Reintegrate: Just the Beginning!

Reintegrate Team Update: Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The End of Reintegrate? No, it’s just the beginning!
Dexter J Singleton

We were able to present KHALAS over the course of two evenings, July 6-7, 2013 at Lyric Hall, a performance venue in New Haven, CT. We received full houses each night and had great conversations during our post show receptions. Some of these audience members expressed to us their own experiences as soldiers, loved one of military personnel, or advocates for mental health. The powerful discussions around war and PTSD we hoped for have begun, inspiring others to explore changes in the national mental health care system.

Reintegrate gave us a platform with funding, networking and marketing to create a project that can continue beyond its initial inception. One of our artistic goals in creating this new play was to explore long-range production and touring opportunities. We would like to turn KHALAS into a full production that we can produce in a longer performance schedule eventually gaining momentum for potential touring opportunities both statewide and nationally. We are currently revising the production, while seeking additional funding resources.

This experience has helped my growth in a number of ways as a person, artist and collaborator. This project marked my first collaboration with a scientist. In my work with my theatre company, Collective Consciousness Theatre, we often collaborate with schools and local social service agencies to create both workshops and new plays, so I was used to working with others to achieve a particular outcome artistically. Science was always my toughest subject in school, the area I struggled in the most. Reintegrate was an opportunity to tackle that fear, a chance to run toward it and succeed by using my established tools as an artist. I learned a tremendous amount about the brain, how it works, and the general biology of the body. I’d had some knowledge of PTSD and its effects, but not to the extent of what I learned worked with Dr. Eric Jackson. He made it easy to absorb and simplified it, allowing me for the first time in my life to think of science as fun. Dr. Jackson and I had been long time friends, but this project gave us the opportunity to learn more about each other’s careers and one another. We had to trust one another to make it work.

The turnaround time on this project from idea to performance was incredibly short. In the professional theatre new plays are usually developed for years before finding their way to the stage. We spent a mere two months completing the script, casting, rehearsing and performing the final product, a theatrical workshop of our new play titled KHALAS. We knew to be successful we needed to simplify everything production-wise by having minimal production values, creating high quality artistic work with a simple set, costumes, lighting, and sound. We focused our rehearsal time on exploration of the text and building strong, three dimensional characters that exemplified the conditions of the human spirit. We brought on additional artists who served in onstage roles as well as those on film, voice over, and backstage. This funding allowed us to hire artists, giving them stipends for their time and labor on the project. It ensured that we had the opportunity to work with talented local artists whose expertise allowed us to be successful in a condensed time frame.

Every project I work on is an opportunity to improve at my craft. I am an artist that is dedicated to social change through theatre. I use my art to explore subjects of socially relevance both locally and globally, hopefully inspiring others. The PTSD subject matter is one that was close to my heart and having the chance to work on it, examining my own beliefs and others around the stigma of mental health in our country was great. This project offered its challenges; exploring science, artist collaborating with a research doctor, having conversations in the field and presenting this work to my community, one that faces the enormity of life’s challenges each day. I know I am a better artist and collaborator because of Reintegrate. This is a project that takes much longer than eight months to complete, but through the funding and general support of The Arts Council of Greater New Haven it has given us a head start on the road to success.

We look forward to our next production of KHALAS!

Our Special Thanks to The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, CT Office of the Arts, Wesleyan University, Amanda May, Cindy Clair, Lyric Hall, Bregamos Community Theatre and our wonderful production team; Jon Goode, AJ Lovelace, Vanessa Butler, Jeremy Funke, Alex Burke, Laki Valakas, Akintunde Sogunro, and Cindy Davis.

Reintegrate: “Khalas” workshops/performances July 6&7!

Reintegrate Team Update: Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Saturday, July 6 & Sunday July 7, 2013
“Khalas”
8pm

“Khalas” is a theatrical workshop of a new play based on PTSD research and conversations. Written by Jon Goode, directed by Dexter J. Singleton. It is the outcome of the collaborative “Living with PTSD” Reintegrate team.

Lyric Hall
827 Whalley Avenue, New Haven
FREE

Reintegrate Video: Living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Reintegrate: Finding The Right Tone

Reintegrate Team Update: Living with PTSD

Dexter J. Singleton

Recently I learned that one of the active duty soldiers we interviewed several months ago has lost four military friends in the last few months. Each of them had committed suicide since returning from active duty in either Iraq or Afghanistan. Each of them could no longer make sense of the world around them or their place in it and ended their life. It shook me for many reasons, mainly knowing that so many thousands of young men and women will be returning soon, some possibly facing the same fate. Many will experience symptoms and seek help through family, religion or professional counseling. Many will not. The percentage of soldiers suffering from PTSD will continue to rise as our nation’s pride steps back onto our shores. We hope our production will bring greater awareness to this issue and the stigma of mental health services in our country. These recent events and our initial research helped us create a script that sheds light, asks questions and sparks conversation. Usually it takes more than a year to research, conceive, create and produce a full play. We are doing it in just six months. We plan to use a mix of traditional dialogue, music and film to tell our story. The end result will be a workshop production playing several performances this summer. We will announce dates soon and hope that many of you will join us.

