Mask Theatre: Talk
In October, 2015 I attended a Mask talk in the Waverly Theatre. This talk inspired me in a multitude of ways, the main one being that I was introduced to how Masks can be used as a way of therapy for people. The reason that this resounded with me was that this particular therapy [using Masks that have both colour and facial expressions on them] could be, or is already, a way to connect on both an emotional, mental and psychological level with children and adults.
What I took from this experience is that I imagine that this is a very simple, effective and clever way to engage with children and adults with Autism - who may not have verbal communication and naturally connect with visual stimuli such as colour and instinctively respond to body and facial language as they [from my life experience and understanding] predominantly use their sight as a way of quickly understanding information.
I'm still rendering the process of 'embodiment' - being in this room and watching several individuals embody the mask and then brush themselves off afterwards as though removing somebody from them was a very emotionally moving experience. I also found the 'charging' interesting - the individual who is about to wear the mask not being aware of what the mask looks like, and after the individual putting the mask onto the face watching other people perform/ act like the mask and then 'getting to know' the mask through the people who are charging. I make it sound very complicated - but it was such a refreshing and raw way of witnessing performers take on a persona using their body and mind to merge together to create a character [instead of simply looking at the mask and internally, selfishly deciding who the mask is and what it is].
I'm extremely inspired and I intend to read through the booklets that was provided at the session to gain a better insight to the work and the research itself. I feel like this talk has moved me closer to my Research Question.
What I took from this experience is that I imagine that this is a very simple, effective and clever way to engage with children and adults with Autism - who may not have verbal communication and naturally connect with visual stimuli such as colour and instinctively respond to body and facial language as they [from my life experience and understanding] predominantly use their sight as a way of quickly understanding information.
I'm still rendering the process of 'embodiment' - being in this room and watching several individuals embody the mask and then brush themselves off afterwards as though removing somebody from them was a very emotionally moving experience. I also found the 'charging' interesting - the individual who is about to wear the mask not being aware of what the mask looks like, and after the individual putting the mask onto the face watching other people perform/ act like the mask and then 'getting to know' the mask through the people who are charging. I make it sound very complicated - but it was such a refreshing and raw way of witnessing performers take on a persona using their body and mind to merge together to create a character [instead of simply looking at the mask and internally, selfishly deciding who the mask is and what it is].
I'm extremely inspired and I intend to read through the booklets that was provided at the session to gain a better insight to the work and the research itself. I feel like this talk has moved me closer to my Research Question.
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