Pediatrics

testimonial 
"When the performers came to the hospital, those were the best days, I was suddenly in a world of laughter. I learned quickly that laughter was the BEST medicine. The performers helped to distract me. They helped me keep my childhood alive while I was fighting brain cancer. They were the best part of treatment! I will never forget them or how they helped me to face my fears and put me at ease when I was scared." - Rosie Colucci (now age 18)
A Health Care Theater Company
Primarily, GMP is a health care theater company as their year-round signature program brings comedic performers bedside to nursing homes and pediatric patients. The comedic performers use physical comedy, improvisation, music, the circus arts and more to help relieve anxiety, isolation and sadness often found in the medical environment.  GMP's tagline is "Find Your Joy." But it's not so much that the performers bring the joy, but act as a catalyst for the residents and kiddos to find their joy that lives inside all of us.
 
GMP currently serves several nursing homes in central Ohio and has partnered with several non-profits like the Ronald McDonald House and the Friends of Faith Pruden Foundation to reach families of hospitalized kids who need us most.
 
 
Good Medicine Specialist Goals and Values
Goals:
  • Empowering hospitalized children.
  • Bringing hospitalized children joy and laughter.
  • Unburdening parents and caregivers.
  • Relieving the stress that facility staff endure each day.
  • “Changing the energy” in the facility environment so that even after the performers leave the atmosphere is charged with playful interaction and laughter.
  Values:
  • We bring the highest standard of performance quality to our work every day.
  • Our performers represent the rich tradition of classical theater training, improvisation, comedic performance and the circus arts.
  • We approach our work with openness, sensitivity, and vulnerability.
  • We seek to partner with facility staff in the care of children.
Picture
Performers:
  • Our performers are specifically trained for work in the sensitive facility environment, including infection control, HIPAA and working with various developmental stages of hospitalized children.  We provide ongoing training and professional development for our performers. 
  • Performers improvise skillfully, spontaneously adapting their performance to the needs of that patient and his/her family in that moment.
  • Performers always work in teams of two.
  • Performers are not volunteers, but are paid professionals.  
  • Good Medicine specialists are experts at reading a room and bringing their whimsical nuanced characters into situations in organic ways. Good Medicine Specialists always ask permission to interact with the patient. Regardless of a yes or no answer, the question is the first gift of empowerment.

Rosie's Story

Partners

testimonial 
"The ability for the Good Medicine Specialists to make each and every child seem important is inspiring. They bring smiles to so many faces!" - Coordinator for Creative Engagement, Nationwide Children's Hospital

Artistry

The Good Medicine Specialists use physical comedy, music, circus arts, magic, improvisation and more to bring joy to young patients and to help relieve stress, anxiety and isolation often felt in the medical environment.

Our Look

All of the Good Medicine Specialists are designed to be very approachable in appearance and action. Our performers all wear "medical" costumes that are uniquely tailored to fit their character with minimal make up. Our movements and gestures are always appropriate to the environment and are fun, playful, and gentle.

Visits

Good Medicine Specialists engage by following the patient’s lead, evoking humor through authentic connection and trust. We use the traditional role of the clown – powerless, confused, naïve and prone to mistakes yet persistent and hopeful – to empower patients in a setting that for them is often scary and out of control. All specialists are continuously trained in infection control and HIPPA regulations.

Research
**The Art of Comedic Theater In care for Hospitalized Children