Self-revelatory performance

1. Introduction

Version followed: Renée Emunah's Self-Revelatory Performance ("Self-Rev") as she defined it in Acting for Real (1994) and in Emunah 2015 (Drama Therapy Review), with her 2016 chapter in The Self in Performance (pp. 37–53), which examines the process leading to performance (intensive self-exploration and performer–director collaboration), the role of the live audience, the risk of self-indulgence and how the personal becomes universal [source: Springer chapter abstract]; the practical process as published by Sheila Rubin (RDT, who has directed full-length Self-Revs since 1996) and as taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS); and the seven-stage model of drama therapist Lara Gold as reported by Shapiro (2016). Emunah's own texts are cited through secondary sources: her 1994 pages 224–226 and 289–298 and her 2015 article pages 71–81 as quoted and page-cited in two open-access theses (Shapiro 2016, Connecticut College; De Beer 2016, University of the Witwatersrand), plus the publisher's reading sample of The Self in Performance (front matter and ch. 1); claims resting on these are tagged "via". The step-by-step content of Acting for Real 2nd ed. (2020) ch. 9 "Self-Revelatory Performance" and ch. 11 "The Post-Performance Process", and the body of Emunah's 2016 chapter, are not publicly available and are not reproduced here [uncertain].

What it is. Self-Rev is a form of drama therapy and of theatre in which a performer creates an original theatre piece from current life issues that still need healing, and performs it for an audience [source: Emunah 2015 abstract; Emunah 2015 p. 71 as cited in Pendzik, Emunah & Johnson 2016 ch. 1]. Emunah conceived the term and the form in 1983 at CIIS, where it began as an assignment of 7–10-minute scenes on a compelling current issue; since 2004 students can make a full-length Self-Rev as their capstone (about 40 minutes in Emunah's 2015 account; CIIS now gives about 45) [source: Emunah 2015 p. 73, via Shapiro 2016 pp. 30–31; CIIS programme page]. She founded and directs the CIIS Drama Therapy programme, where Self-Rev is the capstone most students choose [source: CIIS news; CIIS programme page]. In 1994 she called it "self-revelatory theatre", distinguished from autobiographical theatre by "a high level of risk-taking", and described it as a new genre of theatre as well as a kind of therapy [source: Emunah 1994 pp. 224, 290–291, via De Beer 2016 and Shapiro 2016]. The issue may be interpersonal, circumstantial or intrapsychic; the performer must want to understand, work through or heal it, and a past or recurring issue qualifies only if it is still alive in their life now [source: Emunah 1994 and 2015, via Shapiro 2016 pp. 29–33]. Forms include monologues, puppets, masks, realistic scenes, dream sequences and metaphoric stories [source: Emunah 1994 p. 225, via De Beer 2016]. Self-Rev sits under the wider umbrella of autobiographical therapeutic performance (ATP) but is narrower: it emphasises current (not past, settled) issues, depth of therapeutic "working through", and high artistic quality [source: Pendzik, Emunah & Johnson 2016 ch. 1, pp. ~7–8]. It differs from autobiographical theatre, which stages personal material without a conscious aim of transforming or healing it [source: Emunah 2015 p. 72, as cited in ch. 1].

How change happens. The performer does not just tell or vent the story; through devising, embodiment and rehearsal they work the issue through. Emunah describes working through as a conscious effort to contend with the material and understand its origins; "moving through" can mean forgiving, confronting or revisiting, and is often painful on the way to a happier state [source: Emunah 2015 pp. 74–75, via Shapiro 2016 p. 35]. Layers surface during the process, so the finished piece is often about something deeper than the starting topic and is "reweaved" accordingly [source: Emunah 2015 p. 78, via Shapiro p. 40]. Creating the piece crystallises the issue and gives form to feeling, and the process itself contains and facilitates the transformation [source: Emunah 1994 p. 225, via De Beer 2016]. The performance may stage a transformation a step ahead of where the person is in life; the audience witnesses and applauds that movement (and their courage), which helps bring it closer in reality, and witnesses may recognise a redemption the performer does not yet feel [source: Rubin web supplement, paraphrasing Emunah 1994 p. 225; Emunah 1994 p. 225, via De Beer]. Theatrical craft is not a distraction from healing: an aesthetically shaped "revealing and reweaving" of a core current issue is both more therapeutic and more compelling to watch [source: Emunah 2015 p. 79, as cited in ch. 1]. Johnson adds that discovery and surprise can still occur in a rehearsed piece, and (in Zehavi's summary) that working through happens when the gap between actor and role is revealed to the audience [source: ch. 1, pp. ~9–11].

Professional frame. Self-Rev is a drama therapy method. In North America the relevant credential is the Registered Drama Therapist (RDT) of the North American Drama Therapy Association (NADTA); CIIS's NADTA-recognised MA prepares students for RDT and for California LMFT/LPCC licensure, and requires 50 hours of the student's own psychotherapy [source: CIIS programme page]. In the UK, dramatherapists are regulated by law by the HCPC: registration needs an HCPC-approved Level 7 (Master's) dramatherapy qualification, and someone not registered may not practise dramatherapy or use the title dramatherapist; BADth is the professional body [source: BADth "HCPC registered" page]. Emunah advises limiting Self-Rev with clients to those who have some degree of theatrical skill or inclination [source: Emunah 2015 p. 81, via Shapiro 2016]. Directing someone else's Self-Rev as therapy, especially with clients (rather than trained adult volunteers), should only be done by a credentialed drama therapist or a psychotherapist with specific training and supervision in therapeutic performance [synthesis]. Rubin explicitly frames her community workshop as "not therapy" and sends deeper material to a therapist, which shows the line between a personal-theatre class and therapy [source: Rubin].

