Conceptualizing a Public and Collective Therapeutic Theatre (PACTT): An analysis of Everything is Not Going to Be Ok performance festival

Abstract

This article traces the origin and subsequent study of a weekly online theatre festival hosted by two drama therapists during the first seven weeks of the North American COVID-19 lockdown entitled: Everything is Not Going to Be OK (EINGTBOK). In our process of creating, curating, and hosting this festival, we began to conceptualize new ways of thinking about the role of drama therapy, and therapeutic theatre in particular, in responding to collective experiences of distress and trauma in ways that facilitate individual and collective capacity in the context of public health. In the article that follows, we briefly synthesize the relevant background literature, describe the EINGTBOK festival, and share findings from the survey sent to all performers and audience members following the conclusion of these performances. Findings suggest that the majority of respondents considered EINGTBOK to be fully or partially a form of therapeutic theatre, with the following themes emerging as the most important: processing the pandemic; creation of connection and community; expression and validation of feelings; permission to be human; increased political and international awareness; and aspects of the format as holding and containing. We end with the conceptualization of a theatre and public health intervention called Public and Collective Therapeutic Theatre (PACTT) and offer possible practice and research implications of these findings.