THEATER GAMES WITH DRUG ADDICTS: AN ACTION-RESEARCH STUDY IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate and describe meanings related to subjective well-being reported by drug addicts when exposed to a program of classes including theater games. This is a qualitative action-research study whose participants were eighteen young clients of the Fazenda da Esperança therapeutic community in Alhandra, Paraíba, Brazil. It used Lesson Observation and a Semi-structured Interview Script. Games were recorded on video and interviews were recorded on audio. Emotional accounts of well-being, freedom for self-expression, joy, happiness, and bonds to the group were more often observed and described. Such meanings would be justified by the convergence of pedagogical class structures, when moments are didactically organized as Feeling, Reacting and Reflecting, jointly applied to the Viola Spolin theater games method, structured under The Pedagogy of Corporeity.