Union Chapel is excited to host Katy Rubin for a special 2-day Legislative Theatre programme.

This is an exciting opportunity to dig deeper into a truly leading example of arts and creativity for social and systemic change.

Katy Rubin has recently been running creative Legislative Theatre projects leading to real-world policy commitments in Manchester, Glasgow, Haringey, and here, with Union Chapel’s Community Leaders programme in Islington.

Who’s this for? Anyone who wants to spark creative structural change within institutions and systems.

About the workshop:

Raise your hand if you've ever had a challenge participating in democracy? Or if you've ever been impacted by an unjust rule or policy?

In Legislative Theatre, audiences and policymakers watch a play based on the community actors' experiences with oppressive policies and practices. Then, audiences act onstage to rehearse ways to confront the problems presented, and test new policies in real time. Actors and audiences propose ideas for new laws, rules and policies to address the problems, working together with advocates, organizers, and government representatives. Finally, we vote on new rules, and policymakers commit to immediate actions.

In this workshop, we will use games and exercises to create an original Legislative Theatre play, incorporating political analysis and participatory policy research, addressing an issue that impacts the group. Then we will work through a mock LT session, with a focus on facilitation that flips the power dynamics between policymakers and communities. Finally, we will experiment with new games for pitching and refining policies towards implementation!

This weekend is supported by Lankelly Chase funding, which has helped participation fees to be deeply subsidised; and proudly hosted at Union Chapel as part of Union Chapel’s forthcoming 'Culture/Community/Change' programme.