysterious about putting it on.

It was so easy for Julie to quickly turn the mask over and change personalities. "When I am at home with my family and my friends, they know what is behind the mask, however, speaking in front of a forum of a thousand people, I don’t want them to know what I am like. Sometimes I do, it’s just a matter of opinion, a judgment call. And that’s therapeutic, to be able to put on a mask and play, I am calm and collected, here I am."

Today, Julie is a Kinesiologist at Physiotherapy One, a clinic in Mississauga. She deals with patients who have been in motor vehicle accidents, who have been referred from the hospital and present "a real grab bag of different scenarios." After the assessment and treatment procedures are completed by the other medical staff, she takes over and works with the patients on their recovery programs. Part of her responsibility is "to help them get back to, and on with, their daily lives".

The programs involve daily workouts in the gym as well as hydrotherapy, which Julie runs in the clinic. One of the important focuses for her is to try and make it entertaining for the patients. Some people can slip into depression as a result of their trauma and daily pain management. She has held theme days at the pool. "For example one of the days was Hawaiian Day. They played appropriate music and everybody who came to the pool had a lei placed around her neck."

Julie wants to go back to school to specialize in pediatric Physiotherapy in the near future. She has worked with young children at the clinic and she could see how Drama can play a vital role in helping her work. The atmosphere in the clinic can be very intimidating, so the therapists call on her to deal with the little children because "she tends to be more expressive and creative working with them. Her creative personality allows her to set them up in exercises that appear to be, or in fact, become more entertaining for them to participate in. This can also work with older clients as well who find the monotony and rigor of the program magnified by the technical explanations of the exercises."

Julie doesn’t think that she uses Drama techniques intentionally . Rather, the techniques are situation-driven where she might have to improvise quickly. A therapist may describe a patient case study to Julie: "The patient is very pain focused. She’s been in a car accident, has fibromyalgia and she’s just lost her husband." Julie said that she would react very differently to "somebody like that, than to somebody who had sprained an ankle in a bar brawl." So she has to read the situation and, spontaneously react to it. "When there are children for example, I can’t come across as being the professional and start talking about kinesiological terms or the human anatomy right off the bat. The script has to change."

As physiotherapists, they need to play the "good cop/bad cop" game. She always played the role of the really nice kinesiologist and the "bad cop" character was played by another therapist, named Tracy, who is a heavy, crack the whip type of therapist. When she hasn’t been able to get a response out of a patient or the patient has been difficult, Tracy would ask for Julie’s assistance and Julie would coax the patient gently back into her program.

Julie is happier in her present job because she can express herself more honestly and not wear ‘that bad guy mask’. She has had to put on different faces periodically but feels that the work she is doing now is more suited to who she really is.

I watched Patch Adams. I love that movie. To me he’s right on the money. I do believe that medicine and surgeries and other modalities are necessary but there’s something to, you know, making people laugh. Why can’t people laugh and heal themselves?

Julie’s former experience in management for a restaurant company demanded that she "put on" a business mask. She was in a middle management position and she had to play "the heavy" which did not reflect her true personality. The company had hired her specifically for this role and trained her accordingly. After six months, she found herself hating her job so much that at times, she would cry in the mornings before going to work. She noticed that she was becoming the "character" she was playing at work. Her family and friends noticed the change as well. She had little time for her friends and when she was with them she couldn’t relax and enjoy their company. Later on, a co-worker pointed out that the job was "eating her alive" and recommended that she resign because the change in her personality had been so Dramatic. From this experience, she realized how important it is to choose a career that aligns with one’s true personality.

Julie found that wearing the "serious mask" had helped her to a degree in certain circumstances because she did manage get her staff do what the upper management wanted. The trap was that the longer she wore the mask and played the role the more she actually began to transform and become that person.

Julie said that she misses being involved in Drama. Seeing her mother’s boss, a "crusty old man", approaching retirement, perform in amateur theatre reminded her how much she enjoyed this "outlet".

Every once in awhile it’s really fun to go and watch because you see him in the business world in his suits and then you see him on stage. He’d played a role in a funny play and at one point he had to pretend to take his pants down to show somebody a tattoo or a buckshot that stuck into his bottom. So he started to take his pants down and my mom and I just killed ourselves laughing because that’s completely out of his own character. It was hard for him to do that but it was good. I look at that and I really miss just being part of a group and doing all that stage acting.

To Julie, Drama-in-Education is "important, necessary and therapeutic because it allows people to express themselves through their feelings or emotions". She feels that technology has taken that away from society because people are now expressing themselves through e-mail over the computer. "A lot of people spend too much time behind the computer. They lose the ability to relate to people and understand body language and to use their own bodies to express themselves." Similarly, my understanding of the general goals of Dramatherapy for developing skills for life, connect with Julie’s.