2. Framework

Emunah describes the process as evolutionary and organic rather than as a numbered protocol: material is experimented with, moulded, edited and refined [source: Emunah 1994 p. 224, via De Beer 2016]. Two published frames help place it. (a) Emunah's five-phase model of drama therapy (dramatic play, scenework, role play, culminating enactment, dramatic ritual): the shift from fictional to personal material happens in role play and culminating enactment, and in group therapy self-revelatory scenes emerge from the therapy process and are shown as a culminating scene [source: Emunah 1994, via Shapiro 2016 pp. 24–25 and De Beer 2016]. (b) Lara Gold's seven stages for a solo Self-Rev: setting the container, dreaming, eliciting story, script development, rehearsal and staging refinement, performance, reflection; she describes them as cyclical rather than linear [source: Gold, personal communication, as reported in Shapiro 2016]. The stages below follow Gold's sequence and add the CIIS format, Rubin's workshop process and a safety layer; stage boundaries and transition criteria are [synthesis] unless tagged.

Formats published

CIIS capstone (solo, full-length): students first make a "mini Self-Rev" in their first semester; the final piece, usually about 45 minutes, is developed over a semester with a drama-therapist director and a theatrical team, then performed live [source: CIIS programme page].
Rubin's ten-week group workshop: most weeks are spent trying techniques and exploring material; participants decide what to present on the final night; short pieces (about 5 minutes for shadow-role work, with a bell at 4 minutes) [source: Rubin]. Rubin has adapted it for psychiatric inpatients, depressed older adults and therapists [source: Rubin].
Individual therapy: autobiographical performance built with a psychotherapy client (Volkas; Dunne's Restoried Script) [source: ch. 1 overview]. Other published settings include training programmes, older people with dementia, prisons and couples [source: ch. 1, p. ~11].

Stage 0. Contracting, screening and setting the container. Goal: build a trusting performer–director relationship and agree logistics (Gold's "setting the container") [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016], and decide whether a public piece is suitable now, for this person, in this setting [synthesis]. Agree the frame (therapy, training or workshop), who directs, who the audience will be, and the right to change or cancel at any point. Move on when the readiness criteria below are met and written consent covers the development phase only (consent for performance is taken separately later) [synthesis].

Stage 1. Introduction and warm-up into the form. Goal: learn the form and lower the stakes, e.g. a mini Self-Rev [source: CIIS] or short shadow-role pieces [source: Rubin]. Move on when the person can step into and out of personal material in role with an observing stance intact [synthesis].

Stage 2. Generating material (Gold's "dreaming"). Goal: surface live themes without committing to one. Gold's dreaming stage stays open to stories, music, art, memories and emotional responses without fixing a final idea (4.23) [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016]; Rubin uses journal, freewriting, prompts and embodied exploration (Section 4) [source: Rubin]. Move on when one theme keeps returning and "has heart": it is where the performer is most engaged and vulnerable and where it touches shared human experience [source: Rubin].

Stage 3. Eliciting story, choosing the core issue and through-line. Goal: director and performer draw specific personal stories out of what surfaced (Gold's "eliciting story") [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016], then name the current issue and what the piece moves toward (a hoped-for transformation). The issue must be current [source: Emunah via Rubin; Emunah 2015]. Expect the issue to deepen later (Emunah's re-weaving) [source: Emunah 2015 p. 78, via Shapiro]. Move on when the performer can state the through-line in a sentence and the director judges that the material can be held at aesthetic distance [synthesis built on Emunah's aesthetic-distance concept as reported by Rubin].

Stage 4. Devising, scripting, staging and rehearsal. Goal: turn material into theatre. Gold separates script development (the performer structures the chosen stories into a script; the director reads and edits many drafts to draw out the essentials) from rehearsal and staging refinement (fine-tuning script and blocking so the story is visually engaging) [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016]. Rehearsal, staging and props act as "mirrors" that reveal what was overlooked [source: Rubin]; intensive performer–director collaboration [source: Emunah 2016 abstract]; the director's task is to find how to work with this person's material [source: Emunah 2015 p. 74, via Shapiro p. 35]. Structure holds the aesthetic form while room for improvisation keeps the actor present and heightens suspense [source: Emunah 1994 p. 292, via De Beer 2016]. Scenes are given working-through tasks (4.22). Move on when the piece runs end to end without the performer flooding or going numb, the ending is clear, and the performer gives separate informed consent to public performance (Section 2, "Consent for public performance") [synthesis].

Stage 5. Performance. Goal: be witnessed. Warm-up exercises on the day help (4.24) [source: Emunah 1994 p. 226, via De Beer 2016]. Typically no fourth wall; the performer may speak to the audience directly [source: Rubin]. The audience is invited, often teachers, peers, friends and family [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016; Meiring 2017 abstract; De Beer 2016 abstract], and the director may remind them of their witnessing role before or during the piece [source: Shapiro 2016 pp. 42–43].

