Three key considerations
The three most important things to keep in mind as you undertake your project are your collaborators, your “audience” or participants, and your project goals.
If you are just coming together as a team, take time to get to know and trust each other through the usual ways theatre people do, via whatever means are available to you, whether in person or via virtual means. Do not skip this step!
As with any theatre performance, the more you “know your audience,” or in this case, your participants, the better the experience will be. What are their ages and abilities? Will they be interacting directly, or require the assistance of a parent, caretaker, or guardian?
Knowing your audience will help you to design for multiple capacities and help ensure buy-in and project engagement; for example knowing any limitations they have (including sense-based limitations) will help you design ability-appropriate activities. If time and funding permit, a focus group with a small group of target project participants as well as their advocates is an ideal way to get a feel for project parameters.
What are your, and their, goals for the project? It may be ameliorating stress for the caregiver, building in more family time, or providing more opportunities for long-distance parenting in situations where children and parents are separated because of military or refugee status.
Being clear about the goals will help you understand better what kinds of prompts to choose and what activities to base upon them.
The opinions expressed in materials on this website are those of the author(s) and do not represent the views of the National Endowment for the Arts Office of Research & Analysis or the National Endowment for the Arts. The Arts Endowment does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information included in these materials and is not responsible for any consequences of its use. This NEA Research Lab is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts (Award #: 1862894-38-C-20).