“A beautiful moment was when discussing our own superpowers and a young cancer patient said hers was ‘making the people around her have courage during difficult times.’ It was hard to keep my emotions together during that moment.”
UCF Nursing student
Each Fall, Creative Drama students collaborate on creative drama workshops – sessions that explore a topic through imagination, movement, improvisation, and creative play. This high-level assignment requires students to develop a traditional lesson plan, which they facilitate in a K-12 classroom. Then, students must consider how to adapt the lesson to patients in a hospital setting – including facilitating the lesson with only one participant, and providing a “to-go kit” for patients in isolation. Nursing students support by providing feedback to Theatre students during the development process, and partnering with patients during a lesson.
Fall 2023 students created lessons based on the theme “Superheroes Unite!” – full of secret identities, silly powers, and villains of all sorts! Their lessons asked: What makes a superhero? Who are the heroes in our lives? What are our own “superhero” strengths?
The prompt for Fall 2024 is “Go for the Gold! Practicing Perseverance.” Inspired by a dynamic 2024 Summer Olympics, youth will explore perseverance, defined by Resiliency Florida as “continuing to try when things get hard.” Sessions will explore: What are examples of perseverance throughout literature and history? How does perseverance show up in our own lives? And how can theatre help us to practice perseverance?