7 Days of Improvised Theatre for Social Justice, Healing & Resilience
International Improv and Playback Theatre Festival 2026
About the Gathering
The International Improv & Playback Theatre Festival (#LetsMeetInNigeria) is Africa’s first global gathering exploring Improvisation and Playback Theatre for social justice, community engagement, mental health, and resilience building.
For seven days in Abuja, humanitarian actors, development practitioners, educators, social workers, artists, and storytellers from around the world will come together for workshops, performances, dialogue, and collaborative exchange.
Whether you work in humanitarian response, youth development, peacebuilding, education, advocacy, or community leadership, the festival offers practical creative tools for communication, healing, inclusion, storytelling, and social impact through interactive theatre and participatory arts.
Playback + Improv = PLAYProv
Why This Festival Matters
Human stories are not data points. They are living, changing, and urgent.
This festival brings Improvisation and Playback Theatre into the heart of social justice, humanitarian practice, and community life. It is where performance meets real experience, and where storytelling becomes a tool for listening, connection, and change.
Playback Theatre turns lived experience into shared presence. A story is told, and in moments it is embodied on stage. What emerges is recognition, empathy, and a deeper understanding of what it means to be human together.
Improv Theatre is the art of responding without a script. It is collaboration under pressure, creativity in uncertainty, and the ability to build meaning in real time. These are not just performance skills, but essential capacities for leadership, teamwork, education, and community work in complex environments.
Across seven days in Abuja, this festival creates a space where artists, humanitarian actors, educators, and development practitioners meet not to observe from a distance, but to participate, exchange, and create together.
It matters because it asks a simple question. What if the way we work with people was more human, more creative, and more alive to the stories already in the room
What Participants Will Experience
Over seven days in Abuja, participants will step into a living space of theatre, storytelling, and shared human experience. This will not be a passive festival. It will be a working environment where learning happens through doing, watching, listening, and creating together.
Each day will move between practice and performance. Mornings and afternoons (9am–1pm, 2pm–5pm) will be reserved for registered participants and will open into hands-on workshops exploring improvisational theatre, Playback Theatre, and applied theatre techniques for acting, communication, facilitation, social justice, and community engagement. These sessions will be practical, interactive, and designed to be immediately applicable across artistic, organisational, humanitarian, and development contexts.
Evenings (6pm–8pm) will open into live improvised theatre performances and storytelling experiences where ideas will come alive on stage. Stories will be shared, embodied, and witnessed in real time, creating moments of reflection, empathy, and connection across cultures, disciplines, and professions. These evening sessions will also be open to a wider ticketed audience.
Alongside this, a continuous layer of exchange will unfold throughout the festival. Participants will meet practitioners from different countries, disciplines, and sectors, building relationships that extend beyond the festival itself. Conversations will continue in informal spaces, shared meals, and the natural rhythm of daily interaction.
What will emerge is a space where learning is not separated from experience. Participants will leave with practical tools, but also with new ways of seeing, listening, and working with people within complex human systems such as humanitarian response, development work, education, and community practice.
Whether someone is an aspiring or established improviser, a humanitarian or social worker, an educator, a development practitioner, or simply someone seeking a different way of engaging with people and stories, this festival will offer a space to step into, explore, and be part of something shared, alive, and unfolding.
Workshops
Registration & Payment Details
We’re excited to welcome participants from around the world to the First Global Playback & Improv Theatre Gathering hosted for the first time in Africa.
Your registration not only secures your spot at this historic event but also helps us keep the festival sustainable and community-driven.
Workshop Fees
We offer flexible registration options to make participation accessible and fair.
| Category | Fee | Covers |
| Festival Pass | N500,000 | All workshops and performances |
| Workshops | N50,000 | Covers only one workshop |
| General Registration | $600 | Practitioners |
Show Tickets
Every evening, we bring you undiluted Improv Shows.
| Category | Fee | Covers |
| Daily VVIP | N30,000 | Front row at all performances and an opportunity to jump on stage. (Festival Pass also available) |
| Daily VIP | N20,000 | |
| General Ticket | N10,000 |
Payment Process
Refund Policy
Attend the Workshops
Interested in joining a workshop? Read the full workshop descriptions, facilitator profiles, and learning outcomes before booking your ticket.
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Found a workshop that's right for you? Secure your place and join facilitators from around the world for a week of learning, creativity, and connection.
- Workshop|Performance|Networking
Experience seven nights of live, unscripted theatre featuring artists from around the world. Every performance is inspired by audience stories and suggestions, making each evening completely unique.
- N30,000 / N20,000 / N10,000