Theatre-Based Techniques for Youth Peer Education: A Training Manual

This training manual provides an overview of using theatre in health education. It contains four peer theatre training workshops, a series of theatre games and exercises that can be used in trainings, and information on developing and building a peer theatre programme. The Introduction discusses briefly why theatre is important for peer education for youth and explains how to use the manual.

• Section 1 - discusses the theoretical framework and other issues regarding the purpose of theatre in peer education. It introduces the building blocks of a peer theatre programme, concentrating on improvisational theatre techniques.
• Section 2 - contains the four training workshops: Creating Material Out of Improvisation; Creating Backstories; Marrying the Message with the Audience; and Can We Talk? Effective Post-performance Discussion
• Section 3 - contains short descriptions of theatre games and exercises, divided by trust-building, ensemble-building, observation and movement, improvisation, and emotional availability.
• Section 4 - provides information for advanced peer theatre programmes, including how to form and build a theatre company.

Annexes include a glossary of theatre and peer education terms; some guidelines on understanding the early, middle, and late adolescence stages so that approaches are developmentally appropriate; sources for this manual; and an annotated list of peer education resources.

This theatre manual resulted from a collaboration between the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and Family Health International. It was produced for the Youth Peer Education Network (Y-PEER), a project coordinated by UNFPA as part of a Youth Peer Education Toolkit.

For hard-back printed copies, please send a request with an explanation of how you plan to use it in actual peer education activities. Limited copies are available, and will be mailed to those in the best position to apply it to their programmes.