Help needed for Drama project

[Jamie Lee]

Hello, 

I am a BA drama student who is interested in OCD. I was diagnosed with OCD by my dad who works in the mental health sector and have managed to live a relatively normal life thanks to him and the techniques he has taught me. I had violent intrusive thoughts and struggled thinking it made me a bad person because I wanted to do bad things. 

I would like to create a piece of theatre about OCD that could educate audiences about OCD but I want it to be more of an experience for the audience as to what it is like to have OCD. To make this possible I would like to gather information and experiences of other people with OCD so that it is more than just my own experiences. I would like to include every type of OCD so that it is an accurate representation of OCD.

I have not applied for funding for my project yet as I am waiting to gather the research and find anyone who would be interested in acting in the performance however I first would like to get the opinions of people with OCD. 

Do you feel that that there is a need for a project like this? Do you think it would be beneficial in terms of creating an awareness as to what OCD actually is? I myself personally feel that there is a general lack of knowledge and that a lot of people joke about having it then begin to believe that just because a certain thing annoys them that they do have it. 

 

Thank you for any input!

[Ashley]

Hi Jamie,

12 minutes ago, Jamie Lee said:

Do you feel that that there is a need for a project like this? Do you think it would be beneficial in terms of creating an awareness as to what OCD actually is?

I think this would be very beneficial learning exercise for the audience (if done right). Anything the charity can do to help please let me know.

Ashley.

[Jamie Lee]

4 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Hi Jamie,

I think this would be very beneficial learning exercise for the audience (if done right). Anything the charity can do to help please let me know.

Ashley.

Thank you! I've got a few ideas on the theatre aspect and have worked on a few projects involving audience experience before so it should be good - I'm just trying to build a base of knowledge at the moment.

[bendylouise]

2 hours ago, Jamie Lee said:

 I would like to include every type of OCD so that it is an accurate representation of OCD.

 

Hello Jamie.  I think it’s a great idea to do a drama piece –as Ashley says- if it’s done well.  But I think it will be very hard to do well. I certainly don’t want to put you off though!

 Regarding the quote above -there is only one type of OCD -  but infinite manifestations. I think it is as important to give the audience the right idea as it is not to give them is the wrong idea about the disorder.

I find it very difficult to type much myself as ocd has had a huge effect on me physically (as well as mentally) but I’m sure you will get an awful lot of information from the forums.

I would personally find it really interesting to know what you’re going to do as I love drama and have been and am a sufferer of ocd.  All the best with this –bendylouise

[Lisa davis]

Hi Jamie, I personally think it's a great idea. Any awareness raising that enables non suffer's to gain some understanding of what this disorder can do can only be a positive thing. 

The stigma that is attached to mental health needs to be broken and I believe if more people were willing (and more importantly, able) to talk about their experiences it's could go a long way in achieving this.

Good luck with your project

Lisa 

[Ashley]

1 hour ago, bendylouise said:

But I think it will be very hard to do well. I certainly don’t want to put you off though!

Oh I don't know, I had an idea ages ago for this, a drama which on the face of it is not promoted about OCD but where the main character is suffering with OCD doubts about sexuality which is what the drama is promoted to be about (sexuality), this would attract a young audience I suspect.  Then as it unfolds the audience is being actually educated that this is not about sexuality, this is about OCD... thus educating them sneakily.

[bendylouise]

28 minutes ago, Ashley said:

Oh I don't know, I had an idea ages ago for this, a drama which on the face of it is not promoted about OCD but where the main character is suffering with OCD doubts about sexuality which is what the drama is promoted to be about (sexuality), this would attract a young audience I suspect.  Then as it unfolds the audience is being actually educated that this is not about sexuality, this is about OCD... thus educating them sneakily.

0h I like that –good idea.  Yes that would be an effective way to do it of course - really get the audience engaged in a “normal” subject matter while surreptitiously showing them what OCD is, how OCD works, how it can relate to everything/anything.-  the effects etc and hopefully gaining their understanding, interest and concern.

[lostinme]

6 hours ago, Jamie Lee said:

Hello, 

I am a BA drama student who is interested in OCD. I was diagnosed with OCD by my dad who works in the mental health sector and have managed to live a relatively normal life thanks to him and the techniques he has taught me. I had violent intrusive thoughts and struggled thinking it made me a bad person because I wanted to do bad things. 

