Performance, Place and Culture for Civic Engagement in Kyrgyzstan

This chapter will explore the Youth Theatre for Peace (YTP) project in relation to environmental aesthetics and socially engaged participatory practices towards tolerance building in Kyrgyzstan. Cultural histories of storytelling, manas (an oral and now literary Kyrgyz epic) and trickster tales incorporate ideas and narratives that are useful in negotiating the ambiguities between differing moral, political and social agendas and can be drawn on in conflict negotiation contexts. The YTP project was developed in response to USAID’s call for people-to-people approaches to provide opportunities for exchange and contact between people from adversarial groups and illustrates civic engagement through partnerships with NGOs and international development partners alongside local and state decision-making bodies, religious groups and community organisations. The framework of the YTP project could potentially be used as an example of performance and civic engagement that could be applied more generally to impact and influence cultural practices at a local level, to stimulate public debate and to improve social welfare.