Forum Theatre for Children: Enhancing Social, Emotional and Creative Development

This innovative book illustrates the vital role of drama for young schoolchildren. A dynamic fusion of theatre and psychology, it describes each step of the process of Forum Theatre – the activities, workshops and performances – to enable those who work with children to develop their own FT projects. The book shows how FT can help children to explore personal and collective challenges in their lives and how its secure scaffolding enables them to share their views and fears and develop their social, emotional and creative skills.

The book provides vivid and carefully constructed models of FT that have helped children to cope in conditions of austerity and family instability, and to explore difficult issues such as transition – be it to secondary school, a new home or even a new country. We see how FT can operate in a child-centered way so that schools and youth organizations develop children's sense of solidarity, belonging, problem-solving, constructive protest and community membership, and encourage them to experiment with roles and find sustainable real-life solutions to personal and shared challenges. The real-life Forum Theatre case examples explore the link between child, family and community well-being, and demonstrate the transformative potential of theatre and psychology.

This book is an invaluable resource for primary teachers, drama teachers and trainee teachers, and for psychologists, youth workers, social workers, drama students, theatre practitioners, art therapists and others interested in working with children and young people in educational and community settings.