Publications

International author Gail Sheeny wrote a chapter in her book Middletown describing Feldman’s process at a New Jersey School that was directly affected by the tragedy after September 11th.

Teaching through Connecting – A workbook for teachers.

A series of articles and chapters in various drama therapy books and periodicals (available upon request).

To the Moon Man with Love – A book of case histories and how-to’s for teachers and parents.

Feldman D., Sussman Jones, F., & Ward, E. (2010). “The Enact Method of Employing Drama Therapy in Schools.” In D.R. Johnson & R. Emunah (Eds.), Current Approaches in Drama Therapy, 2nd ed. (pp. 284-307). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas, Publisher.

Excerpt from Chapter 16:

INTRODUCTION

ENACT History

Since 1987, ENACT has been recognized as a specialized New York City arts in education organization that excels in working with troubled youth. Reaching thousands of students each year, ENACT delivers customized workshops that employ theater and drama therapy techniques to teach vital social emotional skills to students, parents and teachers. Now in its twentieth year, ENACT has expanded its programming to offer several long-term models that respond to changing school needs. At the heart of the ENACT program lies its signature methodology. In the ENACT model, two highly-trained teaching artists partner to run three forty-five minute theater-based classroom workshops each week for a period ranging from ten weeks (short-term work) to forty weeks (full-year program). ENACT ensures that each teaching artist—with his/her particular style and skill set—is appropriately matched with each participating school—with its own distinctive culture and environment.

Over the years, ENACT has grown to serve all five New York City boroughs, working mostly in high-risk classrooms with the neediest students. With years of experience using creative drama and drama therapy techniques with students of all ages and abilities, we have come to believe that many of the children we serve in the New York City school system suffer from unrecognized trauma resulting from the effects of poverty and dangerous and unstable living environments. ENACT’s partnering schools are located in neighborhoods in which poverty has contributed to high rates of violence, crime, and drug and alcohol abuse. Seventy-five percent of ENACT’s current work is in the South Bronx, a region in which more than 40% of the residents live below the poverty line. Almost all of ENACT’s remaining work takes place in high poverty areas in Queens and Brooklyn. To date, ENACT has a cadre of 50 teaching artists trained in the ENACT method and has served over 100,000 students in the neediest neighborhoods of New York.

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The World Trade Center tragedy of September 11, 2001 had an important impact on all of this. Many students who had been affected by the disaster were not requesting counseling services. They did not want the “stigma” of being in therapy. In response, schools were worried and looking for alternative approaches that would be less stigmatizing. By this time, ENACT had earned a reputation for reaching and empowering “troubled students.” Many in New York City schools had come to see us as the “resource of choice.” As a result, more and more teachers were requesting ENACT programs in their classrooms to work with students to address their feelings of shock and fear. New York City’s Central Board of Education responded by awarding ENACT a contract to specifically address prevention and intervention in response to the effects of the disaster on students. The tragedy had given many in the school system a new understanding of trauma and its documented effects on student functioning. 

After the September 11th tragedy, ENACT continued to be the only organization in the New York City school system that used the arts and drama therapy techniques to teach social-emotional skills. The agency was honored by the American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) for its “creative approach to group counseling.” Foundations that had funded more traditional arts or mental health programs in the past were now looking at ENACT and drama therapy with new eyes. More and more opportunities finally were becoming available to work in schools, aided by New York State’s decision to certify creative arts therapists and grant licenses to organizations in the field.

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ENACT’s twenty-year evolution has coincided with both the growing needs of New York City public schools and the emergence of the field of drama therapy. Recent breakthroughs in the field of social-emotional education, spearheaded by Daniel Goleman, have been instrumental in increasing awareness of the important link between social-emotional functioning and academic achievement. In fact, a bill recommending the inclusion of social-emotional education in the New York State school curriculum was signed by former New York State Governor Pataki in January 2007. Social-emotional education seems to share quite a few goals with drama therapy, such as building self-awareness, developing social awareness and relationship skills, improving self-management, fostering responsible decision-making skills, developing the capacity for empathy and effecting behavior change. We are grateful that the New York City school system has become increasingly aware of the mental health needs of all students, including inner-city youth—a group that we believe has long suffered from unrecognized trauma.

ENACT has always held true to its mission to address the needs of struggling students by engaging them at their own level of development within the school environment. Drama therapy and the theater’s powerful tools engage students in a process of emotional integration, which is especially important for the students we serve. Today, ENACT continues its work in poor urban neighborhoods with high rates of crime, drug and alcohol abuse.  In these environments, we can reach students who may never otherwise have the opportunity to access much-needed services.