Stage 6. Post-performance process, reflection and closure. Goal: receive witnessing, integrate, step out of the piece and return to life. Two published versions differ; choose one per setting. Emunah: follow the performance with a simple celebratory ritual that keeps the power of the work in the room rather than translating it into words [source: Emunah 1994 p. 226, via De Beer 2016]; audiences typically give no direct verbal feedback right after the show, and written questionnaires are one option [source: Shapiro 2016 p. 43]. Rubin (workshop format): two or three witnesses say how they were touched, criticism withheld, and closure before people leave [source: Rubin]. Emunah warns of a post-performance letdown in which the person struggles to integrate acceptance and success, which she frames as a "death" preceding integration [source: Emunah 1994 p. 294, via De Beer]. Gold's final stage, reflection, processes rehearsal and performance, celebrates discoveries, integrates them into daily life and closes the performer–director relationship [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016]. The content of Emunah's 2020 chapter "The Post-Performance Process" is not reproduced in any available source [uncertain]. Follow-up sessions in the days and weeks after [synthesis].

Readiness criteria for public performance of personal material [synthesis; sources give the requirement for a current issue and aesthetic distance but no published checklist was found]:

The issue is current and alive, but the person is not in acute crisis: stable housing, no active suicidality or recent self-harm, no current psychosis, mania or dissociative episodes triggered by the material, and substance use not destabilising.
They can hold an observing self in rehearsal: they can play the hardest moment several times and come back to the here-and-now within minutes, with grounding.
They have support outside the production: their own therapist (CIIS requires personal therapy of its students), and people to be with after the show.
The piece aims at transformation, not only at disclosure, exposure or revenge on someone in the audience.
They can tolerate an unknown audience reaction, including silence or a family member's distress.
Legal and safety issues have been checked: disclosure of crimes, abuse involving a person still at risk, immigration status, court cases, employment.
For trauma survivors: trauma-processing work has been done or is under way in therapy; the stage is not where a trauma is told for the first time.
With clients (not trained students): some degree of theatrical skill or inclination [source: Emunah 2015 p. 81, via Shapiro 2016].

Consent for public performance [synthesis]: obtained after the piece exists, separately from development consent; covers audience composition (invited list, any public sale), whether family or colleagues may attend, recording, photography, publicity, programme notes, later reuse (e.g. research or teaching), and how third parties are depicted. Renew it before each performance. In training programmes, separate assessment from consent so that refusing to perform, or cutting material, does not cost a grade without an equivalent alternative (CIIS offers four capstone options) [source for options: CIIS; rest synthesis].

3. Guiding principles

Current material, aimed at healing [source: Emunah 2015]: choose an issue the person is living now; check each scene asks "what moves here?" rather than "what happened?"
Working through, not recounting [source: Emunah 2015; Pendzik ch. 1 overview]: rework any scene that only recounts misery or victimisation into one where something is confronted, reframed or changed.
A step ahead of life [source: Emunah 1994 via Rubin]: the ending may show a transformation the person has not yet fully reached; check that it is reachable, not a fantasy that will hurt when life lags behind [synthesis].
Aesthetic distance [source: Emunah via Rubin]: keep a balance between emotional connection and enough distance to tell the story without overwhelming self or audience; cut unnecessary graphic detail.
Art and therapy are not in opposition [source: Emunah 2015 p. 79; ch. 1]: work on theatrical quality (structure, image, rhythm) as part of the therapy, not after it.
The personal becomes universal; guard against self-indulgence [source: Emunah 2016 abstract]: ask in rehearsal what an outsider takes away; a piece only the performer can follow needs reshaping.
Performer–director collaboration [source: Emunah 2016]: the director is container, guide and coach [source: Rubin]; ideas are offered, the performer decides.
Work with the "in-charge" part [source: Rubin]: address the part of the person who sees the whole process, especially when they are lost in a scene.
Witnessing is central; the audience is defined [source: Rubin; Meiring 2017]: decide who the witnesses are and what is asked of them; safety depends on the conditions of witnessing.
Relational ethics toward the audience and others in the story [source: Sajnani ch. 6 as summarised in ch. 1; Seymour ch. 14 on power]: consider the effect on the audience and on people depicted; notice power between performer, director, assessor and witness.
Openness to surprise [source: Johnson ch. 5 as summarised in ch. 1]: leave room for real discovery during performance; do not over-fix every moment.
It can be therapeutic and can also be traumatic [source: Rubin]: build a strong container during performance and closure.
Not a replacement for therapy [source: Rubin]: deeper material uncovered in a workshop goes to the person's therapist.
Choice and right to stop [synthesis]: the performer can cut, change or cancel until the last moment, and the director protects that right.
Work on the emotional edge, with the risk held [source: Emunah 1994 p. 224, via De Beer 2016]: the work sits on the emotional edge and the therapist creates and holds a safe space that still carries enough risk for change; if nothing is at stake, invite more; if the person floods, add distance.
Let the topic deepen [source: Emunah 2015 p. 78, via Shapiro 2016]: expect the piece to end up about something deeper than the first theme, and re-weave it rather than defend the original plan.
Healing moments, not problems, are what reach the audience [source: Emunah 2015 p. 78, via Shapiro pp. 40–41]: do not burden witnesses with the performer's problems; build scenes around movement and change. Poorly balanced distance invites audience pity or performer self-indulgence [source: Emunah 2015, via Shapiro p. 50].
Applause for the work, not only the person [source: Emunah 1994, via Shapiro pp. 32–33]: applause that supports only the performer and not the piece can be countertherapeutic, so aesthetic quality is part of the care.
Don't plan tears [source: Shapiro 2016 p. 51, her own guidance]: let emotion arise in performance; never script crying.

