Self-revelatory performance

Domain VIII · Creative & expressive arts therapies · Renee Emunah · 1983 · San Francisco, California, USA

What it is

Self-Rev is a form of drama therapy and of theatre in which a performer creates an original theatre piece from current life issues that still need healing, and performs it for an audience. Emunah conceived the term and the form in 1983 at CIIS, where it began as an assignment of 7–10-minute scenes…

Format

• Emunah describes the process as evolutionary and organic rather than as a numbered protocol: material is experimented with, moulded, edited and refined. Two published frames help place it. (a) Emunah's five-phase model of drama therapy (dramatic play, scenework, role play, culminating enactment,…
• Formats published

Who practises it, and how they are trained or regulated

• Individual therapy: autobiographical performance built with a psychotherapy client (Volkas; Dunne's Restoried Script). Other published settings include training programmes, older people with dementia, prisons and couples.
• Stage 0. Contracting, screening and setting the container. Goal: build a trusting performer–director relationship and agree logistics (Gold's "setting the container"), and decide whether a public piece is suitable now, for this person, in this setting. Agree the frame (therapy, training or workshop), who directs, who the audience will be, and the right to change or cancel at any point. Move on when the readiness…
• Consent for public performance: obtained after the piece exists, separately from development consent; covers audience composition (invited list, any public sale), whether family or colleagues may attend, recording, photography, publicity, programme notes, later reuse (e.g. research or teaching), and how third parties are depicted. Renew it before each performance. In training programmes, separate assessment from…

Questions to explore with your client

• What drew you to it, and what are you hoping it will change?
• Is there physical contact? Was it explained beforehand, and do you feel free to say no or stop at any point?
• Does it involve any substance, plant preparation, remedy or supplement? Has your doctor or prescriber been told, especially about any medication you take?
• Does it involve intense or unusual breathing? Have you been told about the medical conditions for which that is not advised?
• Is it a group, retreat or community? How do they respond if someone wants to leave or raises a concern?
• Who runs it, and what training or registration do they hold?
• What actually happens in a session or meeting, and how often?
• What does it cost, and is there pressure to commit to more?
• How do you feel afterwards, in the hours and days that follow?
• Does it fit with, or clash with, the work we do here?

What practitioners of it watch for

• self-consciousness; start with small gestures. Working: gesture and line reinforce each other.
• lingering in the scene's mood; repeat grounding (4.10). Working: tone of voice and posture change back.
• structures chosen to avoid the core issue. Working: the structure makes the change in the piece visible.
• over-distancing (piece becomes intellectual). Working: feeling present but contained; audience can follow.
• guided imagery can open strong material; keep it short and grounded. Working: concrete sensory memories appear.

When to involve someone else

• New or worsening physical symptoms, or advice to stop or change prescribed medication: involve the client's doctor or prescriber.
• Signs of coercion, isolation from family and friends, escalating costs or secrecy: discuss openly and consider safeguarding.
• A crisis or thoughts of suicide: follow your crisis protocol. In the US, call or text 988; in the UK and Ireland, Samaritans on 116 123.

Drawn automatically from the guide's own sections. Stay curious: neither endorse nor dismiss what the client values, and check anything that matters against the full guide and its sources. Not medical advice.