I would like to create a piece of theatre about OCD that could educate audiences about OCD but I want it to be more of an experience for the audience as to what it is like to have OCD. To make this possible I would like to gather information and experiences of other people with OCD so that it is more than just my own experiences. I would like to include every type of OCD so that it is an accurate representation of OCD.

I have not applied for funding for my project yet as I am waiting to gather the research and find anyone who would be interested in acting in the performance however I first would like to get the opinions of people with OCD. 

Do you feel that that there is a need for a project like this? Do you think it would be beneficial in terms of creating an awareness as to what OCD actually is? I myself personally feel that there is a general lack of knowledge and that a lot of people joke about having it then begin to believe that just because a certain thing annoys them that they do have it. 

 

Thank you for any input!

I think this is a great idea Jamie Lee! 

Years ago when my parents struggled to comprehend what I was going through, I made a little role play myself to try to help them understand the pain and anguish I was going through and what was behind my behaviour and why I felt the need to do these things. It took months to work on it, to get it just right and to work out the best way to do it so they could understood the reasons behind it and what it was driven by. Eventually after finishing it I played it out to them and they sobbed because they had finally got a better understanding of why I behaved the way I did and more importantly why I did and the thoughts behind them. Since then they have had a better awareness of my disorder and it helped a great deal. 

So I would say go for it 

Best wishes, lost. 

 

[Jamie Lee]

 

Hello and thank you all for your responses!

Any help you would be wiling to give me in terms of an interview is greatly appreciated and I’d quite like to hear your story. Of course everything that is told to me during these sessions will be kept completely confidential. In terms of my idea the term ‘play’ is used loosely. It’s more a piece of theatre designed to educate the audience.

My basic idea is to have the acting very stylised - movement based with monologues about how it feels inserted as opposed to a story being told. An example, if I take a step back from OCD for a moment, would be if I was reaching out to an audience to teach them about over sensitivity in autism. So my idea is that during the entire piece the music is too loud and lights too bright. This then allows the audience to experience similar sensations to the sufferer of the condition therefore allowing a deeper understanding and greater empathy for the condition.

OCD is obviously a lot harder as it manifests itself differently in each individual which is why I’m putting in a lot of research and doing a lot of workshops with sufferers so that I can capture as many stories as possible and try to paint OCD in a more realistic manner.

[Rucker]

Hi Jamie,

I think the difficulty in getting this done well to come across in a theatre setting will be the balance between not making it too bleak through to not making it to light hearted.  I can think of one example of a show I have seen where a bleak topic was done well and that was 'Close the Coal House Door'.  Out of all the theatre shows I hve seen I think this was the best (and it wasn't the biggest or flashiest one).

The topic was the destruction of the coal industry in the North East and it really mixed in the poverty, bleakness well but was also mixed in with somehumour ... at the right times.... and you can adjust how much to suit.

I know I am having a hard time at the moment, yet I still have a good sense of humour.  Like I say the trick to doing that will be timing and that's the true skill.

And another thing that sprung to mind was using screen projection.  How about having the person's true thoughts projected behind them.... say they are in a certain stuation in a show  looking happy, etc etc but have what is really going on visualised on the back of the stage...... you could be very cretive with that such as animations, graphics etc too..... it could be good visually.  Maybe you could get people diagnosed with OCD to draw their thoughts nd write down their true thoughts and include them in it with the stage production - would provide a link to the real world/real people etc and how their daily life experiences are difficult and are different to the average person.

I think that could also be used to highlight how many people, 12 out of every 1000 people, have it somehow during it.

The reason I say that is that would help to convey the message visually and quite powerfully rather than making the audience uncomfortable with lights and noises.... maybe one or two might suffer from migraines etc.

Sorry for the long post, just like to throw ideas out there

Best wishes

[BelAnna]

50 minutes ago, Rucker said:

Hi Jamie,

I think the difficulty in getting this done well to come across in a theatre setting will be the balance between not making it too bleak through to not making it to light hearted.  I can think of one example of a show I have seen where a bleak topic was done well and that was 'Close the Coal House Door'.  Out of all the theatre shows I hve seen I think this was the best (and it wasn't the biggest or flashiest one).

The topic was the destruction of the coal industry in the North East and it really mixed in the poverty, bleakness well but was also mixed in with somehumour ... at the right times.... and you can adjust how much to suit.

I know I am having a hard time at the moment, yet I still have a good sense of humour.  Like I say the trick to doing that will be timing and that's the true skill.

