May 21, 2009

Performance Brings Teen Patients' Heartfelt Experiences to Life

Students from Seattle’s Northwest School pose with UCSF t-shirts after performing a show written by teenage patients from UCSF Children’s Hospital.

For teenagers with chronic illnesses, fighting off anxiety, boredom and despair during long hospital stays requires a variety of defenses from laughter to prayer and familiar objects from home.

Since 2006, UCSF Children’s Hospital has helped its young patients hone an equally powerful weapon: their own creativity.

The results of that effort were on display April 30 at UCSF’s Cole Hall during a poignant and compelling performance piece that wove together the works of 17 current and former teen patients.

The piece, “Tomorrow . . . A Better Day,” was a blend of visual art, theater, music, movement and poetry, all focusing on the theme of surviving hospitalization. The performers were students age 15 to 17 from the Northwest School in Seattle, who reworked and interpreted the individual pieces and turned them into a single, hourlong show.

Some of the pieces uncovered the humorous side of hospital life. In “The IV Lament,” a singing IV machine urged patients to look beyond her loud, constant beeping. In “F.A.S.H.I.O.N.,” patients, doctors and nurses strutted their stuff in “chic hospitalwear” that featured sparkles, rhinestones and even a pair of silk pajamas with a matching eye patch.

But other pieces fearlessly explored the darker emotions that patients begin to feel as days turn into weeks and sometimes months. “The Creature Called Anonymous” described feelings of loneliness, confusion and isolation, and took a hard look at the disconnection that sometimes occurs between hospital staff and teenagers coping with illness.

Whether funny, sad or hopeful, the show’s various messages were all honest and heartfelt, and provided a clear window into the teen patient experience.

“Teenagers are full of passion and emotion, and they look at the world differently,” said Roxanne Fernandes, RN, executive director of UCSF Children’s Hospital. “If we’re really going to treat them treat the whole person we have to know who they are.”

This year’s show, which also ran May 1 at San Francisco’s de Young Museum, was the second such performance. Both stemmed from the UCSF Children’s Hospital Child Life Department, whose staff wanted to broaden programming and support for the teen patient population.

Students from Seattle’s Northwest School perform “F.A.S.H.I.O.N,” a skit from a performance piece written by teenage patients from UCSF Children’s Hospital.

In 2007, under the leadership of UCSF child life specialist Jill Meyers, the department began offering a weekend creative arts program for teenagers. Participants in the program many of whom were confined to their hospital beds were encouraged to experiment with a wide range of creative modalities.

Later that year, UCSF teamed up with the theater department at the Northwest School, where Meyers used to work. After working for months to bring the patients’ pieces to life, nine Northwest students traveled to San Francisco with their teacher, Laura Ferri, in March 2008 to perform for members of the UCSF community including some of the authors whose works were featured.

This year’s group of nine performers and one pianist included some of the same students from the 2008 show, and both old and new performers described the experience as unique and rewarding.

“My favorite part has been seeing how my life can be very different [from the lives of the UCSF patients] and yet, in essence, very similar,” said performer Sylvie Baldwin.

Fernandes said she hopes to see the creative arts program continue and expand to offer even more opportunities for patients to express themselves.

“Through programs like this, we’re giving teens coping skills and making them stronger and better than when they came to us,” she said.

Photos by Kate Schoen

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