Re-Live Book Launch: Creating Life Story Theatre

Join us on May 14th at 11.00 AM (BST) for the launch of Creating Life Story Theatre: A Guide for Applied Theatre Practitioners, a new book exploring the process of Life Story Theatre and how practitioners can ethically and creatively collaborate with people and their stories.

Check the book launch time in your local time zone here.

This one-hour event is for arts practitioners, academics, researchers, health and social care professionals, and anyone interested in exploring lived experience through the arts.

Karin Diamond and Alison O’Connor, co-authors and Re-Live co-founders, will join Re-Live participants to share insights from the book, including the process of co-creation, the ethics of working with personal stories, and how storytelling can help shape relationship-centred services and communities.

The event will also introduce The Drama Spiral, a decision-making model designed by co-author Clark Baim to help theatre practitioners work ethically and safely with personal stories, offering a structured approach to balancing creativity, consent, and care.

Join us for an engaging hour of conversation, creativity, and reflection, with a live Q&A. Together, we’ll explore the impact of sharing and valuing lived experience through the arts – how they influence the present and allow us to imagine new possibilities for our future.

We hope you can join us.

Speakers

Karin Diamond is Co-Founder and Artistic Director of Re-Live. A Churchill Fellow in Dementia and the Arts (2010) and an Atlantic Fellow in Equity and Brain Health (2019), she continues to co-create Life Story arts projects and shares her learning with health and social care professionals and arts practitioners in the UK and internationally.

Alison O’Connor is Co-Founder and Company Supervisor of Re-Live. She is a Churchill Fellow in Trauma and Moral Injury (2016) and Co-Director of Moral Injury Partnership. She is a therapist, trainer and clinical supervisor and works with arts practitioners to sustain their wellbeing.

Clark Baim is the Director of the Birmingham Institute for Psychodrama, UK. He is an author, trainer, psychodrama psychotherapist and applied theatre practitioner. Early in his career, he was the founding director of Geese Theatre UK, focusing on applied theatre in criminal justice contexts. He published ‘Staging the Personal’ with Palgrave Macmillan in 2020.

Introduction Series – Free Online Sessions

To celebrate the launch of our new book, we are delighted to offer a series of free online sessions this summer (June & July), alongside in-depth training opportunities this autumn (October & November).

Click on the session title to book your place via Eventbrite:

Introduction to Creative Life Story Work
A two-hour session introducing the key principles and practice of creative life story work.

Introduction to the Ethics and Challenges of Creative Life Story Work
A two-hour introduction to key ethical considerations when working alongside people and their stories, including choice, consent, power dynamics, and challenges.

Introduction to Life Story Facilitation
A two-hour session introducing practical insights into facilitating Life Story work, with a focus on co-creation, deep listening, and adaptation across different art forms.

The Drama Spiral Model: Safe and ethical practice when working with personal and collective stories

A two-hour session, facilitated by Clark Baim, PhD, introducing the key principles and practice of working safely and ethically with people and their personal and collective stories in applied theatre contexts.

Further Learning – In-Depth Training

Click on the session title for more information:

Creative Life Story Practice for Arts Practitioners and Creative Facilitators (5-day, in-person)
For arts practitioners and creative facilitators looking to integrate Life Story approaches into their creative work. Paid training.

Life Story Approaches in Practice: Working Alongside People and Their Stories (4 half-day sessions, online)
For health, social care and community support workers, volunteers, befrienders, researchers, and artists, this programme explores how life story work can build relationships, deepen understanding, and be applied across various settings, including care, research and service design. Paid training.