On 25th May, Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice will be partnering with Highland Hospice, Inverness College UHI (part of the University of the Highlands and Islands) and the American based artistic movement – Grief Dialogues Health Care Education, to host online performances of Homeward Bound and Hospice: A Love Story
These thought provoking, powerful plays offer a creative and valuable educational experience, that help to open up important conversations about death and dying, and shed light on the human impact receiving a terminal diagnosis can have on a family.
Siobhan Neylon, Highland Hospice’s Organisational Lead for Learning and Development explains, “I approached Dr Lesley Mickel from Inverness College UHI around four years ago, asking about the possibility of collaborating on a healthcare education project through drama.”
“Lesley was extremely enthusiastic about the idea, and this resulted in the play, ‘Homeward Bound – Seth’s Story’, becoming part of a project which was first delivered by the drama students three years ago. “
Homeward Bound is based on the true story of Seth and Lesley Goodburn and the 33 short and heart-breaking days from Seth’s diagnosis with pancreatic cancer to his death. Originally written as a play in 2016 and developed by the National Council for Palliative Care and Pancreatic Cancer UK to help improve end of life care, it has since been filmed and widely shared as a valuable educational resource for health care professionals as part of training and service improvement programmes.
Hospice: A Love Story is written and based on the experiences of Elizabeth Copeland, Founder and Chief Playwright for Grief Dialogues. Focusing on death and all its complications – relationship, physical, spiritual – it tells the poignant story of a ‘crisis at the bedside’ between two sisters trying to come to terms with death of their mother who had cancer.
Airing live, via Zoom at 6.00pm, the performances are being brought to life by drama students, Sophie Wink and Luke Carmichael from Inverness College University of the Highland and Islands and by veteran Grief Dialogues actors Gretchen Douma and Kiki Abba who reprise their original roles.
After the performances, both Lesley Goodburn and Elizabeth Copeland will be available to discuss and answer audience questions.
Speaking ahead of the live performances, Clinical Education Lead at Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice, Camilla Barrow, said:
“We’re always seeking out new and innovative ways to share our knowledge and expertise to help improve palliative and end of life care for patients and carers. We’re committed to engaging and reaching as many people as possible and working with our partners on this project is a real privilege.
“We’re excited to be bringing education alive creatively through these live performances and hope people find them a valuable educational resource.”
Lesley Goodburn adds:
“I promised Seth that I would share the story of our journey of his terminal diagnosis so that it might help others in the future. Working with organisations like St Mary’s is part of Seth’s legacy and the opportunity to still be able to tell our story and connect with people – even while face to face performances aren’t possible because of Covid-19 – is fantastic.”
Elizabeth Copeland adds:
“I am excited to work in collaboration with Birmingham St. Mary’s Hospice and Lesley Goodburn as we demonstrate the power of theatre to explore grief and attitudes toward death.”
It was their mutual relationship with Elizabeth Copeland that brought Highland Hospice and St Mary’s Hospice together to collaborate on this project.
Dr Lesley Mickel, programme leader for the BA (Hons) Drama and Production course at Inverness College UHI, added:
“The use of drama to communicate a message is incredibly effective, and these plays really highlight the importance of conversations around dying and grief. It is a wonderful learning experience for our students to work with Highland Hospice on tackling a subject of this nature, and we are constantly expanding our involvement in this partnership. This has grown from the staging of a play to the formulation of a whole wider project.”
Siobhan Neylon concluded, “We are always seeking out new and innovative ways to share our knowledge and expertise to help improve palliative and end of life care for patients and carers. Working with our partners at Birmingham St Marys Hospice, Grief Dialogues Health Care Education and Inverness College University of the Highland and Islands on this project is a real privilege. Our commitment is to engaging and reaching as many people as possible, and this is an incredible way of helping to achieve this.”
“Anyone working in a health and social care setting should find them of interest, as well as patients and carers. It’s exciting to be bringing education alive creatively through these live performances and hope people find them a valuable educational resource.”
The performances will be shown on Tuesday 25th May at 6pm via Zoom.
To register your interest in this unique live performance, please visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/homeward-bound-and-hospice-a-love-story-online-drama-performances-tickets-143105204519
https://griefdialogueseducation.com/
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