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Must the show go on? The case for Theatre for Development.


 This article discusses the reasons for use and nonuse of folk theater for communicating development messages. Theater for Development (TFD) is a tool used by development agencies for improving the quality of life among vulnerable populations. TFD uses fiction and the "safe space" of performance to comment on reality and offer alternatives. The medium offers the opportunity to explore roles that would normally be denied in real life and to explore a community's developmental aspirations. Most TFD draws on talent from the dramatic arts that is unfamiliar with development perspectives. TFD is finally being recognized as important for cultural expression suitable for self-development. Communication is the single most important aspect in the process of development. The constraints to TFD are lack of inclusion within development policy, the lack of development artists, and most importantly, time. Groups with a history of silence, oppression, and marginalization need facilitators. The Freirean model is a consciousness raising one. Participatory theater is centuries old. The most vigorous, sustained TFD theaters are in places with deprivation, poverty, disease, and hunger. These situations are well suited to TFD as a critical intervention for change. An example from the Nigerian Popular Theater Alliance is used to illustrate consciousness raising about government provision of services. TFD allows communities to draw agendas of their own. India has a substantial tradition of Social Action Groups and street theater. TFD can reverse power relations, is not dependent on literacy, and offers an entertaining way of spreading information.
