Theater as the Elicitive Third Space: How Theater for Development has been used to prevent violence in Kenya.

Abstract: In this paper theater is understood as a tool to communicate social transformation and the purpose of this study is to investigate the use of Theater for Development in relation to preventing violence and explore if, how and why the use differ in relation to preventing direct or structural violence. By analyzing the narrated experiences of Kenyan theaterpractitioners work through the theoretical perspectives presented by Homi K. Bhabha and John Paul Lederach this paper then argues that theater can create an elicitive Third Space where the passive spectators in the audience can be turned into empathetic, conscientized spect-actors and where conflicting communication can occur without violence. It then goes on to theorize on how the explanation to the differences exists in what the performance need to achieve in the elicitive Third space.