Young people with learning disabilities are rarely seen in some communities; CAST believes that it is important for young people to be given a voice. It has been well-proven that drama-based therapy, delivered by empathic and specialised facilitators, is empowering and effective for young adults at a crucial stage of their social, physical and mental development. At CAST we believe that individuals with special needs have learning differences, not disabilities, and we aim to give them the skills and confidence to manage these challenges.
All of our facilitators have years of experience and training in making creative work for and with special needs children. Using almost identical techniques to the other workshops to devise with, the workshops are tailored to meet the group’s and individual needs, whether that be to do with difficulties in comprehension or mobility. The aim is for the participants to feel safe and supported yet still have fun and achieve as much as they can over the five days. The goals remain the same – working through drama, design, movement and music to produce a piece of work that can be shown to others, but the emphasis is very much on the quality of the process for these young people, and making sure that mixed abilities are catered for.
The programme works over the same five days, but with a group of no more than 15-20 students. The teaching team consists of a director/choreographer, composer and designer who remain a constant throughout and will be supported in the room by local pastoral workers. Using local support systems like this has a two-fold benefit; the children form connections with individuals who can continue to work and support them after the workshop, and the pastoral workers gain from some specialised inset training over the duration of the workshop.
The need for intervention and education for learning disabilities, particularly in Lebanon, is desperately needed as there is very little in place to identify and help these children.
If you are interested in becoming one of our special needs workshop leaders, please fill in the CAST Application and Equal Opportunities Forms.
Emma Wee – Cast Biog
Emma Wee (Designer) originally trained as a sculptor and works as a director and performance
designer in both opera and theatre. She has worked with companies such as the West Yorkshire Playhouse, the Royal Opera House, Scottish Opera, Dance 4Film, the National Theatre, Opera Holland Park, De Vlaamse Opera and Contact Theatre. Her education work is based around a non-drawing, sensory approach to creating a visual language that is accessible to mainstream and special needs students alike. Emma is also CEO of CAST.