4. Intervention inventory

Interventions come from Rubin's practice, the CIIS format, Lara Gold's stages (as reported by Shapiro 2016) and Emunah's own list of ways of working through (Emunah 2015 pp. 74–78, as reported by Shapiro 2016; see 4.22). Emunah's technique chapters in Acting for Real (2020) are not publicly available, and no published step-by-step protocol for her named approaches was found, so the steps under them are the writer's [synthesis] [uncertain]. Safety procedures that the sources require in general terms (container, closure) but do not spell out are written as [synthesis] and labelled. Example language is illustrative throughout.

4.1 Readiness and screening interview [synthesis]

Purpose / when: before any commitment to a public piece; again before consent to perform.
Steps: (1) Explain the form: a piece drawn from a current issue, worked on over weeks, performed for invited witnesses. (2) Ask what issue the person is drawn to and why now. (3) Go through the readiness criteria (Section 2): current stability, risk history, trauma-processing status, supports, outside therapist, legal exposure, who might be in the audience. (4) Agree a stop signal and a rule that any scene can be cut. (5) Record the decision and what would change it (e.g. "revisit after three months of trauma work").
Example language (illustrative): "This piece is meant to move something that is alive for you now. It isn't meant to be the first place a trauma is told. What would you need to be okay on the night, and the morning after?"
Watch for: pressure to perform for an external reason (a grade, a parent, a deadline); wish to confront a specific audience member; recent crisis. Working: the person can name supports and limits concretely.

4.2 Mini Self-Rev [source: CIIS programme page]

Purpose / when: first contact with the form, low stakes; teaches the shape of a Self-Rev before a full piece. Published as a CIIS first-semester exercise; the form itself began in 1983 as an assignment of 7–10-minute scenes on a compelling current issue [source: Emunah 2015 p. 73, via Shapiro 2016]. The current CIIS mini format's exact length and structure are not given [uncertain].
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Give a short time limit (e.g. a few minutes). (2) Ask for one current theme, one image or object, one moment of change. (3) Brief rehearsal with a partner. (4) Show to the group; witnesses say what touched them. (5) Closure and stepping out (4.17).
Example language (illustrative): "Pick something small but true. Give us one image and one shift."
Watch for: people going too deep in a short form; check-in afterwards. Working: they find a form for the material and step out of it easily.

4.3 Process journal and freewriting [source: Rubin, after Goldberg 1986]

Purpose / when: throughout, especially Stage 2; generates material and holds feelings between sessions (journaling as containment).
Steps: (1) Keep one dedicated notebook for the whole process. (2) Freewrite for five minutes without stopping or correcting. (3) Reread, choose a sentence that stands out, and freewrite again from it. (4) Underline two or three striking lines; freewrite from one. Other journal forms Rubin lists: daily notes to oneself, dreams, letters in role, comparisons with myths, lists, mind maps, drawings.
Example language (illustrative): "Don't edit. Keep the hand moving for five minutes. Then underline the line that surprises you."
Watch for: writing that spirals into rumination; set a time limit and a grounding step after writing [synthesis]. Working: recurring phrases and images emerge that later become text or staging.

4.4 Sentence beginnings, evocative questions and post-exercise writing [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: Stage 2, when freewriting stalls.
Steps: (1) Repeated sentence stems such as "I remember…" written many times. (2) Evocative life questions (Rubin cites McAdams 1993) [uncertain: question set not given]. (3) Writing immediately after a guided visualisation or a somatic exercise, to catch body-based material.
Example language (illustrative): "Start every line with 'I remember'. When you run dry, write the stem again."
Watch for: guided imagery can open strong material; keep it short and grounded. Working: concrete sensory memories appear.

4.5 "Thirty things I don't want to do a Self-Rev about" [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: a warm-up that sidesteps censorship and shows where energy lies.
Steps: (1) List 30 things you do not want to make a piece about. (2) Read the list. (3) Pick one to explore (Rubin's wording: explore one of them).
Example language (illustrative): "Write thirty things you'd rather never put on stage. We won't use any without your choice."
Watch for: the person picking the most frightening item to prove courage; remind them that choosing is theirs and readiness applies [synthesis]. Working: playful relief, then a theme with energy.

4.6 Theme prompts [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: Stage 2, to offer focused entry points.
Prompts Rubin publishes: the part of you that wants to be seen versus the part that doesn't; how your inner judge runs your life and whose voice it really is; nicknames, yours and your family's.
Steps [synthesis]: offer one prompt, freewrite, then embody one line (4.7).
Example language (illustrative): "Whose voice is your inner judge using? Let it speak for one minute."
Watch for: the judge prompt can bring up a critical parent; keep distance with role (4.9). Working: a clear inner conflict appears that could anchor a piece.

4.7 Concretising a sentence, dream or block [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: moving from writing to body; Stages 2–4.
Steps: (1) Take a written sentence, a dream image or a felt block. (2) Give it a physical form, e.g. an object or cushion (Rubin's example: a student used a pillow for her creative block). (3) Explore it physically: approach, push, move around or through it. (4) Note what the body discovers; write it down.
Example language (illustrative): "Let this pillow be the block. Where is it? What does your body want to do with it?"
Watch for: physical safety when pushing or falling; agree limits. Working: the movement shifts the person's relation to the block and gives a staging idea.

