Reasons for being: Storytelling the creation of a play about youth and mental health
Keywords:
Mental health, theatre for young audiences, poetic inquiry, arts-based researchAbstract
This article reflects on an arts-based Social Science and Humanities Research Council funded study (2021-24), entitled ‘Youth mental health performance: How young people respond to portrayals of mental health, resilience, and well-being in and through drama and performance creation.’ Secondary theatre students as co-researcher artists from Riverside Secondary School in Coquitlam, BC were invited to explore how mental health was portrayed in Canadian Theatre for Young Audiences plays. Participants responded to these portrayals through play analysis workshops and collective theatre devising and performance. This paper highlights voices of the participants, making their thoughts and impressions the centrepiece of the paper. Methodology integrated ethnotheatre/drama, research-based theatre, and poetic inquiry processes. This study aligned with university and school district ethics protocols.
References
Aberle, R. (2022). Still/Falling and The Code: Two plays for young adults. Talonbooks.
Barker, K. (2017). This is how we got here. Playwrights Canada Press.
Byrne, G. (2017). Narrative inquiry and the problem of representation: ‘Giving voice’, making
meaning. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 40(1), 62-81.
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. (2023). PlayME [podcast]. CBC. https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/211-playme
Conrad, D. (2020). Youth participatory action research and applied theatre engagement: Supporting Indigenous youth survivance and resurgence. Theatre Research in Canada,
(2), 258-277.
Flint, A. (2024). Poetry, paths, and peatlands: Integrating poetic inquiry within landscape
heritage research. Landscape Research, 49(1), 4-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01426397.2023.2237432
Jones, E. A. K., Mitra, A. K., & Bhuiyan, A. R. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on mental health in adolescents: A systematic review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(5): 2470. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18052470
Lea, G. W., & Belliveau, G. (2016). Introduction. In G. Belliveau & G. W. Lea (Eds.), Research-based Theatre: An artistic methodology (pp. 3—12). Intellect.
Pauluth-Penner, T. & Prendergast, M. (2023). Youth mental health performance: How young people respond to portrayals of mental health, resilience and well-being in and through drama and performance creation. Applied Theatre Research, 11(1), 23-42. https://doi.org/10.1386/atr_00074_1
Prendergast, M. (2016). What I learn from theatregoing: Review haiku. Art/Research International, 1(1), 258-267. https://doi.org/10.18432/R23018
Prendergast, M., Gouzouasis, P., Leggo, C., Irwin, R. & Grauer, K. (2009). A haiku suite: The importance of music-making in the lives of secondary school students. Music Education Researcher, 11(3), 303-317. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613800903144262
Quintana, C. (2020). Selfie. Playwrights Canada Press.
World Health Organization (2021). Guidance on community mental health services: Promoting person-centred and rights-based approaches. World Health Organization. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/igo
MONICA PRENDERGAST is Professor of drama/theatre education at the University of Victoria. She has written or co-edited 12 books, and many articles and chapters in top-ranked journals and books in her field. mprender@uvic.ca
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
License
Copyright (c) 202X McGill Journal of Education / Revue des sciences de l'éducation de McGill
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
