An original story theater piece by East Tennessee State University’s storytelling program, “Dispatches from the Other Kingdom: The Cancer Journey,” will explore the dramatic and healing potential of storytelling in medicine during four performances being held April 22 and 27-29.Dr. Joseph Sobol, director of the ETSU storytelling program, worked with students in the storytelling program to conceive “Dispatches from the Other Kingdom,” which is based on interviews with cancer patients that were collected during a collaborative, groundbreaking research study at ETSU. Sobol said the performance, which he directs, will show the power of “illness narratives” in speaking to our common humanity.

Performances are free and will be held at three venues in Johnson City and Jonesborough. The April 22 show will be at Cranberry Thistle, 107 E. Main St., Jonesborough, and the April 27 show will be at the James H. Quillen Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the hospital recreation room. Both shows are at 7 p.m.

On April 28-29, the auditorium at the James H. Quillen College of Medicine’s Stanton-Gerber Hall will host two performances. The April 28 show is at 4 p.m. and the April 29 performance is at 7 p.m.

The theater piece springs from a study that brought together researchers from the ETSU Master of Arts in Storytelling program in the Claudius G. Clemmer College of Education and, from the Quillen College of Medicine, the Department of Family Medicine and the Division of Hematology/Oncology in the Department of Internal Medicine. The National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute awarded ETSU a $1.5 million grant to fund the study.

Researchers used stories collected from cancer patients to develop interactive training modules for medical students and residents.

The modules are designed to increase sensitivity to patients’ communication and listening needs in relation to the breaking of bad news, treatment options and outcomes.

Sobol, one of the co-investigators for the NIH study, cited a passage from writer Susan Sontag that illustrates the dual “kingdoms” inhabited by the well and the ill. Sontag wrote: “Illness is the night side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Every person who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and the kingdom of the sick.”

“The stories of illness have compelling dramatic qualities that can bring any audience member into closer touch with our common humanity,” Sobol said.

For more information or to request special accommodations, call Sobol at 423- 439-7863 or e-mail him at sobol@etsu.edu.

Author