Community Theater

Many communities host small, local theater troupes, but community theater projects take the concept one step further by producing shows that are based upon or document the character of the community itself  or explore issues the community is dealing with.

Community theater projects are often developed using other community discovery tools, including oral histories or digital storytelling, community video, essay contests. Many successful community theater projects also use structured public dialogues or facilitated sessions to increase public engagement and help people discuss and process what they see.

Theater projects are difficult to use in early stages of a process, since they are typically scripted and don’t allow for feedback and brainstorming (and take significant time to develop), but they can be very useful in celebrating and refining a sense of character after a community has already worked on discovering it. They can also be very helpful in the middle part of a process to present controversial issues or difficult decisions and help a community work through them.

Community theater projects are often produced and cast by community members themselves, and can be an excellent opportunity to involve youth. When they involve particularly contentious issues, it can be helpful to have an outside theater program work with the community to develop a show and even to do the acting and directing, which can help ensure that the issues are presented neutrally and objectively.