| New
Perspectives
- Oct, 1992 Issue |
Dinner Theater Therapy
At DeSisto
A. Michael DeSisto, Executive Director
413-298-3776
Stockbridge, Massachusetts
(Taken from the Berkshire Eagle, 8-16-1992)
Treatment for troubled youths
comes in many forms. At the DeSisto School in Stockbridge, a private
school specializing in the needs of students with emotional problems,
one form of help offered is deep immersion in the performing arts.
Organized six years ago by
the school’s Executive Director and founder, A. Michael DeSisto, the
dinner theater program provides 10 students and one former student with
a unique opportunity to learn about the theater and themselves. That
is at least what DeSisto, also Executive Producer of the productions,
and other school faculty, hope will take place.
“The theater gives kids the
opportunity to feel things in a safe way”. DeSisto explained. “Many
of the students are not able to show or experience their feelings because
they are afraid or embarrassed. The theater allows them to get used
to feeling. And that’s healthy.
The feedback they get from it is also very powerful”, he continued.
“They get an immediate good response that can sustain them. It’s like
feeding Shamu (a performing whale at Sea World). He knows there will
be more if he continues. The kids know it, too.”
Believing that if given the
chance, all kids really want to be good, DeSisto said Dinner Theater
gives his kids that chance. “Theater is very disciplined”, he said.
“The pressure of a performance makes them control themselves in a good
way. They have to be ready to go and do their performance each night.
They have a responsibility to focus on that evening’s production. (Dinner
Theater) lets them see that they are not as out-of-control as they think
they are.”
Because they have experienced
problems such as drug or alcohol abuse, family difficulties, depression
or criminal behavior, the student performers involved with the program
say they do seem to discover, often for the first time, meaningful friendships,
a sense of accomplishment and renewed self-respect. “I love performing”,
said 16-year-old Cristina Campanella, who came to the school because
“it was either here or jail. I feel very safe here and I’m helping myself.
It’s a better alternative to drugs and alcohol. Plus, I get to sing
this Southern song, and I’m from Louisiana, so it’s really neat to do
the part. It fits me really well”, she added, visibly delighted at the
realization that she is enjoying herself and her new role.
Copyright
© 1992, Woodbury Reports, Inc. (This article may be reproduced without
prior approval if the copyright notice and proper publication and author
attribution accompanies the copy.) |
