{"id":123417,"date":"2026-04-16T14:33:56","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:33:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=123417"},"modified":"2026-04-17T08:00:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:00:02","slug":"interview-alexis-milligan-talks-theatre-medicine-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2026\/04\/16\/interview-alexis-milligan-talks-theatre-medicine-program\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Alexis Milligan Talks About The Theatre Of Medicine Program"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alexis
Alexis Milligan leads a Theatre of Medicine workshop in November 2025 (Photo courtesy of Alexis Milligan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At medical school, doctors learn the skills they need to keep people healthy and treat illness. But, as science increasingly confirms, there\u2019s more to it than the nuts and bolts, so to speak.<\/p>\n

Interpersonal skills \u2014 soft skills, as they\u2019re often called \u2014 also play a crucial role in what doctors do, and how effective they are at it.<\/p>\n

When it comes to teaching those skills, more and more, medical organizations are turning to the arts. The Shaw Theatre Festival and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons have teamed up to offer doctors a program of learning called the Theatre of Medicine.<\/p>\n

The program was launched as a pilot in 2024, and has been developed into a three-day Theatre of Medicine workshop. While there are many program across the country that combine theatre and medical skills in various ways, it is unique in Canada in being certified for Continuing Professional Development credits through the University of Toronto\u2019s Temerty School of Medicine and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons.<\/p>\n

LV caught up with program creator Alexis Milligan<\/strong>, who is both an M.IDST (Master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies), and actor, and the Shaw Festival’s movement director.<\/p>\n

Alexis Milligan: The Interview<\/h2>\n

Milligan spent years creating the curriculum for the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was actually closer to about 15 [years],\u201d she explains. Using theatre to train physicians was the research topic for her Master\u2019s thesis. \u201cThis has been an ongoing curiosity of mine as an artist,\u201d Milligan adds.<\/p>\n

Over the years, she\u2019s been called in multiple times to consult with various groups and organizations about the ways that theatre can enhance medical skills. One of those organizations was the Dalhousie School of Nursing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually started the ideas for this while I was working there.\u201d It resulted in a class she conducted with nursing students.<\/p>\n

From the outset, she could see the value of arts training for medical professionals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was struck by how difficult it was,\u201d she recalls. A beginning exercise for theatre students and actors in general is to simply see each other across the room in a group setting. The beginning acting exercise involves establishing a connection with someone else without using words.<\/p>\n

With a room full of doctors, it initially results in awkwardness. The challenges became clear.<\/p>\n

Dr. Glen Bandiera is an emergency physician at St. Michael\u2019s Hospital in Toronto, and serves as co-ordinator of the Theatre of Medicine program with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. Bandiera was introduced to Milligan when he served on the Shaw board of directors. Their connection was the beginning of the program as it exists today.<\/p>\n

As Milligan points out, there is a lot of research that backs up the value of using theatre and other arts in physician training.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to emphasize, in a program like this, artists in medicine is not a new concept,\u201d she says. \u201c
\nThere’s been quite a few of us who have been screaming into the wind for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

With Bandiera\u2019s connection, they could add the step of official accreditation as a continuing professional development program. It\u2019s a significant step, as she explains, which allows doctors to claim participation in the program towards their annual requirements for professional development. It\u2019s part of a new way of looking at training in the medical field pushed by government bodies.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s been huge shift in some of the governance and policy development in health care,\u201d Alexis says. It includes a framework of language used by the Royal College. \u201cSome of the identifiers were communicator and leader.\u201d As she details, the framework consists of seven points. \u201cWe realized our program actually aligns with quite a few of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ontario government created a series of quality improvement guidelines and initiatives, many of them based on those concepts of \u201csoft skills\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re really aligning with a lot of emergent ideas,\u201d Milligan says. \u201cWe happened to have this program which really focuses on those skills to support those new frameworks and guidelines.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she points out, it\u2019s part of an increasingly global conversation about health maintenance and disease treatment that takes the whole person into account. Social prescribing, where doctors prescribe visits to museums or artistic performances, are on the rise internationally as the medical field recognizes the real value of arts participation to patients as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoctors are prescribing arts and culture events for their health and well being. The science backs it up,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were able to leverage that a little bit more.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Alexis
Alexis Milligan leads a Theatre of Medicine workshop in November 2025 (Photo courtesy of Alexis Milligan)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Program<\/h3>\n

\u201cWe’re unique in our accreditation,\u201d Milligan says. \u201cBut that being said, there are lots of programs across the country. The challenge with a lot of those is that they tend to be grant dependant.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she notes, relying on funding from grants means such programs have a limited time span and scope, and allow for few follow up opportunities. In contrast, the accredited program is now in its third year, and able to build on the experience gained.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re now in our third year, and we’re making improvements based on our feedback from our participants over those three years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The doctor participants go through a series of common acting exercises and games.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would do things on just your body standing in space. What’s it like to look across the circle and make a connection with someone?\u201d It sounds deceptively easily. \u201cIt gets very vulnerable. There’s a lot that’s already at stake.\u201d<\/p>\n

