Tatas Tales/Los Cuentos de las Tatas : An Arts-based Theatre Exploration with Breast Cancer Survivor Stories｜DaTEAsia Vol.14

APA Citation

Murray, B., Macias, I., Whitaker-Brown, C., Shue-McGuffin, K., & Sheeler, C. (2026). Tatas Tales/Los Cuentos de las Tatas: An arts-based theatre exploration with breast cancer survivor stories. The Journal of Drama and Theatre Education in Asia, 14(1), 9-34.

As an art-based research inquiry, Tatas Tales/Los Cuentos de las Tatas encompasses three interconnected facets: poetry therapy groups in English and in Spanish, a playscript in English and in Spanish based on the poetry group work, and emerging arts based curriculum modules for medical personnel emerging from the playscript. Theatrically-informed ways of working shape each phase. All three facets centre the voices and stories of breast cancer survivors, sometimes as creative content, sometimes as inspiration, sometimes as response, sometimes as dialogue, sometimes as inquiry, and sometimes as all of the above. The dynamic, generative nature of the growing arts-based inquiry builds on itself. Each phase offers some learnings or preliminary “findings” or grounded distillations for consideration: (1) Poetry therapy tables offer an iterative literacy counterspace with productive drama/theatre parallels to seed playscript and arts-based pedagogies. (2) Breast cancer connections cross borders, arts-based methods help articulate, frame and deepen those connections between people and forms. (3) Writing, scripting and staging with peoples’ real lives and stories requires time and negotiation to navigate “ethical stress” in representation. (4) “Whose story is missing?” is a necessary, continual inquiry which also welcomes arts-based approaches. (5) Nursing education, poetry and theatre work productively overlap with imagination, perspective taking and critical reflection processes as a bridge crossing all.