Cardboard Citizens presents: Meta. (360G-Wellcome-108968_Z_15_Z)

Theatre company Cardboard Citizens and a team of cognitive neuroscientists will collaborate to educate and excite 2,000 young people about the development of their brains, and the potential impact this has on their thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Following a period of R&D with young people (aged 13-16) and teachers in East London secondary schools, we will work with a professional creative team, including playwright Sarah Woods and 5 young actors, to create an original piece of Forum Theatre entitled Meta. Meta will combine original, contemporary sound design and digital artistry, lecture-style neuroscience insights and live, interactive theatre to present the story of a teenager facing difficult life circumstances. Post-show forums will support audience members, in light of their new knowledge, to think differently about the situations presented in the play, and try alternative strategies out onstage. Metas project team proposes that, in this way, Forum Theatre could facilitate the development of metacognition (the ability to think about ones own thoughts) and emotional regulation strategies in our audiences adolescents. Meta will tour to up to 20 East London education providers and reach a further 500 members of public through theatre showcases, increasing audience understanding of, and capacity to think differently about, adolescent experience. A thorough evaluation, led by the Neuroscience team, will test Forum Theatre as an artistic tool to support the develop ment of metacognition and emotional regulation in adolescents aged 13-16. An original educational toolkit will support the continued creative education of neuroscience within participating schools.