Research Projects
Participatory Arts for vulnerable children and young people in hospitals create a particular openness.
There is no one culture here, no single idea, no expectation of what the children should do; so if the actors tell children that a story is a heaven of opportunity, kindness, possibility, and escape to imagined worlds through embodied and mediatedstories, a place where everyone is invited to be who they wish to be and say what they feel is the right thing to say-or remain silent, then, actually, children believe them.
In my research projects in paediatrics and hospices, actors and storytellers have conspired to tell children that magical boots can fly to the moon, dragons can have ears made of eggplants, and a glittering star can be touched. It is the child's right to own the potential of stories; how to create them, live them, change them, remake them, neglect them, revive them, and perform them with assistance, when needed, from actors. I expect and believe that children can be playful and creative in illness, and as a researcher, I support this creation.
Future Stories
Virtual Reality (VR) for young people with serious conditions in hospitals
'Future Stories' is a research study led by The University of New South Wales Sydney Australia. It designs innovative technological (VR) approaches to creative care for young people with serious conditions at Queensland Children's Hospital Palliative Care.
Read the media release
My role in the ‘Future Stories’ main study (2022-2026) is a Co-Investigator - International Collaborator. As a Visiting Professor at UNSW Sydney I visited Australia in September 2023 to work with the FT team on the first few weeks of the studyat Queensland Children's Hospital and Sydney Children's Hospital.
The study explores the possibilities of applied theatre to combine co-designed virtual reality (VR) approaches with intermedia work with young people leading to greater degrees of agency for young people, and opportunities for the participants to share experiences with medical staff, carers, and siblings in hospitals.
Webinar: 'Future Stories: co-designing virtual reality (VR) experiences with young people with a serious illness in hospital' can also be viewed to the right---->
Publication: Michael Balfour, Jan Cattoni, Persephone Sextou, Anthony Herbert, Lynne Seear, Guy Lobwein, Margaret Gibson & Jennifer Penton (2022) Future stories: co-designing virtual reality (VR) experiences with young people with a serious illness in hospital, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2022.2034496 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13569783.2022.2034496
Principal Investigator: Michael Balfour
Funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC).
Period: 2018-2020 (pilot) and 2022-2026 (main study).
Formerly, I was honoured to join the investigating team of 'Future Stories' (pilot) as a Co-Investigator and Adjunct Research Fellow at Griffith Unviersity in Australia in 2018. I was invited to Australia to present a keynote at an international Arts and Health conference in 2018. During my extended stay in Australia, my work caught the public imagination and I was invited to be interviewed by ABC Radio National, garnering considerable public interest.
The Connecting Hearts project.
Empathy, Care and Compassion.
An inter-generational applied theatre study in schools and care homes
'Connecting Hearts' is a co-design, community-focused, arts-based project with primary schools and care homes in South Wales in the United Kingdom. We aim to explore the intersections between applied theatre practice, storytelling and digital media for improved social wellbeing. We use a selection of inspiring and humorous stories told by hospitalised children from the book 'Applied Theatre in Paediatrics' (Sextou 2023) to engage older people and primary school pupils with participatory physical, cognitive and social activity in local care homes and schools. Currently the project is going through a Participation and Engagement Consultation Phase of workshops with pupils and older people in Caerphilly.
Funded by the Caerphilly Borough Council Arts Development Team, South Wales.
Research Consultant: Persephone Sextou
'Here, I am flying!'
A film for hospitalised children
My aim is to investigate the impact of an experimental digital toy-film on the reduction of pre-operative clinical anxiety and emotional regulation in Paediatrics (MRI treatment) as a reflection on the importance of considering the relationship between embodied and mediated performance in Paediatrics as being part of a wider chain of digital translations, that pervades all forms of play and of storytelling.
'Here, I am flying!’ uses objects and people of the Playmobill World (Playmobil City Life X-ray Room 6659 by 2014-Hospital Doctor). We experimented with the display of meta-Playmobil toy-object thinking to explicitly put the Playmobil aesthetics in the foreground of the plot: A therapy dog and a boy meet in a scan room at the hospital just before the boy is having a brain scan. In the boy's imagination, they immediately connect, they escape the hospital operation room and fly into space. Together, they travel to galaxies and visit planets, they see relaxing moving images of sparkling space animals while they listen to a calming music tune. Watch the video to the right.
The film is designed and created for well-being, relaxation and, learning purposes. It can be used by artists-in-healthcare, play specialists, nurses, hospital teachers, parents/carers & families. The film aims to distract children's minds before having an operation, give them a topic for literacy learning with hospital teachers, and create opportunities for children to share hidden emotions by making their own stories with the film as a starter.
Principal Investigator: Persephone Sextou
Partner organisations: Newman University Birmingham, James Brindley Academy at Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS U.K.
Funded by the Lottery Community Fund and, BBC Children in Need.
Period: 2020-2022
Rocket-Arts digital (Phase B)
Animated cartoon video and KS1-KS2 literacy exercises
Rocket-arts is an innovative variation of embodied theatre performance for children in hospitals that has adopted mediated elements of digital creativity to meet the needs of hospitalised children during the Covid-19 pandemic. It investigates children’s engagement with learning through digital arts-based activities as a phenomenon within its real-life hospital context. Children who miss curriculum work while in hospital are expected to face difficulties catching up with their class peers upon their school return. Rocket-arts research targeted sick and injured children (aged 3-5, 6-8 ) at Birmingham Children’s Hospital (BCH).