4.8 Finding movement from written phrases [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: turning text into action; Stage 4.
Steps: (1) Choose a phrase from the journal. (2) Speak it while trying gestures or walks. (3) The director suggests and mirrors; the performer keeps what feels true. (4) Fix the gesture in the script.
Example language (illustrative): "Say that line again and let your hands do what they want."
Watch for: self-consciousness; start with small gestures. Working: gesture and line reinforce each other.

4.9 Distancing devices: masks, symbols, metaphor, storytelling [source: Rubin; aesthetic distance concept from Emunah via Rubin]

Purpose / when: when material is too close (flooding) or too vague; to give the audience form, not raw disclosure.
Steps: (1) Identify where the performer floods or goes numb in rehearsal. (2) Offer a device: a mask (Rubin's example: a mask of her mother used to voice the challenge of finishing a master's degree), an object as symbol, a metaphor or myth frame, or the performer as storyteller narrating rather than reliving. (3) Rehearse the moment through the device. (4) Check the performer can feel it and still stay present.
Example language (illustrative): "What if you didn't have to be inside this moment, but could tell it to us, like a guide showing us around?"
Watch for: over-distancing (piece becomes intellectual). Working: feeling present but contained; audience can follow.

4.10 Somatic and movement grounding [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: to recover early bodily experience and build grounding for performance.
Steps (from Rubin's examples): a cat-like stretch on the floor to recall early movement; contact improvisation to work with weight shifts and grounding; an image of magnets on the feet for grounding.
Example language (illustrative): "Feel the floor take your weight. Imagine your soles drawn down to it."
Watch for: contact improvisation involves touch: explain it, get explicit consent, offer non-contact alternatives, allow opting out at any time, and never touch sensitive areas [synthesis]. Space and falls: clear floor, warm-up [synthesis]. Working: the performer can use the grounding cue on stage.

4.11 Embodying the inner judge [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: to externalise a self-critical voice into a role.
Steps: (1) Find a gesture of the judge (Rubin's example: a pointed finger revealed an outraged judge). (2) Exaggerate it and give it a voice. (3) Ask whose voice it echoes. (4) Step out and answer it as oneself [steps 3–4 synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "Let the finger lead. What is the judge saying? Now step out and look at it."
Watch for: fusion with the judge (self-attack continues after the exercise). Working: the performer can play the judge and speak back to it.

4.12 Shadow-role exercise [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: a structured group sequence that produces a short piece about a hidden or opposite part of the self; good as an early full cycle (Stage 1) or within a workshop.
Steps (Rubin's sequence, paraphrased): (1) Draw a diagram of all your life roles, then add hidden or opposite roles. (2) Explore one shadow role by walking it in an exaggerated way. (3) In pairs, witness each other for 1–2 minutes, then talk for about 5 minutes. (4) Two-minute monologues in role, then partners swap, with a check-in. (5) A group showing, then 10–15 minutes of solo creation. (6) Final performance of about 5 minutes (bell at 4 minutes), followed by witnessing and feedback. Rubin's improvisation prompts include asking what would happen if this character ruled the world, or how the character would explain a new dent in the car.
Example language (illustrative): "Walk as the part of you that never gets a turn. Make it bigger."
Watch for: the shadow role can carry shame; keep humour and play available; de-role after each round (4.19). Published examples include a part that wanted stillness and silence, and a part that wanted to abandon work for a tropical paradise. Working: the performer can enjoy the role and say something new about it out of role.

4.13 Staging structures [source: Rubin, list of structures; descriptions of use are synthesis]

Purpose / when: Stage 4, to give the piece a form that carries the issue and builds in distance.
Structures Rubin lists, with how to use each (illustrative use):
- Split stage: two areas for two states, times or selves; the performer crosses between them.
- Interviewing a shadow: the performer questions their shadow part, played by them (switching places) or by an auxiliary.
- Shadow speaking to the audience: the hidden part addresses witnesses directly.
- Storyline: a linear sequence of scenes.
- Storyteller: the performer narrates and guides (Rubin's example: guiding the audience through her childhood home).
- Auxiliary ego: another person plays a role in the piece; brief them, rehearse, and de-role them too.
- A body part telling its own story.
- A sequence of stories at different ages.
- Interviews with people who knew the person at different life stages (consent of those people required; see 4.21).
Example language (illustrative): "What if your twelve-year-old self had her own corner of the stage?"
Watch for: structures chosen to avoid the core issue. Working: the structure makes the change in the piece visible.

4.14 Through-line consultation with the "in-charge" part [source: Rubin]

Purpose / when: Stages 3–4, whenever the piece sprawls or the performer is lost inside material.
Steps: (1) Invite the performer to step back and speak from the part that oversees the process. (2) Ask what the through-line of the piece is. (3) Test each scene against it; cut or reshape scenes that do not serve it. (4) Offer consultation between rehearsals [source: Rubin].
Example language (illustrative): "Let me talk to the part of you that's been watching all of this. What is this piece really about?"
Watch for: the in-charge part being the inner critic in disguise. Working: the performer can name the arc in one sentence.

