Narradrama, Agency, and the Refusal to Normalize

Course Description

Narradrama brings narrative practice into embodied, dramatic, and relational action. This experiential session expands externalization beyond problem stories to address oppression, alienation, and social conditions accepted as normal. Drawing on work with incarcerated communities, people living in war zones, and international communities affected by authoritarian violence, participants will explore stories that may carry a cost when spoken but whose silencing may cost even more—and practice creating preferred roles and possibilities for action.

Instructor Information

Educational Goals

1. Participants will develop an understanding of Narradrama as an embodied, trauma-informed approach that integrates narrative practice and drama therapy to strengthen agency, creativity, and preferred ways of being.
2. Participants will expand their use of externalization beyond individual problem stories to include political oppression, social conditions, and experiences of alienation.
3. Participants will develop an anti-authoritarian and culturally responsive framework for helping clients resist the normalization of harmful conditions while identifying preferred values, roles, relationships, and possibilities for action.
4. Participants will increase their capacity to incorporate experiential and arts-based practices into clinical, educational, carceral, and community settings.

Measurable Learning Objectives

1. Participants will be able to identify three principles of Narradrama that support embodied expression, personal agency, and the development of preferred stories and roles.
2. Participants will be able to name two factors that help us to distinguish between externalizing an individual problem story and externalizing a form of social or political oppression.
3. Participants will be able to identify two steps of a Narradrama externalization exercise to a clinical, educational, or community-based situation.
4. Participants will be able to name three ways an anti-authoritarian Narradrama practice can support people in resisting alienation, imposed identities, and the normalization of harmful conditions.

Outline with Main Points for Each Topic (including times)

1. 9:45–10:00 AM · Introduction to Narradrama — Pam Dunne and Kamran Afary — 15 minutes

   • Narradrama as a bridge between narrative practice and drama therapy
   • The need for embodied, somatic, and imaginative approaches to therapeutic work
   • Preferred roles, personal agency, choice, and living in accordance with one’s values
   • Introduction to “dangerous stories”: stories that carry a cost when spoken but whose suppression can endanger personal authenticity and collective futures

2. 10:00–10:10 AM · From Externalizing Problems to Externalizing Oppression — Pam Dunne — 10 minutes

   • The narrative practice of separating people from problems
   • Extending externalization to political oppression, institutional power, and dominant cultural narratives
   • Avoiding the individualization of suffering produced or intensified by social conditions
   • Brief audience externalization exercise

3. 10:10–10:20 AM · Alienation, the Myth of Normal, and the Refusal to Normalize — Kamran Afary — 10 minutes

   • What can be lost when postmodern approaches are separated from dialectical concepts such as alienation and Marxist humanism
   • Gabor and Daniel Maté’s critique of the social conditions that normalize disconnection and suffering
   • Erich Fromm’s account of authoritarianism and the “escape from freedom”
   • Refusing to normalize harmful conditions while helping people reclaim agency, connection, and preferred values
   • Application to trauma-informed and anti-authoritarian practice

4. 10:20–10:35 AM · Narradrama, Incarceration, and Abolitionist Ethics — Kamran Afary — 15 minutes

   • Narradrama with incarcerated students and communities
   • Re-authoring identities imposed by punitive institutions
   • Abolitionist ethics, human dignity, and the creation of preferred roles
   • Examples of artwork and devised therapeutic theatre created by incarcerated participants

5. 10:35–10:55 AM · International and Cross-Cultural Narradrama — Pam Dunne and Kamran Afary — 20 minutes

   • Narradrama work in Moscow, Beijing, and other international settings
   • The cultural adaptation of masks, embodiment, externalization, and preferred-story practices
   • Collaboration across differences in language, culture, institutional power, and political context
   • Brief multimedia excerpts, if time permits (Moscow & Beijing)

6. 10:55–11:15 AM · Experiential Application/Integration & Q&A — Pam Dunne and Kamran Afary — 20 minutes

   • Paired or small-group exercise using Narradrama
   • Group reflection Q&A and implications for clinical and community practice

Total instructional time: 15 + 10 + 10 + 15 + 20 + 20 = 90 minutes / 60 = 1.5 CE hours

Signing in and out

• Sign in at the door between 9:30 AM and 9:45 AM.
• Sign out and complete this session’s evaluation at the door when it ends at 11:15 AM.
• Sign-in, sign-out and the evaluation are not part of the 1.5 CE hours.

References

• Afary, K. (2020). A Narradrama approach to teaching communication. In K. Afary & A. M. Fritz (Eds.), Communication research on expressive arts and narrative as forms of healing: More than words (pp. 3–32). Lexington Books. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781666987317.ch-001
• Afary, K., & Alteet, E. M. (2022). Narradrama, intersectionality and devised therapeutic theatre in the prison communication studies classroom. Drama Therapy Review, 8(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1386/dtr_00091_1
• Dunne, P., Afary, K., & Ilinskaya, K. (2024). Working with masks in Narradrama. In S. Ridley (Ed.), The expressive use of masks across cultures and healing arts (pp. 113–123). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003365648-17
• Dunne, P., Afary, K., & Paulson, P. (2020). Narradrama: A narrative approach to drama therapy. In D. R. Johnson & R. Emunah (Eds.), Current approaches in drama therapy (3rd ed., pp. 206–249). Charles C Thomas.
• Ilinskaya, K., Afary, K., & Dunne, P. (2024). Working with masks in Moscow: A trauma-informed group Narradrama practice. In S. Ridley (Ed.), The expressive use of masks across cultures and healing arts (pp. 174–184). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003365648-24
• Maté, G. (with Maté, D.). (2022). The myth of normal: Trauma, illness, and healing in a toxic culture. Avery.