Artists have lost access to patients on NHS sites in the U.K., causing arts-based projects to pause indefinitely across the country due to Covid-19. Creative ways had to be implemented to help young patients to benefit from the arts during isolation. The mode of delivery of Rocket-arts was changed from a bedside face-to-face object theatre with storytelling intervention to a digital arts-based storytelling project, offering children digital resources based on the initial story, such as animated cartoon, toy-based films and interactive worksheets. Literacy KS1 & KS2 activities.
The project is critically discussed in my book 'Applied Theatre in Paediatrics. Children Stories and Synergies of Emotions' (2022).
Digital, creative & educational activities
For VIDEOS see on the right of the screen
- ‘Simba and the space cave’ animated cartoon film: https://youtu.be/PiCOZXeCTxM
- ‘Welcome to Rocketarts online!’ for the elderly children 5-8 years old: https://youtu.be/vm_Eejigeyo
Interactive worksheets for children of different abilities
Word Match 1 (for children aged 2-5 years): https://www.liveworksheets.com/gv969940qy
Word Match 2 (for children aged 2-5 years): https://www.liveworksheets.com/rl969954cu
Word Match 3 (for children aged 5-8 years): https://www.liveworksheets.com/ir969967xu
Arrange the Scenes 1 (for children aged 2-5 years): https://www.liveworksheets.com/ix969982kx
Arrange the Scenes 2 (for children aged 5-8 years): https://www.liveworksheets.com/xj970002vc
What would you say...? (for all ages): https://www.liveworksheets.com/pl970009os
Principal Investigator: Persephone Sextou
Partner organisations: Newman University Birmingham, James Brindley Academy atBirmingham Children's Hospital NHS U.K.
Funded by BBC Children in Need and The Lottery Community Fund.
Period: 2020-2021. 20-2021.#
Rocket-Arts bedside theatre (Phase A)
Miniature object theatre and storytelling
‘Rocket-Arts’ tells the story of Simba, the therapy dog, and a little boy in the hospital. Simba, our family red cocker spaniel, inspired me to write a storybook for children in the hospital undergoing treatment and for children who are poorly at home or feel lonely and need a friend to escape to places by using their imagination. We told the children about Simba’s adventures in space, aiming to distract children, relax their minds and mitigate their experience of anxiety in anticipation of a clinical procedure.
Webinar SDHRC/CCCU: You can watch my presentation on Rocket-Arts followed by a discussion by clicking on the link to the right.
NHS Media: the James Brindley Academies at Birmingham Children's Hospital: https://www.jamesbrindley.org.uk/page/?title=Rocket%2DArts&pid=1416
Principal Investigator: Persephone Sextou
Partner organisations: Newman University Birmingham,James Brindley Academy at Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS U.K.
Funded by BBC Children in Need and The Lottery Community Fund.
Period: 2019-2020.
The Bird Island
Bedside puppetry and storytelling in hospitals and hospices
The ‘Bird Island’ project consists of two main parts, an interactive bedside performance (20 min) and art-making activities (10 min), both facilitated by professional actors, storytellers, puppeteers and craft-makers bedside on hospital wards in England. We employed acting, storytelling, puppetry and improvisation, breathing, singing and art installation as creative methodologies.
'Lollie the Rough Collie and the Magic Kiss' (2018 self-publication). You can read the story here: https://www.letterpressproject.co.uk/inspiring-young-readers/2016-10-04/lollie-the-rough-collie-and-the-magic-kiss
Publication: Persephone Sextou (2022) Theatre in paediatrics: can participatory performance mitigate educational, emotional and social consequences of missing out school during hospitalisation?, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 27:1, 88-105, DOI: 10.1080/13569783.2021.1940914 Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13569783.2021.1940914
Principal Investigator: Persephone Sextou
Partner organisations: Newman University Birmingham, James Brindley Academy at Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS U.K.
Funded by BBC Children in Need, The Grimmitt Trust and The W.A. Cadbury Trust.
Period: 2016-2019.
Breathing with Love
Bedside participatory performance for stress-free kids
‘Breathing with Love’ performances took place in Paediatrics at the Heartlands Hospital Heart of England NHS Trust in West Midlands. Inspired by a story written by Lori Lite (2001).
We used a soft toy, a pink turtle with a red shell and big brown friendly eyes (pillow size). A boy and a turtle watched a rainbow in an imaginary location by a calm pond. The Rainbow started dancing bedside. The Boy put his feet into the water, and the seven colours of the rainbow gradually surrounded him. The turtle moved closer to the boy and did the same. The boy guided the child to observe the sensations of her body closely. Between each colour, the turtle and the child practised breathing together to relax their bodies. By the end of the play, the child had completed the relaxation practice. The child was offered a few moments to enjoy the relaxation. An opportunity was also given to reflect on the experience by asking questions or giving her opinion on the characters and the story. This was optional and was decided by the artists depending on the child’s preference.
The project is discussed in my book Theatre for Children in Hospital. The Gift of Compassion (2016).
Principal Investigator: Persephone Sextou
Partner organisations: Newman University Birmingham, Heartlands Hospital Arts Department and Birmingham Children's Hospital NHS U.K.
Commissioned by The Heart of England Foundation NHS Trust (Arts).
Period 2013-2014.
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