Theater workshops as therapeutic occupational possibility in a therapeutic residential service

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the potential of therapeutic use of theater as an occupational therapy intervention resource in the social reinsertion of the users of a Therapeutic Residential Service located in the countryside of São Paulo state. Weekly theatrical workshops with the duration of approximately one hour were conducted for six months with nineteen residents. The workshops were based on the technique of the Theater of the Oppressed and on the theater games of Viola Spolin. Data were recorded on audio, field journal and photography, and a thematic content analysis was performed. It was concluded that the theater workshops constituted distancing spaces of institutional routine, causing the subject to take ownership of their creative power and leading to the rediscovery of themselves and of other possibilities of social reintegration. Theatrical workshops asserted their potential by allowing the subjects to experience and (re)invent life production modes, as well as develop strategies to deal with everyday difficulties.