The Performers Project is about creating space for different sociodrama practices and their reflection.
Our aim is to bring sociodrama practitioners and trainers together to learn together how we are using sociodrama to help people in our different countries, and what sociodrama looks like across Europe.
We are doing this by experiencing each other’s training, learning about practical applications with young people in danger and their supporters, and then going on to write a book to help spread what we know, as well as creating sociodrama training standards.

The idea of the project was born in 2015 when Hungarian psychodramatists, social scientists, civic activists, social workers and teachers in Budapest met Judith Teszary, an internationally known sociodramatist and started to think together about the potentials of sociodrama in the institutions and communities of the antidemocratic, closed and distrustful Hungarian society and also the need of several Hungarian psychodramatists to be involved in the European sociodrama movement. After one year of preparation, national psychodrama institutions across Europe, internationally recognized sociodrama experts, social institutions working with vulnerable youngsters committed themselves to join the initiative and – founded by European Commission Erasmus+ program – launched the PERFORMERS1 project in 2016 and than the PERFORMERS2 in 2018. Partners from Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Greece and the UK support each other in this project to find great ways to share more widely the work they do. FEPTO the umbrella organization of European psychodrama training organisations also joined the partnership and involved professionals from other European countries (Romania, Norway, Serbia, Belgium). Our partnership has in total five years to identify and describe country and society specific differences in the use of sociodrama and by respecting these differences creating minimal training standards for Europe.

More than 30 psychodrama, sociodrama and youth field experts are working in the PERFORMERS project, and several hundreds are involved directly or indirectly in the partner countries. Beside of the international professional network, local cooperating partners care passionately about making changes in communities, and variously work with young people and their helpers in youth detention centres (Hungary), in a family/school social support organisation (Portugal), and a secondary school environment (Sweden). By practicing sociodrama in these specific contexts, we are learning together and further developing our use of the method to help make positive change in people’s, communities’ and institutions’ lives. Our focus on joined-up practice will include:

– publishing an international book about sociodrama

– publishing booklets on field specific uses and policy papers on institutional implementation of sociodrama

– agreeing common training standards

– creating a Hungarian sociodrama training curriculum and training materials

– organizing local and international conferences