Past events
'Speaking Up, Speaking Out, Speaking Back: Dementia Voices from the Margins’
was a therapeutic storytelling and theatre project where people living with a recent diagnosis of dementia, who also identified as LGBTQIA+, migrant, or living with a disability, gathered to share their experiences of the disruptions and the unexpected joys encountered living with the condition. Once the stories were shared in a safe group, the group facilitator helped the participants create a script, which was then performed by the group members to an audience of friends, peers, family members, care partners, and medical/allied health professionals. The stories were powerful emotional renderings of anxiety and indignation, along with hope and resilience, told with humour and love.
The project was sponsored by Randwick City Council as part of their Community Creative funding. It commenced on Saturday, 22 February 2025, finishing with a performance on Saturday, 31 May 2025.
The event venue on Saturday, 31 May 2025 was held at Maroubra Senior Citizens Centre, 6 Alma Road Maroubra.
Doing TimeSlips
The event was held on Friday, 25 October 2024 at KXT Theatre Broadway. The Care Lab members demonstrated some of the key elements of utilising the performed storytelling modality TimeSlips for people living with dementia. TimeSlips was developed in the 1990s by Anne Basting in the USA and is now used across the world. It focuses on imagination rather than memory, on who the person is in the present rather than traditional reminiscence activities that focus on supporting people living with dementia to talk about their past lives