3, 2, 1 Action: Legislative Theatre

Participatory democracy on stage

How does it work? #WatchActVote

WATCH: In collaboration with local partners, community members create and present original plays based on lived experiences. These plays, which can be created over several days or weeks, address timely, local issues.

ACT: In public performance forums, audiences are invited to improvise alternative responses to systemic problems onstage. Together with advocates and stakeholders, these ideas are then developed into specific and feasible policy proposals.

VOTE: Public events lead to debate and amendments, until the proposals are ready for a community vote. Finally, policymakers (e.g. city council, the mayor’s office, institutional leadership) carry these proposals forward to their respective chambers–using theatre to spark concrete change.

Where's the evidence? 

• A collaboration between the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and people with experience of homelessness  (2020-2021) resulted in the co-creation of the Greater Manchester Homelessness Prevention Strategy. This evaluation report highlights the value of Legislative Theatre in breaking down barriers for participation and presenting a different way of understanding the impact of policy on people’s lives. 

• In the lead up to the COP26 Conference in Glasgow in November 2021, Glasgow City Council commissioned a youth-led climate Legislative Theatre. The Gulbenkian Foundation conducted an independent evaluation on public engagement with climate issues, which found that this initiative led directly to young people's participation in COP26, and increased their confidence and motivation to engage with policymakers.

• A collaboration between Arts Homelessness International, Coventry City Council and Coventry City of Culture led to a Legislative Theatre process to co-create the city's Rough Sleeping Strategy in 2022; the University of Warwick published this report, highlighting outcomes such as non-hierarchical citizen democracy and "inclusive, dialogic and open decision-making."

• Since 2013, Theatre of the Oppressed NYC has worked alongside city and federal government representatives and advocacy coalitions on housing, the justice system, LTGBQ rights and more, in one of the first Legislative Theatre initiatives in the United States. Read this report for case studies, policy impacts, and testimonials from elected officials.