Putting the experience under a microscope reveals a lot. \u201cIt’s very telling. There’s a lot that we can learn from something simple like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Active listening is another common theatre game that is used in the workshops. Making it fun as well as educational is the goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to have that sense of play,\u201d Alexis says. \u201cWe’ll play a listening game, which is again very basic in the theatre world. If you put that under a microscope, when we play this game, it never works the first time. It’s a disaster,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

Before beginning the game, she asks the group of participants if they consider themselves to already be \u201cactive\u201d listeners. Routinely, everyone in the group will say yes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt might not actually be what you think it is,\u201d she warns. As she points out, doctors do receive training in concepts like body language and communication, but it\u2019s most often delivered in a Power Point presentation and a theoretical environment. \u201cAre you ever given a chance to try them?\u201d<\/p>\n

True active listening requires carefully studying the speaker to reach a deeper understanding and interpretation of their message, and to respond thoughtfully and without making judgments. All the senses are used, and non-verbal cues are taken into account. It\u2019s an exercise that develops a sense of trust between the speaker and listener, along with empathy, and improved relationships.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s much more, in other words, than simply hearing the words and immediately responding.<\/p>\n

Improvisation is another acting skill that proves useful to medical professionals, who, in real world conditions, are required to think up responses on the spot. It\u2019s also important to be able to meaningfully respond to something that has been repeated over and over again. If a doctor, at the end of a long week, has heard the same complaints over and over, are they still able to adequately respond? Does the last patient of the week get the same kind of attention as the first?<\/p>\n

Those are the kinds of real world situations where acting skills can help.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre they able to walk in without a sense that, you are my ninth patient today, and I still have four more after you?\u201d she asks. \u201cIt\u2019s important for the physician to be able to have that check in \u2014 is their voice tired? What do they need in those moments?\u201d<\/p>\n

Doctors, as she notes, often have to diagnose and propose solutions and next steps within minutes of meeting a patient. \u201cYou don’t get a lot of time,\u201d she says, \u201cbut you can still maximize the effect that you have within that limited amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Acting exercises and skills help train doctors in how to look after themselves too, which in turn results in better patient care.<\/p>\n

\u201cWarming up, cooling down \u2014 how do you refresh? How do you keep your curiosity and alertness up
\n? There are many factors that put a physician in a place of being impatient and perhaps not as attentive as they should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Feedback<\/h3>\n

Over its three years, the program has used participant feedback to develop the curriculum.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, they just want more,\u201d she says. \u201cWe’ve had to add more workshops.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first program saw participants attending three theatre productions over the course of the workshop in addition to their daily exercises. Feedback acknowledged the value of seeing the plays, but asked for more skills training.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re going to focus more on one production,\u201d she says. The participants will offer their observations, and then there are more opportunities for their own reflections and discussions.<\/p>\n

Fine tuning the details is important. \u201cWe find that it leads to a stronger commitment to action,\u201d Milligan says. The participants go back to their practices with a new set of tools, and\/or reinforce existing skills.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s based on an understanding and empathy with both sides. Medical professionals deal with people in distress, and communication can be difficult.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re meeting them in a really distressed place in our lives,\u201d she points out. Patients can experience heightened emotions and physical distress. From the doctor\u2019s perspective, just asking the right questions and getting basic information can become a challenge.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is this real sense of doctors knowing what they need to provide, but feeling really limited in that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Offering doctors an opportunity to help their patients feel seen and heard offers real results. \u201cThe science shows that improvement in quality of care has a direct link to improvement in patient outcomes,\u201d Milligan says. She notes that some studies suggest a profound effect on elements like perception of pain and even survival rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we have […] are definitive numbers. We\u2019re actually looking at tracking these numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

She notes that one body of research indicates that a simple phone call from a nurse practitioner to even later stage cancer patients has shown improvements in patient outcomes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen someone looks after us, we feel better,\u201d she says. \u201cThere are a lot of doctors out there who believe and work like this.\u201d The program helps to improve the systems for them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our program helps to support those ideas. That already is a huge leap for a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Milligan points out that theatre and other arts professionals already know a great deal about learning through interactivity, and have long understood its profoundly beneficial effects.<\/p>\n

And, theatre isn\u2019t the only art form that can offer those benefits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s so many opportunities in the music world.\u201d Milligan also teaches at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a series on social prescribing,\u201d she says. She also notes that the Orchestre symphonique de Montr\u00e9al (OSM) has partnered with M\u00e9decins francophones du Canada for \u201cLa musique sur ordonnance\u201d or Music on Prescription, which offers free performance tickets on a doctor\u2019s prescription.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of healthcare is actually coming through the arts,\u201d she says. \u201cNow, can we bring this into skills development and training. I think there’s tremendous opportunity for more programs to come into being,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you bring these non-technical skills into a very technical enviroment?\u201d she poses. \u201cThose skills go beyond language, and they go beyond culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next Theatre of Medicine Congress takes place September 25 \u2013 27, 2026<\/strong> at the Shaw Artists’ Village Hall.<\/p>\n