Drama discovery workshop for people who stammer at Glasgow's Citizens' Theatre

This half-day workshop, led by Guy Hollands, artistic director of TAG Theatre Company at the Citizen's Theatre, took place on May 6th 2006. Participants, who came from Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Borders, were extremely enthusiastic about the experience. Some of their reviews are relayed below...

"Despite being very nervous initially, I hugely enjoyed the experience. I guess I had some preconceived notions about drama workshops involving lots of standing around and being a tree, but I was pleasantly surprised by what we did. The games were fun, allowing us to relax and have a laugh and the exercises were very thought provoking and really called on us to use our imaginations. Although I have been able to do a bit of 'acting' before, in school plays and student musical productions, the opportunity to use drama techniques and work in improvised situations with other people who stammer has just never before been available. The creation of a supportive and affirming environment was crucial to being able to fully throw myself into things and we certainly had that in abundance. I very much hope that we can do this again and I will be happily telling everyone who couldn't be there or who might be interested in coming next time what a fantastic opportunity this is to awake the sleeping Olivier in us all!"

"...I didn't think I'd enjoy it as much as I did. Each activity offered an opportunity to express myself in a way I was comfortable with. There were no expectations on me to 'perform'. It offered me an opportunity to express various emotions (both positive and negative) in an accepting environment. It was an enjoyable way to explore your speech in a non-threatening environment..."

"...I had been worried that drama might involve putting on rubbish plays you invented in 10 minutes in front of everyone else - resulting in embarrassment to me and making everyone else cringe at my terrible acting and imagination... These fears were dispelled as there was very little acting, role-playing and no reading from rubbishy play books. In fact it wasn't really like 'drama' at all. Many people would have been put off by the title, but missed out on a great experience.
I had never experienced anything like this before; it was certainly worlds apart from the boring drama and stuff I did at school. I would definitely encourage everyone else to at least give it a go, as it was a good laugh and everyone enjoyed themselves..."

"I was apprehensive about attending the TAG Drama Workshop but found it to be a thoroughly enjoyable experience and a great laugh to boot. Not so much impersonating trees in the wind as having fun improvising and taking part in a number of short, drama based games. All-in-all, a great way to meet new people and increase your confidence".

As a participant myself, I would add that I found it just as fun and challenging as everyone else! Although I speak fluently, it became evident that self-expression is so obviously not just about speech - but rather about movement, expression, tone of voice, imaginative content and much more - and everyone potentially had equal access to these other aspects that the workshop called forth. I am convinced that drama based work has great potential value for people who stammer and would be really excited to see a group working together over a period of time to experiment more fully.

We are profoundly grateful to Guy Hollands and TAG for giving time and expertise to work with us on this ground-breaking initiative.

Jan Anderson