Literature Review: Anna Halprin's Workshop on Theater Therapy

Anna Halprin, a choreographer who has published several books on theater therapy, hosted a workshop in 1975 specifically titled “Theatre and Therapy.” The first exercise of the workshop was the “name game”, where one person said their name and proceeded to say the name of everyone who came before them in the circle while making eye contact with them. At the end of the exercise the participants evaluated how they had succeeded during the exercise with several of them expressing surprise at their ability to remember various names when they have had difficulty doing it regularly. In the last exercise of the workshop, participants formed pairs and completed an exercise called “passive and active.” The active participant was instructed to lead the passive partner through a series of movements to music and roles were reversed, with partners switching, and everyone experiencing the process several times. During the exercise, the couples were told to close their eyes in order to allow the movement to lead by concentrating on it and the participants expressed how well the workshop worked in terms of how it helped them evolve emotionally (Jean and Deák). While this workshop focused heavily on emotional therapy, it was similar to the previous study in that it illustrates how theater can help develop executive functioning skills such as memory and self expression.