Information

About: Nick and Joy Hunter


Nick and Joy Hunter are professional actors, international conference speakers and workshop facilitators.

Nick was trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, appearing in several West End shows. He was employed as The Communications Director for The Leprosy Mission Canada for the past 9 years. In September 2001 Nick resigned his post in order to develop the work in prisons on a full-time basis.

Joy was trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and worked in several Radio and Television series including BBC's Dr Who. She gained her MTS. She was the Lay Chaplain at Ronald MacDonald House and Bereavement Care Coordinator at Philip Aziz Centre in Toronto. She now has a Private Practice in Sidney.

Nick and Joy have worked in Federal and Provincial Institutions for over 16 years. They were special guests at the 2001 International Conference in South Africa of IPCA (International Prison Chaplains’ Association).

They regularly perform dramatic readings of classical literature – CS Lewis, Charles Dickens, and Lewis Caroll – as well as performing in such plays as Mark Twain’s “The Diaries of Adam and Eve”.

OUR 5 YEAR VISION

Our vision for the future 5 years includes: -

1.Continuing to perform Dramatic Readings and Plays on themes of hope, reconciliation and restoration. Last month we were at Craigdarroch Castle in Victoria, BC for 3 performances of Charles Dickens readings. In Toronto we appeared at The Arts and Letters Club in 'The Diaries of Adam and Eve' by Mark Twain. We also performed in 'Love Letters' by A J Gurney and had many opportunities to read the books of CS Lewis to invited audiences.

2. Facilitating Drama Workshops in the wider Community on various themes: e.g. Telling your Story, Self Esteem, Anger, Finding your Voice, and introducing people to the healing effects of Drama in their own lives.

3. We would also like to work towards a stronger involvement by the outside community, through artistic ventures within the various institutions, working collaboratively alongside the inmates.


4. Teaching at various denominational Colleges the value and modus operandi of The Hunters’ material.

5. Maintaining and increasing the existing number of Drama Workshops in Federal Institutions.

DRAMA AS AN INSTRUMENT OF GROWTH AND HEALING

People throughout the ages have gone to the theatre in order to learn about themselves and others. We use the environment to help us understand ourselves, the world and our relationship with it. Theatre was used in this way before the word ‘theatre’ ever existed. In Ancient Greece ‘theatre’ was used not only for entertainment but for healing as well. The idea was that we witness or participate in dramatic performance in order to understand. Theatre as healing goes back even in further beyond the Ancient Greeks. (In Africa today, Japan and some parts of India, the actor/performer is viewed as a shaman, or healer / prophet for the community.) Studies of ancient rituals in early societies reveal that there has always been a healing and/or a preventive element in the drama. Rituals were also associated with ‘work’; (one only has to think about Southern American Negroes picking cotton in the fields giving birth to Negro Spirituals and the Blues.)

Action methods (these include role-play, improvisation, psychodrama and dramatherapy in particular) have evolved from the theatre and from ritual. They are techniques used in groups for exploring difficulties and problems; or to get a group moving and active. Action denotes ‘doing’ as opposed to ‘thinking about’, ‘listening to’, or ‘being told to.’ Whenever a group is brought together, action methods provide us with ways of working that actually allow us to see our ideas in action. In other words, rather than just talking about a topic we may perform that topic from many different angles, so that a group can participate together, seeing ideas expressed in many different ways. Action methods equip groups with a series of versatile ‘tools’ (e.g. role-playing and improvisational techniques) that can be used in a multitude of situations.
Participants do not have to be professional actors to use these action methods. Theatre in its ancient sense is the innate ability within each person to observe themselves in action. We can see ourselves here and imagine ourselves there, we can see ourselves in others and imagine what we look like to them.

Action methods form a framework for running successful groups. Whatever the group wants to analyze, whether it be how to integrate back into society after a spell in prison, such as we have witnessed, action aids learning, growth, self-sufficiency and self-determination: action methods in all their forms show us a way forward – they are also great fun!

Action methods are important because they give us

• an active body
• an active voice
• active senses and
• an enjoyable and exciting way to explore

People are not forced into doing anything when using action methods. The doing comes naturally. People want to participate and they find that skills learned can be used in their work, life and studies. Participants see that they can have choices; they see that they can contribute without fear of retribution or of ‘getting egg on their faces.’ When action methods are used the space becomes a safe place within which the group can work.

Drama within the setting of an Institution
The offender will assimilate in the courses they attend an enormous amount of material on the rational or cognitive level. The individual is encouraged and challenged to develop and grow. But in such an environment, how is the offender’s emotional competence given free reign to expand and improve at the same level of competence as his / her rational abilities?

We believe that there’s a distinct place in the Institutional environment for experiential learning.
Drama gives us an opportunity to-

• know ourselves better.
• to use our imaginations
• to become more than we have experienced ourselves being
• to draw on those hidden, split-off parts of ourselves
• to express them, and
• re-integrate them in a healthy way.

Drama increases our self-esteem and helps us find our own voice. Thus individuals are encouraged and enabled to escape from their inhibitions and to grow.