4.15 Rehearsal and revision as mirror [source: Rubin; collaboration emphasis from Emunah 2016]

Purpose / when: Stage 4; most of the therapeutic working-through happens here.
Steps: (1) Rehearse a scene. (2) Change staging, props or design. (3) Ask what the change reveals (Rubin calls staging and props mirrors). (4) Revise the script. (5) Repeat while keeping some room for live discovery [source for surprise: Johnson as summarised in ch. 1].
Example language (illustrative): "When you put the chair there, you turned your back to it. What did you notice?"
Watch for: rehearsal becoming repetition of distress without change; the piece freezing so that nothing alive is left. Working: insight shifts between rehearsals; the ending changes as the person changes.

4.16 Presence work and breaking the fourth wall [source: Rubin; Zehavi as summarised in ch. 1]

Purpose / when: late Stage 4 and pre-show; to speak authentically "from the heart and gut" and to meet the audience directly.
Steps: (1) Breathing and embodiment exercises. (2) Partner practice: say a key line to a partner's eyes. (3) Rehearse moments of direct address, questions to the audience, or inviting their response (Rubin: there is no fourth wall). Zehavi notes transformative moments often come when the actor briefly addresses the audience as themselves.
Example language (illustrative): "Breathe out, find one face, and say the line to them, not to the air."
Watch for: direct address that demands care from the audience; keep invitations light and optional for audience members [synthesis]. Working: the performer sounds like themselves, not like an actor.

4.17 Performance-night container [synthesis; sources require a strong container but give no protocol]

Purpose / when: every performance.
Steps: (1) Brief, defined audience: invited guests, a short note about themes (e.g. loss, family violence) so viewers can choose, and a named person they can go to [audience definition per Meiring 2017; content note synthesis]. (2) Pre-show check-in with the performer; reconfirm consent and any cuts. (3) Agreed stop protocol: the director or stage manager can pause; the performer has a signal; a prepared line for the audience if a pause is needed. (4) A support person and a quiet room backstage. (5) No recording unless consented.
Example language (illustrative): "If you need to stop tonight, you raise your hand; I'll come up and we'll decide together. That's part of the piece, not a failure."
Watch for: a family member or the person the piece is about arriving unannounced; agree in advance what happens then. Working: the performer reports feeling held rather than exposed.

4.18 Post-performance celebration, witnessing and closure [source: Emunah 1994 via De Beer 2016; Rubin]

Purpose / when: immediately after the piece.
Steps: (1) Choose the closing format for the setting. Emunah's version: a simple celebratory ritual that keeps the power of the piece in the room rather than putting it into words [source: Emunah 1994 p. 226, via De Beer 2016]; De Beer followed her own performance with an informal celebration with food and drink [source: De Beer 2016]. Rubin's workshop version: two or three witnesses say how the piece touched them, with no criticism [source: Rubin]. (2) Either way, closure before anyone leaves (e.g. the group returns to the room and present moment) [source: Rubin]. (3) If audience responses are wanted, gather them later in writing (e.g. a questionnaire) rather than on the night [source: Shapiro 2016 p. 43]. (4) Aesthetic or craft feedback, if wanted, at a later session [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative, to witnesses): "Tell us what moved in you, not what you'd change. Speak about your own experience."
Watch for: witnesses offering advice, interpretation or their own trauma stories at length; facilitator redirects. Working: the performer feels seen and the audience is contained before leaving.

4.19 De-roling and stepping out [synthesis; no Self-Rev-specific procedure is published in the sources used]

Purpose / when: after every rehearsal and performance, for the performer and any auxiliaries; Self-Rev roles are the performer's own self-states, so leaving them is easy to skip.
Steps: (1) Remove costume pieces, masks and props, naming them ("this is the mask, not my mother"). (2) Step to a different spot in the room. (3) Say name, date, where you are and one thing you'll do next. (4) Auxiliaries say who they are and how they differ from the role. (5) Return objects that stood for people to neutral use.
Example language (illustrative): "Take off the jacket. Tell us your name and one way you are not the girl in the scene."
Watch for: lingering in the scene's mood; repeat grounding (4.10). Working: tone of voice and posture change back.

4.20 Integration sessions after the show [synthesis]

Purpose / when: after the show. Emunah describes a post-performance letdown in which acceptance and success are hard to integrate [source: Emunah 1994 p. 294, via De Beer 2016]; Gold's reflection stage integrates discoveries into daily life and closes the performer–director relationship [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016]; De Beer's reflection continued for about three months, with journaling and supervision [source: De Beer 2016]. Timing (within a week, then a few weeks later) is [synthesis].
Steps: (1) Review what happened on the night and what the performer felt. (2) Compare the performed ending with life now (the piece may be a step ahead). (3) Note reactions from family or others, and plan how to handle them. (4) Decide on any future showings or recordings. (5) Celebrate discoveries and formally close the performer–director relationship [source: Gold via Shapiro 2016]. (6) Hand over to ongoing therapy. Steps 1–4 and 6 are [synthesis].
Example language (illustrative): "On stage you got to the place of letting go. Where are you with it this week?"
Watch for: crash, shame, intrusive replay, conflict with people depicted. Working: the performer can describe what changed and what still needs work.

4.21 Third-party and confidentiality review [synthesis; relational ethics per Sajnani as summarised in ch. 1]

Purpose / when: before scripting is finalised and before consent to perform.
Steps: (1) List every real person who appears or is recognisable. (2) Decide for each: composite, disguise, symbol, or consent from them. (3) Remove identifying detail not needed for the arc. (4) Check legal exposure (allegations, ongoing proceedings). (5) Plan for people depicted who may attend.
Example language (illustrative): "Your brother will recognise himself. Is that what you want, and what will it cost you if he's in the room?"
Watch for: the piece used as public accusation or revenge. Working: the story stays the performer's own and others are portrayed with care.

