Efforts aimed at convincing young people to make healthy decisions often hit a wall of indifference and apathy. But theater can have a memorable effect on this hard-to-reach
target in ways that render other outreach vehicles envious.
When faced with difficult choices like whether to smoke, have safe sex or eat healthy, educational brochures, videotapes, targeted advertising and even hard-hitting news
coverage don't appeal to the hearts and minds of youth the way live theater can. And at a time when budget constraints are forcing inner-city schools to cut their performing arts
programs, healthcare organizations can use theater performances to tackle pressing health issues while filling an important educational void.
Earlier this month, Amerigroup, a national provider of insurance coverage for low-income families, used theater to educate kids about nutrition, exercise and tobacco prevention
-- topics that often elude children.
The insurance provider decided to test-drive theater as an educational vehicle after being approached by the National Theatre for Children last year to become the corporate
sponsor of its student-focused health performances.
"We thought live theater would be a unique delivery method for health education and community relations," says Amy Sheyer, Amerigroup's VP of communications.
The nutritional program uses creative storytelling to educate children from kindergarten through sixth grade about proper nutrition, good eating habits and physical fitness. It
is reinforced with workbooks, teacher guides and a Web site.
The program is expected to reach more than 40,000 children at schools in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and New Jersey.
The antismoking performance, "2 Smart 2 Smoke," targets 140 schools in Houston, Fort Worth, Texas, Dallas and Chicago, and is expected to reach more than 40,000 students.
It uses interactive scenarios to communicate why smoking isn't cool. Students are encouraged to respond to the characters in the play and help them make healthy decisions, says
Sheyer.
For the younger students in kindergarten through third grade, three little pigs come to blows with a big bad wolf who can't huff and puff and blow their house down because
smoking has damaged his lungs.
And for older students in grades four through six, the performance uses superhero Eerf Ekoms (smoke free spelled backward) to make children realize why smoking results in poor
health in the future.
So far, the program is earning high marks among students and teachers, says Sheyer. Preliminary surveys among schools that have seen the program found that 99% of teachers who
teach kindergarten through third grade said they thought students would retain the messages about good nutrition promoted in the play and 93% of teachers plan to use the program
workbooks that reinforce healthy eating habits.
Dramatizing Difficult Issues
For the last 15 years, Kaiser Permanente has used theater to tackle tough youth issues like peer pressure, safe sex and violence prevention. Its educational theater program
started with the Bodywise Traveling Menagerie, which uses life-size puppets, music and dance to educate children from kindergarten to fifth grade about issues like nutrition, home
safety, tobacco and alcohol prevention.
It has since added four programs to its menu of school-based educational theater that reaches 10 million children and teens nationwide, including:
- Peace Signs (grades 4 to 6) that focuses on violence prevention;
- Nightmare on Puberty Street (grades 6 to 8) that gives students coping skills to deal with peer pressure and early adolescence;
- Intersections (grades 6 to 10) that helps students tackle stressful issues like sex and pregnancy, violence, depression, family stress and suicidal thoughts; and
- Secrets (teens and adults) addresses HIV/AIDs prevention, abstinence and parent-teen communication.
The programs, which are performed throughout the year at no charge, allow Kaiser to educate on difficult health issues in a non-preachy, nonjudgmental way, says Regina
Dwerlkotte, who heads up Kaiser's theater programs. More than 60 young professional, multi-ethnic actors are used to depict the same kind of temptations, conflicts and decisions
young people face. They are given extensive training on the subjects they're dramatizing.
For instance, Secrets performers are trained for more than 120 hours on HIV/AIDS. This training allows the actors to field questions from the audience and offer medically
accurate advice and guidance.
The healthcare messages are resonating with students, teachers and parents. Last year, the programs were performed at more than 1,250 schools in California and there's always a
waiting lists of schools eager to host the performances, says Dwerlkotte.
While the programs consistently generate high satisfaction ratings and positive feedback among schools, Dwerlkotte was moved by one comment in particular that proved the
performances are making a powerful difference in the lives of young people. A student, who viewed one of the performances, wrote: "After seeing the show I decided not to kill
myself."
(Amerigroup, Amy Sheyer, Adam Bimbaum, 757/490-6900; Kaiser Permanente, Regina Dwerlkotte, 510/987-2223)
Theater Moves Physicians
Physicians also are a captive audience for educational theater. For two-and-a-half years, Kaiser has targeted its more than 7,000 physicians with theater programs that help
physicians improve their patient-physician communication, cultural sensitivity and domestic violence detection -- issues that often draw sharp criticism from patients. The troupe
of performers, called CareActors, use role-playing, dramatic scenes and video coaching to educate physicians in these key areas. The actors perform at conferences, educational
meetings and medical facilities.
The performances also address professional concerns like stress management and trauma in the workplace. Program themes, which are regularly updated based on physician feedback,
are striking a chord with physicians because they are "real and timely," says Regina Dwerlkotte, who manages Kaiser's educational theater programs.
The performances average a 90% satisfaction rating of "good" and "excellent" according to physician surveys.