Co-developed theatre: an illustrated how-to guide

I recently wrote about working on  Patient & public involvement (PPI) projects as an illustrator and the ability of illustrations to participate in the dissemination of research. A new how-to guide launched just last week, led by researcher Cat Papastavrou Brooks, is a great example of this kind of collaboration, as it shows how research can go beyond the actual research/public partnership and what hides behind the often too-loaded academic jargon - think “lived experience”, “co-design”, “inclusion” - that tends to feed the power imbalance between academics and public contributors to the profit of the former. 

Click on the image to download the guide

I was invited to live illustrate a workshop to co-develop the how-to guide based on the findings from the evaluation. I then was commissioned to illustrate the guide that was launched on the 15th May.

Read about this beautiful project here and download the guide here.

In her article Cat beautifully talks about this new production as a result of a collaborative group of researchers, theatre makers and public contributors. It aims to explore theatre as a format for disseminating research on sensitive subjects and was developed as part of the Hard Evidence play evaluation. This play was developed with survivors and the acta Community theatre to raise awareness of domestic abuse and highlight the importance of PPI in research on sensitive subjects.

Extract from the live illustrated workshop