Ethnodramatherapy Training Institute Welcomes You
Stephen Snow teaching EDT in China
The Full Story
INTRODUCTION TO ETHNODRAMATHERAPY
Ethnodramatherapy (EDT) is a dynamic fusion of the performance ethnography method, known
as ethnodrama, with the principles and practices of drama therapy. Developed over the past
decade, by Stephen Snow, at Concordia University’s Centre for the Arts in Human
Development, the approach has been realized in several theatre productions, all with a minimum
of six months’ preparation, and in several one to six-day workshops, in Israel, Sri Lanka, China,
Boston, Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia. Basing his synthesis on Mienczakowski’s
conceptualization of ethnodrama from the 1990s, Snow especially honed in on Mienczakowski’s
idea that an ethnodrama can engage “therapeutic strategies leading to individual change”
(Mienczakowski, Smith & Sinclair, 1996, p. 445). In this way, the whole process of EDT can
function on four levels: as research, as social activism, as theatrical art and in the domain of
therapy, specifically, drama therapy.
Responses to past EDT workshops:
Through a variety of teaching modalities – didactic, audiovisual, improvisational, interactive, artistic – Dr. Snow skillfully led us through the Ethnodramatherapy process. With his guidance we became an ethnic group, having the common anxiety: “You don’t see me”; after which therapeutic methods were utilized from both drama and art therapy – such as Playback Theatre, Psychodrama, and Drawing – to exemplify and come to terms with the anxiety.
Norman Fedder, Ph.D., RDT-BCT, 2017 NADTA Conference
It’s awesome that you meet some strangers as a team, after a few days journey, these people “pregnant” together, welcoming a baby born: an opera (drama) concentrates all the stories of the team. Very valuable to the community & society. It’s an amazing experience.
Tracy Tang, participant in 2018 EDT Workshop in Beijing
Sources:
Snow, S., & Herbison, P. (2014). Ethnodramatherapy: A new methodology as applied to
diversity training outreach. DVD is presently distributed by psychotherapy.net as Empowering adults with developmental disabilities: A creative arts therapies approach.
Snow, S., & D’Amico, M. (2015). The application of ethnodrama with female adolescents under youth protection within a creative arts therapies context. Drama Therapy Review, 1(2), 201-218.
Snow, S., D’Amico, M., Mongerson, E., Anthony, E. Rozenberg, M., Opolko, C., & Anandampillai, S. (2017). Ethnodramatherapy applied in a project focusing on relationships in the lives of adults with developmental disabilities, especially romance, intimacy and sexuality. Drama Therapy Review, 3(2), 241-260.
Snow, S., & Bleuer, J. (2020). Ethnodramatherapy. In D. R. Johnson. & R. Emunah, (Eds.), Current approaches in drama therapy (3rd ed., pp. 250-283). C.C. Thomas, Publishers.
Responses to the New Book
From phenomenology to sociometry, from tragic and comic catharsis to psychodrama and playback theatre, from Canada to China -- Stephen Snow unpacks, explains, gives examples, and develops the theories of Ethnodramatherapy (EDT). In this compelling book, Snow, a pioneer of EDT, powerfully links the personal to the social as he shows precisely how art can heal.
Richard Schechner, Ph.D., Editor, TDR, University Professor Emeritus, New York University
We are treated to the historical, theoretical and logistic development of ethnodramatherapy. We are also graced with Stephen's honesty about its triumphs, pitfalls, challenges and the profound potential and success of the model and its mission. Further, we are drawn in and care deeply about the projects, people and issues he describes and are humbled by the magnitude of complexities involved in finding and integrating the therapeutic team.
Antonina Garcia, Ed.D., LCSW, TEP. RDT/BCT,
Professor and Trainer of Psychodrama, Co-Author of Sociodrama: Who's in Your Shoes? 2nd ed.
From the Foreword – Drama Therapy Perspective
Combining his decades-long experience in drama therapy and therapeutic theatre with his extensive training in performance ethnography, Dr. Stephen Snow offers a broad and scholarly exploration of the intersections of these fields, as well as close-up and concrete descriptions of his numerous collaborative productions. Infused with his natural skill at synthesizing, the book is inherently integrative, as is the form, ethnodramatherapy.
Renée Emunah, PhD, RDT, BCT, Founder/Director/Professor, Drama Therapy Program, California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, Author, Acting for Real: Drama Therapy Process, Technique, and Performance
From the Foreword – Ethnodrama Perspective
Snow’s work is situated amidst some very contested and, frequently, marginalised academic discipline territories - but the project of ethnodramatherapy, in its theoretical and methodological construction, and in its voicing and expression of the lived realities of his health informants, overcomes neigh saying. It is a clear manifestation and undertaking of shared, positive social action.
Jim Mienczakowski, Ph.D.
