Theatre for development (TfD) is a type of community-based or interactive theatre practice that aims to promote civic dialogue and engagement.
Theatre for development can be a kind of participatory theatre that encourages improvisation and allows audience members to take roles in the performance, or it can be fully scripted and staged, with the audience simply observing. Many productions are a blend of the two. The Theatre of the Oppressed, an influential collection of theatrical forms developed by Augusto Boal in the 1970s, aims to create dialogue and interaction between audience and performer as a means of promoting social and political change.
Hundreds, if not thousands, of organizations and initiatives have used theatre as a development tool: for education or propaganda, as therapy, as a participatory tool, or as an exploratory tool in development.