Ep.28 Voice Arts, New Zealand: Giving a Performatory Voice to the Elderly & Unheard

Meet East Side Institute Associate, Nicola Pauling, whose Wellington, New Zealand-based Voice Arts builds community through play and performance. Most recently, bringing performance workshops into nursing and retirement homes for the elderly, Voice Arts takes theatre games and exercises used by actors to prepare for the stage and adapts them — “seeking the outcome of joy, laughter, emotional and spiritual well-being.”  In this conversation with the Institute’s Janet Wootten, Pauling recounts the history of community engagement projects she has created with prisoners, refugees, school children — evolving an approach to drama activities where there are “no stages, no audiences, and no lines to learn.” Playing, improvising and storytelling become the means through which all can give performatory voice to the stories of their lives and grow. Pauling is active in the Global Play Brigade and a founding member of the Reimaging Dementia Coalition.  Short Film: The Echo Made Me Smile  Tales of Belonging produced by Voice Arts in partnership with Ryman Healthcare. ( link below) https://vimeo.com/581385349 ----more---- Welcome to All Power to the Developing, a podcast of the East Side Institute. The Institute is a center for social change efforts that reinitiate human and community development. We support, connect and partner with committed and creative activists, scholars, artists, helpers and healers all over the world. In 2003, Institute co-founders Lois Holzman and the late Fred Newman had a paper published with the title “All Power to the Developing.” This phrase captures how vital it is for all people—no matter their age, circumstance, status, race, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation—to grow, develop and transform emotionally, socially and intellectually if we are to have a shot at creating something positive out of the intense crises we’re all experiencing. We hope that this podcast series will show you that, far more than a slogan, “all power to the developing” is a loving activity, a pulsing heart in an all too cruel world. ----more---- The East Side Institute is a hub for a diverse and emergent community of social activists, thought leaders, and practitioners who are reigniting our human abilities to imagine, create and perform beyond ourselves—to develop.  Each episode will introduce you to another performance activist or play revolutionary from around the world.   To learn more about the East Side Institute you can go to https://eastsideinstitute.org/   Made possible in part by Growing Social Therapeutics: The Baylah Wolfe Fund.