Reading Plays to Enhance Professional Development

Writing in a narrative style, the authors describe the continuing education model of the Red Well Theater Group. The model combines a study group format with a play reading performance module to enhance the professional development of the Group's members and their audiences of colleagues. The educational goals are to: 1) didactically study the principles and practice of group therapy; 2) theatrically illuminate concepts, relational themes, and small group dynamics relevant to group therapy; 3) experientially deepen therapist empathy for the challenge of being in a group; and 4) provide a vitalizing experience in support of therapist well-being. As an example of this model in action, the authors elaborate their experience preparing The Great God Pan, by Amy Herzog, for presentation at the 2014 American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) Annual Meeting.