Greater Manchester Legislative Theatre

This video features highlights of legislative theatre events that brought community members together to address homelessness in Manchester, England.

In 2020, the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in the United Kingdom partnered with the Greater Manchester Homelessness Action Network to use legislative theatre to develop recommendations for its five-year homelessness prevention strategy.

The process brought together artists and activists with experience accessing homelessness services who trained and performed a play livestreamed on Zoom for 120 community members. After the play, the audience discussed the problems presented, then stepped into the characters’ shoes to try out different ideas of what to do. From there, breakout rooms of 3-4 people came up with policy proposals. These proposals resulted in a shortlist of policy recommendations that informed the Homelessness Prevention Strategy 2021-2026.

The video shows key moments of the legislative theatre process, from training the actors to performing the play, debating proposals with local policymakers, and voting on recommendations. To learn more about the process, read “Using Theatre to Make Policies: Legislative Theatre in Manchester.”

Source: Street Support

Year of publication: 2021