Lancaster alumna, Professor Persephone Sextou (MA Theatre Studies,1992), talks about her time at Lancaster and how it connects with her research career and the publication of her new book.

"I was fortunate to pursue my Master's degree at Lancaster University. My course was in Theatre Studies and I did my dissertation in Theatre-in-Education. I spent a great year on campus, one of the best years of my life where I made many friends while participating in productions at the Nuffield Theatre and in schools. Having a first degree in Early Years Education from Greece, my studies at Lancaster helped me make the connections between children's expression in their dramatic play with their learning in school drama as a process. I was introduced to a research culture of critical enquiry and experimentation, including devising for community theatre, directing and leading theatre projects in schools.

Over the years I have explored the role of embodied and immersive performance in education, using the body as a tool for learning through audience participation, as well as the role of embodied and mediated performance in healthcare as a tool for normalising the experience of illness through connection. I have great memories of developing a model of participatory bedside performance with digital assets (animation films and VR) that explores the relationship between the audience (inpatient) and the actor, the physical being and their energy, the interaction of their bodies, thoughts, and actions within the protective fictional frame of a story.

My recently published monograph, 'Applied Theatre in Paediatrics. Children, Stories and Synergies of Emotions' (2023) by Routledge explores applied theatre practice for children in environments of illness and cure and how it can powerfully normalise children's hospitalisation experience. It is an essential tool for making meanings of children's illness, putting them into a fictional context, and developing better control of their clinical experiences. Taken from my research and participatory bedside practice in hospitals before, during and after the COVID_19 pandemic, this book builds on my book 'Theatre for Children in Hospital. The Gift of Compassion' (2016) to demonstrate new learning about aesthetics, ethics, emotions, stories, puppetry, digital arts and research methodologies about children's health and wellbeing. It provides a selection of ten unique stories told by hospitalised children in paediatrics, cardiac, oncology, neurology, burns units and complex and intensive care wards. Stories are inspired by applied theatre bedside practice aiding in understanding the language of children's pain for a better assessment and management of pain by healthcare professionals through the arts. It analyses synergistic theatre performance in "stitched lands" between challenging realities and safe fictionalities.

One of the reasons I wrote this book is to develop new ways of thinking about the community actors and their emotional labour, something I first learned to respect during my placement with the DUKE's TiE company at Lancaster as part of my Master's course. Therefore, one of the chapters of my book makes recommendations for balanced training to prevent emotional exhaustion. My passion for theatre as a reciprocal community-based, interactive and eudaimonic activity grew out of many years of hard work, research investigation, experimentation, teaching and learning which is exactly what makes a positive difference in my life as a researcher and in sick children's lives.

Going back all those years I am able to see how my time at Lancaster put strong foundations for my PhD studies (University of London), and helped me pursue an academic career in applied performance practices for cultural engagement, educational innovation and social change in the U.K., Europe and Australia."

For more information visit the following website: https://www.persephonesextou.co.uk/Books.php