Tricky Hat - Out of the Dark Theatre Company
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Out of the Dark Theatre Company, administered by Tricky Hat Productions, is a drama and mental health project for adults in West Fife. The project includes workshops, performances, and script-writing workshops for people aged 50+ who have experienced mental health problems.
Background
Out of the Dark Theatre Company was originally formed by the collaborative efforts of Fife Council and Fife NHS. Both the nurses and psychiatrists at Forthview Day Hospital in Dunfermline witnessed the benefits of using the arts as a tool to make users of its service less anxious in their everyday lives, while enabling them to become more vocal and expressive with their emotions. Out of the Dark is now administered through Tricky Hat Productions, which develops and produces theatre and drama based projects with vulnerable children, young people and adults.
Current Project
Led by Tricky Hat’s Artistic Director, Fiona Miller, and writer, Kevin Low, workshops have been taking place with up to ten adults since April 2007 to create a production that explores ‘What if…?’. What can make those real stories bigger or shrink them down to a few words, a burst of laughter, the occasional sigh, or into something unrecognisable?
People’s lives are full of those ‘What if…’ moments. Sometimes planned, but more often by chance or a twist of fate, those decisive moments can change the pattern and course of a life forever.
Through a theatre production touring in October and November, What if… will present another take on that dance through life that we all share. What if… will open during Mental Health week in Paisley and Glasgow before touring to Dunfermline, Perth and Stirling.
Quotes from participants
‘It gets you involved and lifts your spirit’.
‘It gives you a lift and is a good confidence builder’.
‘I enjoy it. It’s a good laugh and good fun. If you feel low when you come in, you’re not low when you leave’.
Next Phase
The creative arts provide an ideal way of increasing confidence and self esteem as well as empowering all who participate. With Out of the Dark, a great deal of trust and camaraderie has been built within the group and members have grown stronger individually and as a collective. There is evidence that the work has filtered through into their everyday lives. Members describe that they have started to feel more confident and less restless and, since being involved in the arts through this particular drama project, most now say they ‘feel that they can achieve anything’.
The aim of Tricky Hat Productions is to sustain the work of Out of the Dark and build and create new links with other groups. This will not be restricted to working with older people. The aim of the Company is to work with vulnerable people of all ages to promote the benefits of the creative arts.