Theatre for Development, or TfD, means live performance, or theater used as a development tool -- as in international development. TfD encompasses the following in-person activities, with people or "puppets", before an audience:

• a spoken-word drama or comedy
• a music, singing and/or dance production
• a production with movement but no sound (mime)
• participatory or improvisational techniques using any or all of these

Theatre for Development can be a kind of participatory theatre, that encourages improvisation and audience members to take roles in the performance, or can be fully scripted and staged, with the audience observing. Many TfD productions are a mix of the two. "Theatre of the Oppressed," a technique created by Augusto Boal is a form of participatory theatre for development.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of organizations and initiatives have used theatre as a development tool: for education or propaganda, as therapy, as a participatory tool, or as an exploratory tool in development. An account of an early use of TfD is the thesis Theater as a Means of Moral Education and Socialization in the Development of Nauvoo, Illinois, 1839-1845, which recounts how theater was used to promote ideological and civil development in a religious community in the US (Hurd 2004).

Lift (London International Festival of Theatre)http://www.liftfest.org.uk are now taking TfD into new area with the creation of the Lift New Parliament, a transportable space that will travel the world, acting as a vessl through which conversations can take place and resolutions rehearsed and found.

References

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• "Theatre & Development", a list of various TfD initiatives, compiled by KIT (Royal Tropical Institute), Amsterdam

• Enacting Participatory Development: Theatre-based Techniques, by McCarthy, J., Cambridge University Press. 2004. The bibliography cites 22 books devoted specifically to art and theater as tools for development, and an additional 16 books on specific techniques.

• Theatre and Empowerment: Community Drama on the World Stage, by Boon, R. and Plastow, J. University of Leeds. 2004. Case studies from around the world of TfD.

• Theater as a Means of Moral Education and Socialization in the Development of Nauvoo, Illinois, 1839-1845, thesis by Hurd, L., California State University, Dominguez Hills. 2004

• Online Discussion Group - Art4Development

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