Jenny Pearson, co-author of ‘Dramatherapy with Myth and Fairytale’, explains how this extract, from one of the chapters written by the late Pat Watts, expertly guides the reader through the process of preparing groups to enter into the realms of imagination, ready to begin a myth enactment.
“The myths and fairytales in this book are stories from long ago that have survived the centuries because they have been loved and because they carry wisdom and healing. They have survived because people have told them to their children and grandchildren who have remembered them, written them down, created books and plays, dances and films around them, and told them to their children.
In the drama and movement therapy practiced by the authors of this book, the stories take the form of simple, straightforward scripts. The opening chapters take the reader through the experience of entering into the stories as improvised drama and living them in role. The Sesame approach to myth enactment requires no previous experience of ‘acting’ or ‘dance’. Participants are invited into a given space and taken, step by step, toward and over the threshold that leads into the realm of imagination.
This is how Pat Watts, who created the Myth module of the Sesame training at Central School of Speech and Drama, describes the process of entry into that magical Land.”