{"id":250872,"date":"2026-06-01T14:41:52","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:41:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/250872\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T14:41:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T14:41:52","slug":"healing-through-theatre-groundbreaking-pilot-program-spotlights-healthcare-workers-stories-brooklyn-paper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/250872\/","title":{"rendered":"Healing through theatre: Groundbreaking pilot program spotlights healthcare workers\u2019 stories \u2022 Brooklyn Paper"},"content":{"rendered":"

After years of caring for others through a global pandemic, healthcare workers at Maimonides Medical Center are stepping into a different role: storytellers. Through a new theater initiative, nurses, administrators and support staff transformed their experiences into a one-act play, offering a rare glimpse into the emotional realities of life behind hospital doors.<\/p>\n

The project, \u201cActs of Care: Caregiver Stories on Stage,\u201d was created through a partnership between Maimonides\u2019 Healing Arts Program and Elevate Theatre Company. Designed to address the ongoing emotional and psychological challenges facing hospital staff in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the initiative promotes workplace engagement and support for healthcare workers while celebrating the contributions of caregivers.<\/p>\n

Deborah Douek, manager of the Healing Arts Program, said she was inspired to launch the collaboration after recognizing that the trauma and experiences of healthcare workers did not simply disappear when the pandemic subsided. She sought to create a space where staff could process and share their experiences through theater and storytelling.<\/p>\n

\u201cI really wanted to both elevate our staff\u2019s voices and also to celebrate our resilience. We go through so many tough times, but we also laugh together,\u201d Douek told Brooklyn Paper. \u201cWe also celebrate each other, and I wanted to be able to try to capture all of those.\u201d<\/p>\n

A friend connected her with Christine Eskridge, director of Elevate Theatre Company<\/a>. Together, they created a series of five theater-based workshops that gave clinical and nonclinical staff the opportunity to share their lived experiences. The workshops culminated in a one-act play written by Brooklyn-born playwright Kareem M. Lucas, titled \u201cActivities in Daily Living.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a snapshot of our life here in the hospital, and I think for staff to be able to see that play back on the stage was, I think, eye-opening,\u201d Douek said. \u201cI think it was validating, and it gave a form of support we haven\u2019t seen before. So, this was actually really groundbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Actors perform a scene from \u201cActivities in Daily Living,\u201d a play based on the lived experiences of Maimonides Medical Center employees.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"\u201cActivities in Daily Living\u201d explores the challenges, sacrifices and resilience of healthcare workers through stories inspired by Maimonides Medical Center staff.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Eskridge founded Elevate Theatre Company during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, producing live virtual theater centered on topics such as Black maternal health, Black fatigue during the Black Lives Matter protests following the killing of George Floyd, and environmental justice for audiences nationwide. In 2022, the theater company collaborated with the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing to conduct storytelling workshops that culminated in plays reflecting the evolving roles of healthcare workers during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

Eskridge, who holds a Master of Public Health degree from UC Berkeley, told Brooklyn Paper that \u201cActs of Care: Caregiver Stories on Stage\u201d was an exciting opportunity to use art as a tool to promote healthcare workers\u2019 well-being.<\/p>\n

\u201cElevate [Theatre Company] is here to help people explore health and wellness through storytelling,\u201d Eskridge explained. \u201c[The project] really is a testament of the work that we want to be doing all the time, working with frontline health workers, giving them a sense of joy, relief, using the art as a method to give them a break, but then also reflecting back their stories to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Left to right: Christine Eskridge, Deborah Douek, Victoria Reesman and Rachel Jones described the theater workshop as groundbreaking.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

The play, featuring actors Linda Kuriloff, Gabriel Brooks, Onyx \u00c9spri and Katie Kane, is set in a Brooklyn hospital break room and explores the relationship between healthcare workers and their own health. The story centers on head nurse Lois, played by Kuriloff, and Moses, played by \u00c9spri, a beloved member of the cleaning staff who is secretly battling serious health issues. Moses\u2019 illness forces the team to confront the limits of their own health and recognize that they often neglect their well-being while caring for patients.<\/p>\n