4.22 Emunah's ways of working through [source: Emunah 2015 pp. 74–78, via Shapiro 2016 pp. 36–40; steps synthesis]

Purpose / when: Stage 4, to give scenes therapeutic work to do rather than recount. Emunah's 2015 article names these approaches; the thesis that reports them lists them without her procedures, so how to use each is [synthesis] [uncertain].
The approaches (names as reported; use [synthesis]):
- Embodying parts of the self: give two or more inner parts a body, voice and place on stage and let them interact (Shapiro embodied an inner director and an inner critic [source: Shapiro 2016 pp. 36–37]).
- Taking on roles of others: the performer plays a parent, teacher, partner or friend to see the issue from their side; much of this may be cut from the final piece yet yield insight [source for outcome: Shapiro p. 37].
- Trying something new: stage a behaviour the person has not yet done in life (saying no, asking for help, resting).
- Closing and opening chapters: stage the ending of one life chapter and the start of the next.
- Preparing for imminent change: rehearse a coming transition (a move, a retirement, a diagnosis, a birth).
- Integrating dramatic healing ritual: build a ritual action into the piece (letting go of an object, a crossing, a blessing).
- Confronting a perpetrator: speak to the person who caused harm, symbolised by an empty chair, mask or object rather than played by a real person; check readiness criteria and 4.21 first.
- Integrating an internal nurturing figure: bring in a caring inner or imagined figure who speaks to and for the performer.
- Commenting on process in the here-and-now: the performer steps out of the scene to tell the audience what is happening for them now; Emunah also pauses action to check in with clients in culminating enactments [source: Emunah 2015 p. 78, via Shapiro pp. 39–40].
Example language (illustrative): "What would it look like if, on stage, you did the thing you haven't done yet?" / "Step out for a moment and tell them where you are right now."
Watch for: confrontation scenes that re-enact harm without change, or that target someone in the audience; a nurturing figure used to skip real grief. Working: each scene holds a recognisable shift, and the topic deepens over rehearsals [source for deepening: Emunah 2015 p. 78, via Shapiro p. 40].

4.23 Dreaming: open collection of material [source: Gold, via Shapiro 2016]

Purpose / when: Stage 2, before any topic is fixed; useful when a performer wants to decide "the issue" too early.
Steps: (1) Agree a period with no topic decision [synthesis]. (2) The performer goes on walks, daydreams, journals, looks at art, listens to music and reads poetry. (3) They collect images, songs, patterns and body positions that move them. (4) In sessions, director and performer look through the collection for specific personal stories (Gold's next stage, eliciting story).
Example language (illustrative): "For the next two weeks, don't decide what the piece is about. Just collect whatever catches you."
Watch for: collecting as a way of avoiding choice; set a date to move on [synthesis]. Working: recurring images and stories become visible.

4.24 Day-of-performance warm-up [source: Emunah 1994 p. 226, via De Beer 2016; content synthesis]

Purpose / when: before each performance; Emunah notes warm-up exercises on the day help, but the specific exercises are not described in the available sources [uncertain].
Steps [synthesis]: (1) Physical warm-up and breath. (2) The performer's grounding cue (4.10). (3) Run key moments lightly, not a full emotional run. (4) Brief check-in on consent and cuts (4.17).
Example language (illustrative): "We're not rehearsing the feeling tonight, just waking up the body and the lines."
Watch for: a full emotional run-through that drains the performer before the show; anticipatory panic. Working: the performer reaches the stage alert and grounded.

5. Handling problems

The sources name the main risks (self-indulgence, recounting victimisation, the process being traumatic, the need for a strong container, defining the audience) but give few concrete responses. Responses below are [synthesis] unless tagged.

