Many veterans face difficulties with reintegration on their return from combat. They believe their experiences alienate them from friends and family. They may also have gone through a traumatic event that has caused them to withdraw socially. One of the most helpful treatments for former servicemembers experiencing any of these difficulties in life after service is using art as an emotional outlet.
That is the idea on which the Feast of Crispin, a nonprofit acting troupe in Wisconsin, based its organization. According to the nonprofit's website, the founders saw successful results from a theater program for incarcerated teenagers in Massachusetts and decided to apply the idea to veterans. The group works to pair professionals actors with interested veterans to perform Shakespeare plays on a local stage. Why Shakespeare, you ask?
"One of the reasons that the Shakespeare works so well is it's this language that just holds big emotion," Nancy Smith- Watson, an actress and project director with Feast of Crispin, told ABC News. "It elicits it but it also holds it, the metaphor just enables a lot of emotion to be put on them."
Many of the Bard's plays have intense scenes that allow veterans to express their rage, sadness, joy or pain in an artistic way that is free of judgment. The troupe's most recent production is "Julius Caesar" and features 13 veterans from various branches of service. Several of the former servicemembers that participated told the news source that the experience was a great form of therapy and allowed them to work through their emotions in a safe and creative way.
Since its beginnings in 2013, Feast of Crispin has given over 200 veterans the chance to express themselves through theater, according to ABC News. It is free for former servicemembers to participate in Feast of Crispin, and interested parties are encouraged to contact the group for more information.