Lucas told Brooklyn Paper that he approached the script with \u201cgreat reverence.\u201d The workshops allowed healthcare workers to openly share their personal stories, daily routines and emotional journeys, giving Lucas insight into challenges such as skipping meals or neglecting their own healthcare needs because of work demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very interesting, like just little tidbits that get thrown out there, like how so few people eat and they just keep going,\u201d Lucas explained. \u201cIt makes so much sense when I reflect upon it, like yeah, because there\u2019s always a fire to put out, or somebody to deal with, or a phone call, or a patient, or something\u2019s always happening in this high-pressure environment, that something as small as just making sure you eat during your shift is something you can gloss over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"The one-act play Activities in Daily Living explores the relationship between healthcare workers and their own health.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Lucas emphasized that the play was not a documentary but a work of fiction. He said he approached the writing process with great reverence because he wanted to respect and examine the participants\u2019 experiences and bring them to the page and stage as authentically as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really inspired by what\u2019s happening here at Maimonides, and I wanted to bring that to what we were investigating. Before we even began, I was really curious about what a healthcare giver\u2019s relationship is to their own personal health, and it was so insightful getting a chance to hear them reflect upon that through written prompts, and then verbally,\u201d Lucas explained.<\/p>\n

He added that he made a conscious effort to reflect Brooklyn\u2019s diversity, paying homage to the community where he grew up and to family members who work in healthcare. \u201cSo it\u2019s a composite of a lot of different things and references.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oncology nurse specialist Victoria Reesman and Rachel Jones, director of nursing at Maimonides, were among the workshop participants and described the experience as validating and groundbreaking.\n<\/p>\n

Reesman said the workshops provided an opportunity to share experiences in a safe space.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw [the play] on opening night, and it resonated so many good thoughts about how we need to care for each other in the community as well as care for our patients in that community,\u201d Reesman said. \u201cJust the support it provided for everybody and the ability for us to have an open forum and safe space to just be able to express ourselves was just lovely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Onyx \u00c9spri portrays Moses, a beloved member of the hospital\u2019s cleaning staff who secretly struggles with serious health issues, in the one-act play \u201cActivities in Daily Living.\u201dPhoto by Gabriele Holtermann \"\"The one-act play \u201cActivities in Daily Living\u201d explores the relationship between healthcare workers and their own health.Photo by Gabriele Holtermann<\/p>\n

Jones said she was \u201cshocked\u201d by how much the play resonated with her.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEven some of the things that [the actors] were saying to each other, or that kind of thought process, I\u2019ll take care of myself later, or I\u2019ll just keep going; that\u2019s something I think that we all say or do in one way or the other. To see it on stage, you\u2019re like, \u2018okay, it\u2019s not just me,\u2019 and it builds community amongst us. That way, we see that our experiences aren\u2019t just our own,\u201d Jones said, noting that through the workshops she learned many of her colleagues were struggling with the same challenges, including self-care.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes you don\u2019t want to speak up because you\u2019re like, well, maybe I\u2019m just struggling with this, and everyone else has got it figured out. But to see that it was such a pervasive and repetitive theme amongst everyone, from EVs to nursing to administration, everyone has the same struggles we are dealing with while we\u2019re providing care for others. So, I think it absolutely encourages us to speak up more,\u201d Jones said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After years of caring for others through a global pandemic, healthcare workers at Maimonides Medical Center are stepping…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[97799,97800,4982,98,100,99,97801,97802,97803,97804,2953,5567,42338,97805,9,24,12,370,63,905,97806,8177],"class_list":["post-250872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-activities-in-daily-living","tag-acts-of-care-caregiver-stories-on-stage","tag-arts","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-christine-eskridge","tag-deborah-douek","tag-elevate-theatre-company","tag-healing-arts-program","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare-workers","tag-kareem-m-lucas","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-news","tag-newsletter","tag-nyc","tag-theater","tag-theater-workshop","tag-theatre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}