One a Penny, Two a Penny (2025:10)
Notes, Thoughts, and Notions
Dear Everyone (paying, free, followers and friends):
Hello and Welcome!
Who are YOU?
My piece about Hunter Gatherers and ADHD has garnered lots of discussion! One person even joked, ‘Is it possible to be a ‘settled hunter’?!
It’s whoever you think you are! However, it is interesting to reflect whether we feel we grow our experience and knowledge – or do we gather it? Is our adult identity a reaction against our childhood, or is it an extension of it? I know that much of my adulthood is a means of coping with an adverse childhood, but can that also block out some experience from flourishing? The encouragement of dance, and the discouragement of academic studies certainly affected me, and maybe I should have done both!
Well, the outdoor concert by Andre Rieu certainly lived up to all expectations. The rain started earlier in the day and poured down constantly until half an hour before it began. All we had to do was dry our seats and remove the plastics! The concert aroused pathos, playfulness, and encouraged us all to sing and dance. How Rieu’s skill manages an audience of 12,000 people and still enables them to feel individuals is a mystery. There will be more detail in the Newsletter and more photos, but the icing on the cake for me was being asked to dance by one of the professional dancers (there were about 200 of them!). And I realised just how much I enjoy moving to music. Not just exercises but waltzing, coordinating, and moving through space!
And, in answer to your questions about The Handbook of Neuro-Dramatic-Play, it will be published in September, the first of a series of NDP books; the next one will be ‘Neuro-Dramatic-Play and Infant Mental Health’. There are discussions currently about a parenting handbook of NDP, and ‘NDP and Dementia’. Please write in if you have ideas yourself, it would be very useful to know if you feel a particular application of NDP would be useful.
I am currently in Brasov, Romania in a delightful room overlooking the central square. It has rained solidly since I arrived, so I am enjoying people watching; the poor waiters have wiped down the chairs and dried the tables five times today! The few tourists venturing out look very bedraggled. Nevertheless, the birds seem to be enjoying themselves, diving into the scraps from a wet meal!
As well as a little Romanian holiday, I am here for the Play and Dramatherapy Summer School which takes place in Brasov each year. It is a time for the Diploma students to work intensively for six days in workshops, culminating in a performance. This year, their set text is Shakespeare’s King Lear.
There will be some of you who remember our Summer School in Zarnesti, when there was a hurricane, and our two large gazebos took off, despite six rolls of gaffa tape and the holding on by staff and students! Last seen disappearing over the horizon. Good luck to anyone who was able to rescue them! The gazebos!
Whilst here, I will also have the opportunity to meet the Romanian NDP students who are studying online. This will be a bonus, as usually with online teaching one never actually meets anyone. There are 17 of them, coming to the end of the three Module Certificate course which provides skills but not a qualification. I wonder whether other countries might be interested in this two-step approach to training?
And as always, I finish with a story, which I send you with love; it is a story about attachment, loss and revenge.
My thanks as always to the many cultures that allow us to share their stories.
Iain – story of Hephaestus in here please
Be kind to yourselves and keep playing!
Dr Sue
Hephaestus
In the mythology of ancient Greece there is one god who had a disability, Hephaestus, who was born to Zeus and Hera. He walked with a severe limp, and whether he was born with it or whether it was caused by Zeus swinging him round by his ankle before throwing him into the sea, there is much debate.
However, he did not drown as expected but he was rescued by some sea nymphs. They cared for Hephaestus in an underwater cave, and as he grew up, he developed the most amazing skills: he began to create beautiful jewellery and metal work at his forge, under the sea. People came from far and wide to obtain one of his exquisite crafts. He also became the god of metal work.
He felt very resentful towards his mother and was determined to punish her. Slowly he created a wonderful chair, all encrusted with precious stones and gold filigree. When it was finished, he organised a party and included his parents as guests. He presented the chair to his mother, and as soon as she sat in it, metal clasps locked round her wrists and ankles. Hephaestus roared with laughter, and he refused to release his mother, despite the persuasions of various guests, including Zeus.
Eventually it was Dionysus (god of wine and theatre) who took him off for a walk and a few glasses of wine. Eventually he was persuaded by Dionysus to set his mother free, on the condition that she arranged his marriage to Aphrodite. Hera fulfilled her part of the agreement… but that is another story!
Suggested Activities:
1. Warm up the body by swimming using different swimming strokes.
2. Draw and colour some precious jewellery.
3. Discuss Hephaestus wanting to punish Hera.
4. Enact the story of the party, and the gift of the chair.
5. Explore more stories of ancient Greece.
Remember, to enable us to celebrate this year’s International Day of Play, there is a 20% reduction on the NDP Diploma courses for applications made in June and July. So, we are looking forward to seeing you, wherever you reside!
Please too remember to check the website www.ndpltd.org for the most recent film about the Temiars; it is very informative, especially if you are thinking of attending the Jungle NDP course in April 2026 (where you can do the Basic Diploma, the Advanced Diploma, or the Trainers Certificate).