Chennai: Everyone of us grew up hearing the popular maxim ‘Laughter is the best medicine’. However, it is not as easy as we think.
If the audience is ailing, it is indeed like trying to move the mountains. To lighten up the mood and make children learn any art, the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children (ICH & HC), Egmore, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with city-based The Little Theatre.
Speaking to News Today about the initiative, Director of ICH&HC, Dr A T Arasar Seeralar, said, “We see several children getting depressed and the gloomy atmosphere of the hospital adds to it. In an attempt to elevate their mood, we have partnered with the theatre.”
“The creative art therapy is a globally-accepted way of treating people with illnesses. The remedy kindles creativity in children and keeps them busy, forgetting their deepest anxieties and fears. It helps the terminally-ill and mentally-affected children the most,” he explained.
While lack of attention and being hyperactive are commonly observed in children with autism, when they are taught to dance, the kids have to control their movements which makes them attentive. It should also be acknowledged that such children are talented; when tapped and channelised in the right direction, they baffle people around them which the doctors hope to identify through the therapy.
“We have been discussing teaching them choreography, music and arts and make them realise that they are capable of performing a skill, thus, giving hope to their dejected parents,” stated the director.
Owing to the pent-up emotions and accumulated sadness, the children do not socialise and isolate themselves. The doctors said they are even hesitant to explain if they are uncomfortable with the treatment.
“To make them come out of their cocoons, we are also introducing clown therapy. Certified experts from the team will be spending time with the children and make them overcome their inhibitions and also entertain them,” added Dr Arasar Seeralar.
In order to implement, the hospital is also putting up a creative art gallery with wooden flooring and mirrors on its hospital premises.
“We are planning to have the first session 14 November, hoping that the construction work gets completed,” said the Director.
It is also learnt that the theatre group has been doing creative therapy and hospital clown programmes since 2015. The team visits a hospital weekly once, interacts with patients and cheers them up.
Managing trustee and founder of The Little Theatre, Aysha Rau, said, “As part of the MoU, we are setting up a permanent studio in the hospital just below the palliative care ward. We plan to organise creative art workshops for them on a regular basis. We will also have story-telling sessions, enacting plays and staging puppet theatre to entertain the children.”
However, artistic director Krishnakumar argues that clowning is just not about making patients laugh.
“When a patient is admitted, his/her physical body is completely controlled with medicines. Having said that we can entertain the patient only when they accept and approve us,” stated Krishnakumar.
THEATRICAL RELIEF
Sharing about one of his experiences The Little Theatre artistic director Krishnakumar said, “We had to entertain a young boy who had undergone a bypass surgery and was under severe pain. My fellow clown and I had to put up an act where my colleague would be relieved of his stomach pain the moment he handed over his abdomen to me in an imaginative way. It is all about belief. On seeing it, the boy was also all set to experience the relief and I took his pain and instanteously he exclaimed that his pain was gone.”