Performance for Futures: A Futures Literacy Theatre Lab in Practice

In our webinar, Pedro de Senna reflects on his pioneering Performance for Futures workshop held on the island of Lesbos in 2019 with unaccompanied asylum-seeking minors. Building on UNESCO’s Futures Literacy Lab framework, the project replaced conventional tools with theatre-based methods to help participants embody and explore alternative futures. Drawing on Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, the lab enabled meaningful engagement across linguistic and cultural barriers, despite the challenges of trauma, displacement, and ethical complexity. This experimental approach demonstrated how performance can bridge the gap between abstract futures thinking and lived, emotional experience.
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