Can't find material / stuck in Stage 2. Use the thirty-things list, freewriting from an underlined line, or a theme prompt [source: Rubin]. If still stuck after several sessions, ask whether the person really wants to perform now; it is acceptable to leave with exploration and no piece (Rubin's participants often spend most of the course exploring) [source: Rubin; rest synthesis].
Picks material that is too raw (recent trauma, active grief, an ongoing abusive situation). Name the readiness concern openly; offer a nearby but safer angle (the effect of the event on now, a symbol rather than the scene itself), or postpone. Do not stage a first trauma disclosure. Liaise with the person's therapist with consent.
Self-indulgence / piece speaks only to the performer. Emunah names this as the key pitfall [source: Emunah 2016 abstract] and already warned in 1994 that self-indulgence and self-pity are major dangers [source: Emunah 1994 pp. 289–290, via Shapiro 2016 p. 32]. Return to the through-line (4.14), cut repetition, ask what a stranger would take home, and look for the universal element [source for universal: Emunah 2016; Emunah 1994 via Shapiro].
Recounting misery without change. Pendzik describes dramaturgy as what moves a story beyond recounting victimisation [source: ch. 1 summary of Pendzik]. Add a scene of choice, confrontation or reframing; change point of view (storyteller, older self, shadow); ask what the piece wants to move toward.
Overwhelm in rehearsal (flooding, dissociation, panic). Stop the scene; ground (feet, breath, naming objects in the room); step out of the stage area; when settled, debrief; then increase distance with a mask, symbol, narration or third-person telling (4.9) [aesthetic distance source: Emunah via Rubin]. If overwhelm recurs at the same moment despite distance, cut or replace the moment and refer to individual trauma work.
Overwhelm during performance. Use the stop protocol (4.17): the director pauses, speaks to the audience briefly, supports the performer offstage or on stage; the performer chooses whether to continue, skip to the ending, or stop. Close with the audience either way; follow up the same night and next day.
Retraumatisation afterwards (intrusions, nightmares, self-harm urges, substance relapse). Do a standard risk assessment, increase contact, activate the outside therapist and support network, and pause further showings. Treat it as information about readiness, not as failure.
Post-show crash or exposure shame. Emunah describes a post-performance letdown in which acceptance and success are hard to integrate, a "death" before integration [source: Emunah 1994 p. 294, via De Beer 2016]. Normalise it in advance; schedule integration sessions (4.20); review what was witnessed rather than what was revealed [synthesis].
Audience member is distressed. Have a named support person available, a quiet space and a resource list in the programme; do not let the performer take care of audience members after the show.
Family members or people depicted react badly. Plan beforehand (4.21); afterwards, help the performer decide whether to engage, and use therapy, not the stage, for that conversation.
Non-adherence (misses rehearsals, does not journal). Explore ambivalence: a part that does not want to be seen is a common Self-Rev theme [source for theme: Rubin]; make it a theme or reduce scope; allow withdrawal without penalty.
Performer–director rupture (feeling directed into exposure, or the director's taste overriding the person). Repair openly: the performer owns the content; the director offers, not imposes. In training, power between performer, director, assessor and witness needs explicit attention [source: Seymour ch. 14 abstract]. Use an outside supervisor if the conflict persists.
Dual roles in training programmes. When the director is also a teacher or assessor, separate assessment of competence from the personal content, and keep an alternative capstone open (CIIS offers four options) [source for options: CIIS].
Over-rehearsed, nothing alive. Leave open moments for live discovery; Johnson discusses surprise even in rehearsed pieces [source: ch. 1 summary of Johnson].
Collective or cultural trauma themes. Meiring found the method needed adapting for collective trauma in South Africa and that the audience's role and the conditions of collective witnessing must be clearly defined for safety [source: Meiring 2017 abstract]. Consider audience make-up, community consultation and post-show space for shared reactions.
Physical safety. Breaking objects, fire, glass or alcohol props, belts and boots used in staging (a CIIS student broke a piñata filled with beer cans, boots and a belt [source: CIIS news, Medina]) need risk checks: soft or blunt substitutes, no real flames, cleared floor, lighting that lets the performer see edges, warm-up before physical work. Contact improvisation and auxiliaries' touch need explicit consent, an opt-out, attention to trauma and culture, and never sexual or genital touch.
Children and adolescents. No published Self-Rev protocol for minors was found [uncertain]. If adapted: parental consent plus the young person's assent, no identifiable disclosure of abuse on stage, safeguarding and mandatory-reporting duties apply to anything disclosed in the process, audiences limited to safe adults, and no recordings online.
Workshop participants who turn out to need therapy. Rubin tells participants the class is not therapy and refers deeper issues to a therapist [source: Rubin]; do the same, and do not keep someone in a performance track out of reluctance to refer.
Client has little theatrical skill or interest. Emunah advises limiting Self-Rev to clients with some degree of theatrical skill or inclination [source: Emunah 2015 p. 81, via Shapiro 2016]; offer other drama therapy work (scenework, role play, a short in-session enactment without public performance) instead [synthesis].
Audience pity, or applause only for courage. Applause that supports only the person and not the work can be countertherapeutic, and poorly balanced distance invites pity [source: Emunah 1994 and 2015, via Shapiro 2016 pp. 32–33, 50]; strengthen the aesthetic shaping and the moments of change rather than the depiction of suffering [synthesis].

Sources

Pages used:

Books and articles cited (through the secondary sources above unless stated):

Emunah, R. (1994). Acting for Real: Drama Therapy Process, Technique, and Performance. (pp. 224–226, 289–298 cited through quotations and page citations in Rubin, Shapiro 2016 and De Beer 2016.)
Emunah, R. (2020). Acting for Real: Drama Therapy Process, Technique, and Performance (2nd ed.). Routledge. (Chapter titles from the publisher's table of contents.)
Emunah, R. (2015). Self-revelatory performance: A form of drama therapy and theatre. Drama Therapy Review. (pp. 71–81 cited through quotations and page citations in Shapiro 2016, De Beer 2016 and Pendzik et al. 2016 ch. 1; volume and issue unconfirmed [uncertain].)
Emunah, R. (2016). From behind the scenes to facing an audience in self-revelatory performance. In S. Pendzik, R. Emunah & D. R. Johnson (Eds.), The Self in Performance (pp. 37–53). Palgrave Macmillan. (Publisher's abstract.)
Pendzik, S., Emunah, R., & Johnson, D. R. (Eds.) (2016). The Self in Performance: Autobiographical, Self-Revelatory, and Autoethnographic Forms of Therapeutic Theatre. Palgrave Macmillan. (Chapter 1 via the reading sample above; table of contents.)
Goldberg, N. (1986), as cited by Rubin for freewriting [uncertain: title not given in source].
Gold, L. (2015), personal communication, as reported in Shapiro 2016: seven-stage Self-Rev process.

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