Tackling Sustainable Development Issues via Theatre and Performing Poetry

Europe and the world both need integrated creative approaches that promote new behaviours in line with the Agenda 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as both a formal and informal cultivation of durable sustainability. Theatre has long been a tool for the evolution of humanity and a fundamental element for practical and spiritual transformation of society. Theatre may act as a powerful and culturally sensitive tool to convey complex environmental and developmental messages to a widespread audience and can represent a variety of different perspectives in cross-cultural settings. Poetry used as a tool in poetic performance and listening also functions to bring people together, reconnect people to culture, themselves, and each other, and improve their overall mental and physical health. Further, because of the participatory nature, poetic performance can act as an excellent platform to communicate sustainability goals. Performing arts in the broadest sense will by necessity play a pivotal role in bringing about the profound and required changes to society and thought processes in both tangible and intangible ways. This chapter aims to define the state of the art of some of the experiences that tackle the issues of SDGs via theatre performances, and poetry in Europe. The encouragement and support from European governmental organizations, the private sector, and local arts-oriented organizations assists in the process tremendously. The author draws from the literature on sustainability and the arts to focus on the connection of the seemingly disparate pieces of the sustainable development puzzle.