Joanna Glanville from South Africa, is pursuing a Masters in Theatre Making and Scenography at the University of Cape Town. After having experienced first-hand the transformative healing power of art as therapy, Joanna is passionate about using film and theatre to facilitate conversations about taboo subjects. Joanna has previously used creative facilitation as a tool to discuss and confront subjects such as, healthy sexual practices, self-esteem and gender-based-violence. Her current research seeks to explore how scenography (set design, prop making, etc) can be used as a means for creative facilitation or trauma rehabilitation. For those whose pain is still too acute for on-stage performance, scenography offers an interesting, behind the scenes, alternative to role-playing drama therapies.
“The power is in transferring a painful inner landscape outside of yourself; where you can manipulate and respond to it […] allowing the spaces [you are] creating to absorb all of [your] trauma …so it doesn’t gnaw at the inside of your body.”
