What is Improv for Caregivers and how did it come to be?
Improv for Caregivers is a theater-based program connecting and supporting caregivers of those who are living with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. A collaboration of New London Barn Playhouse and Lake Sunapee Region VNA & Hospice, sessions combine insights from health care professionals and hands-on experience with improvised scenarios of common caregiving situations.
Each session emphasizes hope and healing. We recognize and validate caregivers’ feelings and use theater to illustrate authentic struggles and possible solutions without asking participants to relive traumatic experiences.
Before each workshop, artists work with health care professionals to prepare situations. During these scenarios, using a combination of improvisation theatre and Augusto Boal’s Forum Theater, actors pause the scene and ask participants for suggestions and strategies to help them continue effectively. These exercises develop skills in communication and stress management and teach flexibility in relationships and understanding of loved ones’ changing perspectives. In the words of Boal, we are “rehearsing for life.”
Improv for Caregivers is offered for free, understanding the financial burden of caregiving, and through the generous support of participants and grant organizations has expanded to events within the community, making attendance more feasible for some.
Who initially inspired you to grapple with dementia?
The idea for Improv for Caregivers was brought to us by a caregiver named Gail Matthews who believes our community needs more conversation and education around dementia. There is a large population of seniors in New London, which contributes to a large number of people with dementia and their caregivers. As I got to know the community through my role as Director of Education at the Barn Playhouse, I met many residents who were caring for loved ones with dementia but felt unprepared, isolated, or unsupported. Gail, a long-time caregiver and advocate for dementia research, heard that the skills used in improvisational theatre (stepping into someone else’s world and accepting their reality as your own) were also helpful for caregiving, so she contacted me about setting up an improv class for caregivers. We reached out to the Lake Sunapee Region VNA as a partner to help provide professional support for the program, and it has only evolved since then!
As Improv for Caregivers continues to grow, those initial goals have remained the same: Bring together caregivers to grow support systems, reduce stigma, and share tangible strategies for effective, compassionate communication.
How has working on dementia-related art changed you?
Though I have always known people in my life with dementia, I have never been a caregiver myself, so I was not sure I was the right person to start this program. With valuable, generous assistance from the VNA, caregiver consultants, and caregivers in the community, I have learned more about dementia and caregiving than I ever imagined. I never claim to have caregiving expertise, but I do have an improv background and the time and energy to gather people. Each session teaches me something new about empathy, care, and communication that apply to all parts of life, even beyond the dementia space. I am blown away by the patience, honesty, and resilience of the caregivers I have met, and I feel much more prepared for future caregiving experiences in my personal life.
Though this program started by serving people who actively care for loved ones, the content applies to everyone. At some point in our lives, all of us will either become a caregiver or need to be cared for. I feel so fortunate to have this opportunity to learn from the caregiving community before I enter that stage of my own life.
How has Improv for Caregivers been received?
Improv for Caregivers has continued to grow since its inception, attracting repeat attendees and gathering new participants. Caregivers have expressed appreciation for the low-stakes environment where all emotions are valid and mistakes are OK. Many say the live performance of each scenario helps them understand and practice the communication tools effectively, even if they already know some of the strategies, because it helps them better imagine applying the tools. Here are a few quotes from caregiver participants:
- “Our loved ones still have hearts—they are still inside. It’s our job as caregivers to make sure they feel loved and safe, which takes immense patience. These sessions help us develop the tools.”
- “I wish this was available 5 years ago when I needed help.”
- “You can curse the darkness, but this lights a candle.”
- “I know how I’m supposed to handle some situations with my parents, but it didn’t really click until I saw the difference onstage.”
- “Improv for Caregivers brings people together to laugh, reminisce, imagine, comfort, and sometimes cry.”
What impact does receipt of the Dementia Arts Fellowship have on your project and your work?
Improv for Caregivers has also received 2 New Hampshire State Council on the Arts’ Arts in Health grants, which, alongside support from caregiver participants, expanded the program into a series of monthly workshops in multiple locations featuring guest speakers on specialized caregiving topics. Unfortunately, because of budget cuts to government arts spending, the Arts in Health grant no longer exists in the state of New Hampshire. We were not sure if the program would be able to continue, but the Dementia Arts Fellowship made it possible.
Beyond supporting continued workshops, the Dementia Arts Fellowship will help us grow and continue the program. Thanks to the funding and new connections, I am able to meet and learn from other professionals working on programs that support caregivers and dementia research. I have opportunities to write about our program and share our methodology with a broader audience, and we have been approached by other theaters interested in starting similar projects.
At the Barn Playhouse, we are also working on the development of a play based on interviews with caregivers in New Hampshire, which we plan to tour around New England. This project is known as the Caregiver Play Project, and Fellowship will support a series of Improv for Caregivers workshops in tandem with that tour.
This work is dedicated to: Lake Sunapee Region caregivers
Find more from the New London Barn Playhouse on its website, Facebook and Instagram. If you are a caregiver looking for more information about this program, this page is a great place to start.
