Climate justice. Action. Theater. is the contribution of activist theatre makers to recent climate justice movements who united together in order to form an international movement of activist theatre-makers working with the methodology of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) in the field of adult learning. It is a new transnational, mostly European forum theatre movement dealing with climate justice that intends to have members all over Europe. The main goal of the project is to create an international, diverse, multiplying community of activists and theatre-makers who are striking to advocate about the topic of climate justice and social justice by using various forms of artistic expression, though focusing on forum theatre and theatre for dialogue by the year 2022. Forum Theatre has been successfully used all over the world to mobilize for social movements and create operating strategies for social movements. The project focuses on the following objectives: 1. Creating a community of theatre practitioners who are focused on intersecting issues of climate justice and social justice in the adult education work through establishing operating, long-lasting platforms for community ideas exchange between partnering organization (regular theatre groups of practitioners) 2. Facilitating safe dialogue spaces between the general audiences and artivists (art+activism professionals) through national performances and international project meetings; 3. Generating and documenting materials that will serve for learning and growth of the future generations that are specifically focusing on the intersecting topic of climate justice and theatre; The urgent need for opening the dialogue on the topic of climate justice in contemporary European society is indisputable. Hence, providing more spaces in engaging local communities into the dialogue on questioning these issues is demanded. In this project, we will provide a bridge between the present conversations and discourses on the topic of climate justice and local communities of individuals who perhaps were not deeply introduced to the topic before. This particular project will be focusing on three main target groups and will involve over 1100 primary and secondary beneficiaries including people with fewer opportunities in European society (individuals with cultural differences, individuals with a disability): 1.Theatre activists and practitioners dealing with climate justice to enhance their capacities in training activists within the network. 2.Communities of activists, theater for social/ecological justice practitioners, and those who would like to get connected with these topics; 3.General audiences from the represented countries, who will be engaged in the conversations on the topic of climate justice and social justice; Climate justice is a global issue, though it is also a social justice issue as it intersects with topics such as sexism, racism, and capitalism (consumerism, class, neo-imperialism. With this project, we will unfold these concepts and invite local communities to dialogue and social action. We want to envision the world, where structural societal issues are visualized and local communities are constantly invited to participate in a dialogue that will expand their consciousness and feeling of empathy. Hence, the following results are expected: -A developed, strong community of activists and artists (artivists) who are using theatre methodology for community dialogue in the presented countries (Austria, Germany, Slovenia) and beyond who are using theatre to enhance the climate justice conversation as a tool in adult education; -Approximately 100 primarily beneficiaries (training attendees, theatre performers) who strike for the topic of climate justice and became a transnational community; -Approximately 1000 beneficiaries (theater performance attendees, consumers of the products of artistic creations) will become part of the dialogue on the urge of climate justice and social justice as an essential part of it. -Produced creative commons material (Best Practice Manual, Project Videos, theatre artistic tools, Posters and artistic products) that can be used with the purpose of dissemination; -Created sustainable and operating bridges between the partner organizations and their respective activist communities; After organizing a growing movement, we will be able to manage other enterprises. By meeting stakeholders in the project countries NGO/movement sector and community building sector, but also by approaching stakeholders for possible performances (magistrates, churches, getting permissions for public spaces), we build important networks for possible future policy and/or legislation changes.
The project focused on the following objectives: 1. Creating a community of theatre practitioners who are focused on intersecting issues of climate justice and social justice in the adult education work through establishing operating, long-lasting platforms for community ideas exchange between partnering organizations (regular theatre groups of practitioners); 2. Facilitating safe dialogue spaces between the general audiences and artivists (art+activism professionals) through national performances and international project meetings; 3. Generating and documenting materials that will serve for learning and growth of the future generations that are focusing on the intersecting topic of climate justice and theatre. Our project provided a bridge between present discourses about climate justice and contributed to the Arts Education field within adult education with Theatre of the Oppressed as an innovative method of adult education on an emotional level and through embodied practices: a) to convey the topic giving sound information and showing the dramatics of the situation; b) to reflect upon power inequalities around climate change; c) to focus on human relations and social justice.
Climate justice. Action. Theatre aimed to create an international movement of theatre activists working on the intersections of social and climate justice, and the use of the methods from the Theatre of the Oppressed in adult education. The main goal of the project was to create an international, diverse, multiplying community of activists and theatre-makers who are advocating the topic of climate justice and social justice by using various forms of artistic expression. The project addressed and supported local struggles around climate justice and its movements, fought power hierarchies within it by making them visible on stage, worked on internalized capitalism through action and reflection, and opened spaces for a personal encounter with climate justice. The latter exemplifies an overall goal of the project, namely to establish dialogue with parts of the population who haven’t been confronted with the issue of climate justice yet. By relying on the variety of methods of the Theatre of the Oppressed, the project sought dialogues through Forum Theatre, Invisible Theatre and Newspaper Theatre. These forms of theatre have been successfully used all over the world to address issues, create dialogues and mobilize for social movements.