In the meantime, please check out a short presentation of our research and work process on Wednesday June 19th at 5:30pm at the Reintegrate Ideas Talk at the Yale Center for British Art, 1080 Chapel Street, New Haven.

Reintegrate: Conducting Interviews

Reintegrate Team Update: Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

We have conducted many interviews, watched lots of videos and read a bunch of articles on the subject of PTSD. All of our interviews were confidential and strictly for our research. We have spoken to officers, active duty soldiers, and military administrators over the course of the last four months. Here’s a little bit of what we found.

• Every soldier is exposed to trauma while in war.
• The mental health of soldiers is evaluated upon entering and exiting the service, but it’s done in the form of a single questionnaire in which soldiers are asked to self-diagnose themselves.
• Most soldiers are embarrassed to admit they have mental health needs while in battle and at home.
• When an active duty soldier returns from war and is on leave at home, the service checks up on them every three months. If a soldier has been discharged from the service, they are on their own and asked to visit their local VA if they feel they have a problem.
• There is no limit on the number of tours a soldier can serve in Iraq or Afghanistan, regardless of how much trauma they experienced while in battle.
• Most soldiers don’t show symptoms of PTSD up to one year after returning home.
• The rate of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan soldiers are triple those who served in the Vietnam War.
• Soldiers with PTSD have higher numbers of homelessness, domestic violence, suicide, separation from spouse and deaths.
• Many soldiers return home with no income, job prospects or even a place to stay.
• Loved ones have a difficult time reconnecting with soldiers once they return. Some say their relationships are never the same again.

Reintegrate: The Work Begins…

Reintegrate Team Update: Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Dexter J. Singleton

Our project began a few months ago with meetings and discussions of where we wanted to go with the project and what we wanted to achieve. In recent years, I have become fascinated with a style of theatre called “documentary theatre,” made famous by one of its innovators, MacArthur “Genius” Fellow Anna Devere Smith. She and her team go into communities and interview people of all walks of life around themes of a particular subject. They transcribe and edit all of their interviews into a single play form that Anna, in all her genius, performs as a brilliant solo production.

We felt it was important to seek answers to our questions from those directly affected by our country’s ongoing ten-year war in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the process we’ve been having conversations with active soldiers, officers, veterans and retired military. We’ve spoken about their service duty, health care, reintegrating back into civilian life, military policy and the troubles of war. We are listening to their stories and deciding what we want to say with our project and the level of awareness we seek for PTSD.

We know that there is a huge social stigma with mental health issues in this country. Many people don’t want to seem weak or like they’re “crazy,” so instead of speaking to someone they may keep it inside or self medicate, hoping that they will magically be okay. Some may speak to a friend or spiritual leader, but very few seek professional counseling or help for their problems, often resulting in more severe, long term issues. For soldiers who have been engaged in battles in Iraq or Afghanistan, PTSD is more common because of the elements of war, witnessing death or severe injury, being shot at or ambushed. On average, 94% of soldiers have experienced trauma in war. These factors can cause a great deal of long term issues at home, combine this with our country’s stigma around mental health and that puts our soldiers in a great dilemma with the highest rates of PTSD in U.S. history. For the thousands of soldiers who have sought help, there are still thousands more undiagnosed.

As an artist, I feel a great responsibility to turn a mirror on the world itself. We take pride in the fact that this project will shed light on an ever-growing issue nationally. As we continue to welcome our loved ones home from war, we also must make sure that they have the proper services available to be productive once they return.

We have a HUGE challenge and are excited to continue the journey.

Reintegrate: Living with PTSD

Reintegrate Team Update: Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Dexter J. Singleton

Hello. I’m Dexter J. Singleton, the other half of the Living with PTSD team. Last month, my partner Eric Jackson took the time to say a little about himself, now it’s my turn. Here’s my background and what led me to this project.

I am a New Haven based theatre maker who has been doing theatre since my teenage years. I am an actor, director, playwright, producer and teacher with more than 20 years experience in the field. I run a small professional theatre company in New Haven called Collective Consciousness Theatre. We are a company that tours original plays and workshops to schools and communities in CT and beyond. Our theatre has created more than a dozen original plays since our inception in 2007. We are dedicated to changing the world through the art of theatre by focusing on projects that address current social issues within our community.

