Summary

“Finding Your Voice: Communal Rhythms and Theatre” begins with a quote suggesting that acting, and more specifically finding a character, is about an actor discovering the character within him/herself. Author van der Kolk then prologues this chapter with an anecdote about his troubled son who began to find a stronger, healthier connection to himself as a result of engaging in acting. “Acting,” the author says, “is an experience of using your body to take your place in life” (333).

In “The Theater of War,” the author describes another personal encounter with the therapeutic value of theater – seeing the way in which participating in a theatre project about war helped a trio of PTSD-afflicted veterans. He then discusses how humanity has always used community rituals to cope with powerful feelings; and how Ancient Greek theater, from which all western theater emerged...