Participatory theatre: ‘Creating a source for staging an example’ in the USA

For both of us (Robbie, an African-American theatre artist and academic, and Marie, a white American arts producer turned geographer and academic), the creation and presentation of theatre is a site of Participatory Action Research (PAR). Artists and researchers in collaboration with diverse individuals and groups can produce Participatory Theatre (PT) to explore questions of importance to their communities and to initiate a process of dialogue and interaction that can effect change at a broader scale. In our experience, the means and aesthetic of PT can play a vital role in changing how people think about, and act upon, social and political relationships within their communities.