Theatre in Education (TIE) was born at The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry and by the end of the 1960s was a flourishing movement across the UK. It involved small companies of professional actors in creating age-specific performances that tackled historical or social topics relevant to children’s learning. Often the performances were interactive, engaging the children directly in the action and/or in workshops surrounding the piece. The movement was originally led by regional reps and later by small TIE companies like M6, who are one of the few still continuing today.  TIE was an important building block for participatory theatre in that it used drama to explore issues of importance to its audiences, saw theatre as a tool for development and directly involved audience members as active participants in the drama.

Community Arts began in the late 1960s and became a vibrant movement throughout the following decade. Based on principles of community empowerment and cultural democracy it connected art directly with community activism and social action.  For some it was about making professional art more accessible, but for many it was about enabling those who had not previously had access to the arts to make their own art. As such it was the main forerunner of participatory theatre today.  The Blackie in Liverpool was the UKs first Community Arts Centre, closely followed by many others. They ran workshops that taught arts skills, and festivals that showcased arts work (including performance) that celebrated the cultures and creativity of their local communities. Organisations like Studio 3 Arts continue the tradition today: they are firmly embedded in their community and maintain the connection between community arts and social action.

Many regional reps and mainstream theatres established Youth Theatres during the 1970s, and in some communities where there wasn’t a theatre volunteers set up Youth Theatres themselves – Burnley Youth Theatre, for instance was one of these and is still thriving after 45 years. The focus was to provide exciting creative opportunities for young people and to help train the next cohort of theatre professionals. The Youth Theatres provided a way in to the industry for many who would not have had access to drama school, and built confidence for thousands of others. The traditional format was theatre skills development followed by rehearsal for performance.  Often plays were specially commissioned for the young people, and within a decade there were regular national festivals and the National Association of Youth Theatres was established. The Youth Theatre movement has inspired much of today’s youth focussed and adult participatory theatre with organisations like 20 Stories High offering a contemporary twist on the model.

Companies like 7:84 / 7:84 Scotland created radical new theatre using popular forms of entertainment to tackle social and political issues.  They toured to communities (often nationally) playing in non-traditional venues, and trying to reach a non-theatre going public. Sometimes audience participation was incorporated and often workshops and post-show discussions were held after the show.  These explored the arising issues in more depth and sometimes enabled the companies to develop content for revivals or for new plays. Companies were keen to explore how artists could participate more fully in their communities.  Common Wealth continues this tradition today, making exciting political theatre that speaks of pressing current issues and tours into the hearts of communities.  The approach of using popular forms of entertainment to tackle challenging issues has influenced much of our contemporary participatory theatre performance.

Growing out of the civil and human rights activism of the 1970s a new movement of political theatre companies emerged that aimed to tackle single issues through theatre, and find a voice for minority or marginalised groups within the arts world. LGBT, Women’s, Disability and BAME rights were key in the development of political issue based theatre.  Companies like Gay Sweatshop, Spare Tyre, Graeae and Temba pioneered work in this field.  They were followed in the 1980s by Lung Ha and others, leading the way in theatre with and for adults with learning disabilities.   In addition, there was an explosion of socialist theatre companies, like Red Ladder, focussed on making work for working class communities often in tandem with the unions. A handful of these radical organisations continue today, and the styles they pioneered, the stories they told and the political underpinning of their practice have all influenced contemporary participatory theatre.

Developed in Brazil by Augusto Boal in the 1970s Theatre of the Oppressed(TO) became popular internationally in the ‘80s and is now a staple of British participatory theatre practice. The ideas of theatre as a rehearsal for change, of the ‘spectactor’ (an audience member who becomes involved in and changes the outcome of the drama), the exploration of psychological, social and political oppression through theatre games, all originate in TO.  Later in his career Boal went on to develop Legislative Theatre, showing how theatre can be used to directly influence and inform political change.  Companies like Cardboard Citizens pioneered TO in the UK, with their Artistic Director translating several of Boal’s books into English.  They are still going strong and new companies like Active Enquiry continue to find real value in the model.

Throughout the 1990s theatre was increasingly used with ‘communities of experience’ as well as geographical communities sometimes to tell stories that often went unheard, but increasingly to offer personal development outcomes for participants. Companies began to specialise in working with particular groups: Geese Theatre in Birmingham, for instance led the field in working within the prison and probation services. Companies started to partner with social sector organisations to help them achieve the concrete social outcomes that were for the first time being acknowledged through reports about impact and through new funding streams established as part of New Labour’s approach to social inclusion.  This marked a shift from the radical politics community arts had grown out of, to a more liberal approach to change. Some practitioners worried that this put the blame for social ills on individuals rather than the political system, and papered over the cracks of the problems inherent in many of the marginalised communities with which they worked.

This term came into common use in the early 2000s to describe the many types of theatre that worked in community contexts and had a social aim. It’s an umbrella term that encompasses theatre with communities of interest and experience, cross-community theatre, activist arts, co-creation, relational aesthetics, community cultural development and all other participatory theatre with a social application. The term has remained popular in academic circles and is used in much of the literature describing this kind of practice, but hasn’t really taken hold at grass roots where the work is more often called participatory theatre, collaborative practice or community theatre.

As its name suggests, Theatre for Social Change (TFSC) specifically intends to contribute to social/political change. It grows out of the communities it serves (either communities of geography or experience) and involves them ethically in shaping, and usually performing, the work.  It places equal emphasis on the creative and the social – so theatre makers work closely with social sector organisations to try and ensure strategic impact. TFSC seeks to raise awareness of the social and political issues impacting communities, and to draw attention to the structures and policies that underpin people’s lived experience, with an aim of provoking positive action. Collective Encounters was one of the first companies in the UK to adopt this term to describe their practice, but many others embed it in their approach.

This is an umbrella term for participatory arts work with older people and describes a broad range of practices. While this work has been happening since the beginning of the community arts movement, the term has come into common use in the last decade.  Referring to work led by professional artists with participants over 55 years of age, it is often underpinned by a health and wellbeing agenda.  It includes everything from one-off arts workshops to reminiscence theatre projects, and can also encompass more radical theatre that aims to celebrate the contribution older people make to society or give voice to their concerns. Festivals like Luminate in Scotland, Gwanwyn in Wales, Age of Creativeity in England and Bealtine in Ireland showcase the full range of this activity.