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Giving Wounded Warriors a Voice: NTWH's Workshop Equips Writers
By Judith Philipps Otto "Empowering those with disabilities" is a common catchphrase, frequently used by those in the O&P profession. Most often, it refers to restoring physical mobility. But as those who serve amputees are well aware, healing is a process that involves the mind as well as the body. The psychology of acceptance, adjustment, and advancement is a vital part of building for future achievement. Those newly disabled often struggle to express their personal experiences and inner conflict, pressured by a need to quickly adapt and master unfamiliar skills.
This is especially true in the case of military veterans, faced with the challenge of returning their changed bodies and shattered selves from an alien environment to lives and futures that are nothing like their former plans and dreams.
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John Siciliano, an alumnus of National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped and an above-knee amputee, wrote a successful play about his life which was produced and performed in New York, New York, and Los Angeles, California. |
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The National Theatre Workshop of the Handicapped (NTWH) based in Belfast, Maine, has recognized and addressed this need for emotional healing with a unique program tailored specifically for soldiers wounded in the service of their country.
NTWHs Writers Program for Wounded Warriors, launched in collaboration with Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Department of State, the Intrepid Foundation, and the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), is offering two summer workshops that will guide participants in learning to write a dramatic monologue based on a personal life story of their choice. The two ten-day workshops, July 14 through July 24, and July 28 though August 7, each will accommodate up to 20 disabled American veterans from any war or conflict.
According to the NTWH website, the
New York Times
statistics cite about 8,000 "severely injured" casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan–newly disabled US veterans who have returned with lives dramatically and irreversibly altered, leaving them to come to grips with the raw and painful emotions associated with grief and loss: denial, frustration, anger, hopelessness, withdrawal and more–in varying combinations and degrees.
At the Belfast workshop, American heroes will tap their deep reserve of personal experience and learn how to express themselves through the writing of scenes and plays. No prior writing experience or training is necessary; guided by experienced instructors from the California School of the Arts and Yale Drama School, beginning writers will receive support and guidance in developing basic writing skills, as well as in finding their theatrical "writers voice."
Arts Aid Healing
Rick Curry, SJ, founder and artistic director of the NTWH, has seen the power of the arts in the lives of persons with permanent disabilities during his 29 years of service to the organization. His inspiration for the Wounded Warriors Writers Workshops came as the result of a conversation with a new amputee soldier following the running of a 5K race in New York City.
"In speaking with this young man, I realized that he had really lost his center. He was deeply depressed and didnt really know what he was doing or where he was going. I was so deeply troubled by this that I wondered what we could offer with regard to helping this young man and others like him to recover their creative center."
Although NTWH introduces its students (even aspiring playwrights) to a basic course in acting, Curry recognized that many soldiers disabilities are too recent and too raw for an acting program, but they have a desperate need to tell their own story.
Yahvey Immanuel, NTWH head of recruitment, reaching out through the USO, the VA, the VFW, and similar groups, is a strong believer in the power of the program. "The writers program offers a great possibility for many of those who are interested in finding a larger audience to be able to tell their story and learn the craft of writing."
In addition to the emotional empowerment offered by the ability to express ones thoughts and feelings, the Belfast school also offers the advantage of a supportive residential environment with camaraderie, great food, and outdoor activities including kayaking, swimming, and hiking.
Might fame and fortune follow on the heels of these experience-inspired writings? Publication? Broadway production? Best-seller list?
Curry is firm: "This is about craft, not flash. I really want the students to have the experience of writing for writings sake–learning the craft of writing without visions of sugarplums in their heads. Similarly, we are very careful about exploitation. Several news shows are interested in videotaping, but Im reluctant to let this happen. We want to offer a very safe spacea haven for these extraordinary men and women to come away and feel secure, where they can tell their story in kind of a quiet, closed, protected environment."
He does not, however, preclude the possibility of a later opportunity to share the finished works with a larger audience–perhaps via celebrity readings on Broadway on Monday night, when theatres are dark, in order to raise funds for perpetuating the program through scholarship funds.
NTWHs Wounded Warriors will still be soldiers of a sort, as the Writers Workshop program arms them with pens and keyboards and adaptive technology; equips them with an arsenal of adjectives, nouns, and verbs; and prepares them to launch a fresh assaultbreaking down barriers, opening doors, and impacting the hearts, minds, and spirits of others moved to clearer understanding.
For more information on the Writers Program for Wounded Warriors, call 212.206.7789 or visit the NTWH website: www.ntwh.org Judith Philipps Otto is a freelance writer who also has assisted with marketing and public relations for various O&P industry clients. She has been a newspaper writer and editor and has won national and international awards as a broadcast writer-producer. 
Table Of Contents - June 2006
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