Parallel Sessions I – 1.4 -Improvised Theatre for Engagement with Societal Challenges

Improvised Theatre for Engagement with Societal Challenges

Jessamyn Fairfield – University of Galway, Katy Schutte – Hoopla Impro and Gesche Kindermann – University of Galway

Improvised theatre, or improv, is a popular form of entertainment where performers use prompts from the audience to create scenes and narratives around characters, locations or concepts. Improv is widely associated with comedy, but the tradition of forum theatre shows that improv can also be used to enact social change. While improv training has long been used as a general science communication tool, we recently toured a fully improvised show focused on climate change focusing on coastal and island communities, where both scientists and improvisers created a show on the spot based on written audience suggestions about the climate crisis. The project was called “We Built This City on Rock and Coal”, and in this workshop, we will explore directly how improv can create science engagement grounded in collaboration, emotional response, and our shared humanity. This methodology is especially valuable for societal challenges, and we will explore how it can be adapted to a variety of contexts.