Dexter Singleton (left) and Eric Jackson of the “Living with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” team.

I have a lifelong dedication to examining social complexities and societal issues through theatre, with the larger goal of promoting social change through my work. Growing up as an African American male in a single parent home in inner city Detroit, Michigan I was exposed to disparity all around me. In my community, residents struggled to have basic needs met and had very limited access to the arts. I was fortunate enough to have a mother who believed in my potential and sought educational opportunities which put me on a path of success.

As a professional artist, I seek to create spaces that allow for self expression, awareness, and empowerment in communities similar to the one in which I was raised. Most of my professional work is infused with my dedication to social awareness and engagement.

The result is more than 10 years of original theatre pieces engaging audiences on issues of racism, social justice, history, gender and related social issues. My work is infused with the belief that community engagement is vital to creating successful and dynamic theatre that is accessible to diverse populations.

When I was in high school, there were Army recruiters standing outside of my school every single morning, rain or shine. They worked hard trying to get young men and women to sign up for a career in the service, an accomplishment they could take pride in. They’d have a job, 90% college paid and a little money in their pockets. It guaranteed them a future, and if you saw where we were from that was a pretty big deal. Many of those young men and women went in full of dreams and off to the first Iraq War of the 90’s, Desert Storm, many returning with more issues than before, both physically and mentally. Veterans return from war having to press the reset button, starting over to reconnect to the civilian world around them. The transition is tough for most, and many suffer from issues in which they can’t just “get over.”

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is widely common amongst veterans, and many who return from the battles in Iraq and Afghanistan find themselves fighting a much larger battle in their own bodies.

We are hoping this project brings greater awareness to the everyday struggles for our nation’s soldiers and encourages those who are in need to seek help. Along with our work on PTSD, we will also be exploring how the brain functions and adapts. The results of our brain exploration will be on display in several public performances of our theatrical work in progress this summer.

Stay tuned!

Reintegrate: Living with PTSD

Reintegrate Team Update: Singleton + Jackson

I’m Eric Jackson, half of the PTSD team. I’d like to introduce myself and describe how my background has led me to this project.

Growing up near Charlotte North Carloina, I read the science books my parents planted in my room and dreamt of becoming a scientist. I was accepted into the North Carolina School of Science and Math in Durham, where I was introduced to psychology. My advisor dismissed my interest in such a “soft science”, however, I felt confident that scientific thinking could be useful in understanding the mind. As an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, I followed my interests in both the arts and sciences by completing a double major in Psychology and English (Creative Writing). My clinical interests grew partly out of an appreciation for the stories that define our lives. To better understand the characters in the stories I was writing, I practiced taking their perspective and feeling the world through their skin. This practice helped me realize that our selves and our worlds are constructed by the stories we tell ourselves. Furthermore, I developed an existential appreciation for the individuals who are pivotal in changing our plotlines and, ultimately, changing the outcome of our life stories. This fascination led me to seek out the teachers, helpers, and healers of various traditions, including shaman, Zen priests, body workers, art therapists, hypnotherapists, and traditional psychotherapists. Through these encounters I learned that the reduction of stress and anxiety was integral to a variety of therapeutic traditions. These experiences and insights spawned my interest in clinical psychology and anxiety management.

During my doctoral training at the University of Arizona in Tucson, I became interested in how stress and emotions can impact our memories and our understanding of our past. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an extreme example of how a horribly stressful experience can alter a person’s life story and can even cause biological changes in the body and brain. As a research faculty member at Yale University School of Medicine working within the National Center for PTSD, I have been able to begin a research program that will hopefully elucidate how stressful experiences affect our bodies and minds. It is fascinating to me how a single moment in time can alter a life’s path and physically change us. I encounter such stories daily as I listen to the Veterans at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System in West Haven, where I conduct my research and provide group and individual psychotherapy. Many who have had severe combat experiences feel that their lives have been drastically altered and they yearn to get back to how they were before. Since forgetting these important experiences is likely impossible, the challenge is to integrate and grow from them. Sadly, local and national disasters, as well as international conflicts, are constantly reminding us of how difficult this task is. This is one of themes we are exploring in our Reintegrate project.

My partner on this project is Dexter Singleton, a New Haven writer, director, actor, and teacher. He is the head of the Drama department at the Regional Center for the Arts high school, where my spouse is a drama teacher. She introduced me to him in 2010 and we began a friendship. Dexter has helped re-invigorate my creative side and is giving artistic expression to the science of PTSD. We are excited about this project and hope you will be too.
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Eric D. Jackson, PhD
Associate Research Scientist / Psychologist
Yale University School of Medicine
National Center for PTSD
VA Connecticut Healthcare System