And another thing that sprung to mind was using screen projection.  How about having the person's true thoughts projected behind them.... say they are in a certain stuation in a show  looking happy, etc etc but have what is really going on visualised on the back of the stage...... you could be very cretive with that such as animations, graphics etc too..... it could be good visually.  Maybe you could get people diagnosed with OCD to draw their thoughts nd write down their true thoughts and include them in it with the stage production - would provide a link to the real world/real people etc and how their daily life experiences are difficult and are different to the average person.

I think that could also be used to highlight how many people, 12 out of every 1000 people, have it somehow during it.

The reason I say that is that would help to convey the message visually and quite powerfully rather than making the audience uncomfortable with lights and noises.... maybe one or two might suffer from migraines etc.

Sorry for the long post, just like to throw ideas out there

Best wishes

Jamie-Lee, I think producing a drama about OCD sounds like a great idea. 

Rucker's idea of screen projection sounds good to me- I think it might be difficult otherwise to convey the (range and severity of) intrusive thoughts that occur in OCD. You could have actors playing non-sufferers that are baffled by the actions/compulsions of the 'sufferers' and then projections of the thoughts, which explain the actions alongside a statement of feeling by the 'sufferer'. Alternatively it could be about the predominantly intrusive thought variety of OCD (rather than the predominantly compulsive form- it's sometimes referred to as Pure-O, although this is inaccurate because people with it still complete compulsions in their head) and the 'OCD sufferers' could appear completely normal (no outward/obvious compulsions) but be shown to be really suffering from the thoughts (which would be projected behind them).

In my opinion it would also be important to show the profoundly disabling effect that severe OCD can have on sufferers' lives (in terms of education, work, family/social life or relationships) because clinically significant OCD always impacts on at least one of these sections of life and severe OCD usually impacts on many or all- preventing sufferers from living the life that they'd like to live. 

One other idea I had was to show people suffering from an 'unknown illness', show the massive impact it has on their lives (dropping out of degrees, leaving jobs and becoming unemployed, relationships breaking up, families struggling to cope with the sufferers illness and the sense of depression and hopelessness that ensues) and make it obvious to the audience that they are really suffering (as far as the audience is aware the illness might be physical)... then without any previous mention of it, introduce to the audience  that the ill people have OCD and that it is a serious mental health condition.

 

Edited October 10, 2017 by BelAnna

[Milo]

Hey!
A theatre piece about OCD sounds like it would be brilliant. But I think it would be very easy to get it wrong. I get really annoyed seeing TV shows/books/films portraying it as liking things clean, or washing hands a lot, or turning the lights on & off etc. showing OCD as having quirks rather than a debilitating mental illness. I think showing the intrusive thoughts etc is a great idea, and if you need anybody to talk to/interview, I am more than happy to. 

[Ashley]

3 hours ago, Milo said:

I get really annoyed seeing TV shows/books/films portraying it as liking things clean, or washing hands a lot, or turning the lights on & off etc. 

I understand what you are saying, but lets not forget these are significant OCD problems for many people with OCD, so we shouldn't ever avoid discussing these problems, but it is important to emphasise the rituals are dictated by obsessive thoughts and worries.

[Milo]

8 minutes ago, Ashley said:

I understand what you are saying, but lets not forget these are significant OCD problems for many people with OCD, so we shouldn't ever avoid discussing these problems, but it is important to emphasise the rituals are dictated by obsessive thoughts and worries.

Definitely - I don't want to undermine those who have those compulsions. But because they are more common, and more physical, it's easier to show them on TV/film. But it would be really interesting to see a different manifestation of OCD than the typical ones shown the most often in the media. 

[HDC]

On 03/10/2017 at 11:31, Jamie Lee said:

Hello, 

I am a BA drama student who is interested in OCD. I was diagnosed with OCD by my dad who works in the mental health sector and have managed to live a relatively normal life thanks to him and the techniques he has taught me. I had violent intrusive thoughts and struggled thinking it made me a bad person because I wanted to do bad things.

Do you feel that that there is a need for a project like this? Do you think it would be beneficial in terms of creating an awareness as to what OCD actually is? I myself personally feel that there is a general lack of knowledge and that a lot of people joke about having it then begin to believe that just because a certain thing annoys them that they do have it. 

 

Thank you for any input!

Hello! I too have a BA in Performance Art and I also have harm OCD... I agree. Those jokes people tell are irritating!!! Best of Luck in the work! Amazing stuff!