There’s a fantastic opportunity for forces families interested in getting involved in the arts and theatre.

The Soldiers’ Arts Academy CIC, a not for profit organisation, has created arts hubs around the UK for the armed forces community. It runs multiple workshops to encourage recovery, retraining and opportunities within the wider arts community.

Damian Cruden, who was the former artistic director of the Theatre Royal York and director of the acclaimed Railway Children, is developing a new theatre production in York and they looking for serving and veteran members of the military community and families to take part.

Army spouse, Chloe Haines, who is the Soldiers’ Arts Academy’s York hub wellbeing officer, explains: “The arts hub and workshops offer the opportunity to explore themes, challenges and thoughts that someone may have about military life – past or present – and experiences, in a controlled and safe way. The aim of the sessions is to use creativity and exploration to offer alternative perspectives to challenges and experiences. We also hope they will help those involved to develop skills, which may help them in the future – whether this is as part of the military, or not.

“As a drama therapist, I am biased in my belief that creativity, in every sense of the word, can be an integral tool to support mental health. Allowing ourselves to branch away from the purely logical reality that we live in, can give us the space to explore and manage psychological challenges, whilst offering the distance to keep us safe.”

Get involved

Online theatre sessions are currently running on Friday evenings from 7-9 pm. If you’re interested in taking part or would like to find out more, visit soldiersartsacademy.org and hit the workshop button.

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