Popular theater: A useful process for adult educators

This article recognizes an emerging social purpose agenda in adult education in the United States and the concomitant need for new processes and tactics to fulfill this agenda. Popular theater is one process that communities and adult educators throughout the world have used to meet a multiplicity of learning needs and as an aid in helping people analyze and solve community problems. Popular theater is defined and contrasting uses of theater as an educational process are discussed. An ideal model of popular theater practice is presented and it is argued that there are aspects of popular theater that suggest it has the potential to be a useful process for adult educators in the United States.