{"id":600187164,"date":"2026-03-25T02:01:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:01:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/east\/2026\/03\/25\/yes-and-for-caregivers"},"modified":"2026-03-25T02:01:44","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T07:01:44","slug":"yes-and-for-caregivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winnipegfreepress.com\/our-communities\/east\/2026\/03\/25\/yes-and-for-caregivers","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Yes, and\u2026\u2019 for caregivers"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Rachel E. Smith, all the world’s a stage.<\/p>\n

“My passion is theatre,” said Smith, who started taking acting classes at Prairie Theatre Exchange when she was an eight year old, living in Fort Garry. She followed her passion to the University of Winnipeg, earning a bachelor of arts with honours in theatre and film before pursuing a master’s in theatre and performance from the University of Manchester, in England.<\/p>\n

“Now, I work professionally in theatre, I act and direct and write.”<\/p>\n\n

While she has worked with PTE, Manitoba Theatre for Young People, and other arts organizations in the city, Smith mostly works independently these days, providing theatre-based education for all ages.<\/p>\n

Registration is currently open for spring acting classes for youth led by Smith at Lord Roberts Community Centre (725 Kylemore Ave.) and through RETLife, the River East Transcona School Division’s continuing education department, at Chief Peguis Middle School (1400 Rothesay St.). Smith also offers performance coaching to newcomers and others looking to improve their public speaking or performance skills.<\/p>\n

Improv for Caregivers: Building Meaningful Moments in Dementia Care <\/em>is a new workshop she has developed in conjunction with RETLife and inspired by similar programs in the United States and Canada. Smith was inspired to offer the program by her personal journey.<\/p>\n

“I have a very personal connection with dementia; my dad had it,” Smith said. “My mom and I were caregivers for him as long as we could be. After that, we still visited him every day.”<\/p>\n

Over two hours, Smith will run participants through a number of improvisational and theatre-based exercises that can be used to provide caregivers with skills to help cope with and mitigate difficult situations, including the “Yes, and…” method — a bedrock of improv.<\/p>\n

“One reason it’s great with someone experiencing dementia, is sometimes they start talking about something completely out of the ordinary,” Smith said. “If you’re the caregiver, you could… shut it down, but in doing so you risk your loved one getting upset. Another (option) is to add onto the story they’re telling, but gear it to a safe place. It’s about accepting where they are, while trying to maintain a flow of conversation without potentially upsetting them.”<\/p>\n

Another technique, taken from applied theatre, involves working through likely scenarios and rehearsing responses ahead of time to be more prepared when they come up in real life.<\/p>\n

“It’s about accepting where they are while trying to maintain a flow of conversation without potentially upsetting them,” Smith said. “In the moment, it can be so hard. Sometimes you just react to things without thinking. This is one way to practice different responses that might be more gentle.”<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Supplied\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Supplied photo by Keeley Image Photography<\/p>\n

Rachel E. Smith, a theatre professional, will be facilitating Improv for Caregivers: Building Meaningful Moments in Dementia Care, a new workshop she has developed with RETLife, wherein she will run participants through a number of improvisational and theatre-based exercises that can be used to provide caregivers with skills to help cope with and mitigate difficult situations.<\/p><\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n

The techniques she will teach are tools, Smith said, which can be used in conjunction with existing care plans.<\/p>\n

“There’s no perfect solution, ever,” she said. “But these are some tools that could help people. Doing exercises like this gives them some practice and hopefully they can make some use of it.”<\/p>\n

Improv for Caregivers: Building Meaningful Moments in Dementia Care<\/em> will be offered three times this spring: on April 11, May 2 and May 23 from 10 a.m. to noon. Cost of the session is $69.<\/p>\n

“It’s designed so you can take one workshop and hopefully get some benefit from it. If you want to take all three, you can,” Smith said. “One thing I want to do is talk to the people who take the workshops to see if we could develop it into a course, or is it better as a workshop? It’s all about community and the people who want to learn from this.”<\/p>\n

To register, or for more information, visit retlife.ca<\/p>

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