Emeritus Professor, Curtin University, Creator, Critical Ethnodrama Method
Links to Documentaries on EDT
"In Their Own Voices," distributed by psychotherapy.net, as "Empowering Adults with Developmental Disabilities."
https://www.psychotherapy.net/video/developmental-disabilities-therapy-video
Staff and Membership
Stephen Snow, Ph.D., RDT-BCT, Director
Stephen Snow, Ph.D., RDT-BCT, is a drama therapist, a performance theorist and a theatre practitioner. With over 35 years in the field of drama therapy, he has practiced in psychiatric rehabilitation, geriatrics, with at-risk youth and in the domain of developmental disabilities. Dr. Snow is Emeritus Professor of Drama Therapy at Concordia University where he co-founded the Centre for the Arts in Human Development (1996) and the Graduate Drama Therapy Program (1997). He studied performance theory at New York University where he experienced the work of many noted anthropologists and was mentored by performance theorist/theatre director Richard Schechner. As a theatre practitioner, he has acted in over 100 theatre productions, directed another 30 and written playscripts for a dozen more. He created and performed two self-revelatory theatre pieces, Seething Brains, based on image of madness in Shakespeare and his own life, and Nightride in the City, about his experience of driving a cab at night in NYC. He has published 3 books, two of them co-edited works on assessment in the creative arts therapies, along with 22 chapters in books. He has presented his therapeutic theatre research in major cities all across North America as well as in Jamaica (West Indies), England, France, Italy, Egypt, Israel, Sri Lanka and China. Dr. Snow has received research awards from the Concordia University, the North American Drama Therapy Association, the American Association for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and AMI-Quebec Action on Mental Illness. His most recent work is in developing an integrative approach called ethnodramatherapy (EDT). His documentary on this work can be found on psychotherapy.net.
Rosy Kuftedjian, MA, Logistical Coordinator
Rosy Kuftedjian is a drama therapist, artist, and social activist. In Lebanon, she worked with Catharsis, a non-profit organization that introduces drama therapy to incarcerated people and was involved in prison reform and advocacy. She also co-directed and produced The Narrow Streets of Bourj Hammoud, a 90-minute experimental ethnographic film about a working-class suburb of Beirut. She currently practices as a drama therapist at the Jewish Hospital's Centre for Child Development and Mental Health-- working primarily with children, youth, and families. She is also the research coordinator for the Welcome Haven project -- a participatory action research that investigates a multi-site intervention program promoting wellbeing and mental health among asylum-seeking families in Montreal -- bringing forth from Beirut her interest in supporting the experience of those with refugee and migrant worker status.
Eric Mongerson, MFA, Design & Technical Consultant
Eric Mongerson MFA (Humboldt) designed sets and lights for drama therapy and ethnodrama productions at the Centre for Human Development including Nobody’s Perfect!, Through the Eyes of Caregivers, The Amazing Adventure of Relationships, The Frog and the Princess, Inside the System and Our World.
He taught Design for the Theatre at Concordia University for many years where he served as Design Coordinator, Technical Director, Theatre Manager, Production Coordinator, and Chair of the Department.
He designed scenery and lights for many productions across North America. His students have designed for, Broadway, London’s West End, Cirque du Soleil, and Stratford.
Jessica Bleuer, Ph.D. (c), RDT, Institute Member
Jessica Bleuer, Ph.D. (c), MA, M. Ed. site(she/her/ella) teaches full-time in Concordia University’s Drama Therapy Program, she also works as a cultural equity consultant and in private practice as a Drama Therapist and Psychotherapist. Jessica has directed theatre-based research and ethnodrama projects on the topics of the barriers of employment for newcomers to Canada, discrimination faced by LGBT2SIQ families accessing assisted reproductive technologies and groups in conflict in Northern Ireland and Palestine/Israel. Jessica also facilitates theatre of the oppressed workshops and uses it in her research to address microaggressions in multiple workplaces. Jessica facilitates in Spanish, English and French and is particularly interested in the strengths and many ways that minoritized people resist, fight and challenge systems of oppression.
Simon Driver, MA, RDT, Institute Member
Simon Driver, MA, RDT is a drama therapist and therapeutic theatre practitioner, performer, instructor and researcher. Simon was first introduced to EDT as an MA student through a collaboration with Dr. Stephen Snow and the Centre for the Arts in Human Development (CAHD). Currently Simon is a lecturer at Concordia University and acting as interim co-director of research at the CAHD. Simon is also a therapeutic theatre practitioner collaborating with youth and neurodiverse adults in clinical and education settings. Simon’s therapeutic theatre achievements include, but are not limited to: Our Story: A Musical Ethinodrama (co-facilitated, 2012), Clickbait (2018 facilitated) and Peinturé dans l’coin (2019, facilitated, shortlisted for Best French Language Comedy at the Montreal Fringe). Currently Simon is in the recruitment phase of a research project exploring the dramatization of first generation older adult immigrant storytellers.
Jiang Xuxuan, MA (c), Institute Member
Jiang Xuxuan, MA(c) (she/her) is currently studying at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in the UK and has an undergraduate degree from the Central Academy of Drama in China. In recent years Xuxuan has been in private practice as a trainee theatre therapist and applied theatre facilitator. 2019 saw her EDT training followed by workshops in the mountains of China on themes around the lives of families with left-behind children. Moreover, she has facilitated Theatre for the Oppressed workshops on topics such as challenging education, traditional Chinese gender norms, toxic stress among Chinese students, school bullying, parent-child relationships in China, and the plight of the queer community in China. The plight of socially marginalized groups and gender issues are the main directions of Jiang Xuxuan's field of exploration.
Ethnodramatherapy Training Institute Services
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