PORT TOWNSEND — The Mandala Center for Change will present “Waging Peace – Designing Justice,” a special public Forum Theatre performance and community dialogue at 7 tonight.

The participatory event will be at the Masonic Hall at 1338 Jefferson St.

Admission is free with donations accepted to benefit the Boiler Room – Port Townsend’s youth-driven coffee house and community center.

No advance reservations are necessary but seating is limited so early arrival is recommended.

This Forum Theatre performance features an international cast of nearly 40 people from across the United States and from as far away as Australia, Bali and India.

It is the culmination of a week-long intensive training in Theater of the Oppressed techniques (also known as Theatre of Liberation, Theatre for Living) and is created and performed by the participants, including several members of the Mandala Center’s local Poetic Justice Theatre Ensemble.

Under the guidance of facilitator Marc Weinblatt, the audience will choose from several pre-scripted short plays depicting social issues relevant to the community at large.

The selected plays will be performed a second time, at which point the audience will be invited to stop the action and improvise their solutions to the problems at hand.

Themes from past years’ performances have included racism, sexism, homophobia, globalization, the education system, health care, disability, war and environmental issues. This is the 23rd annual version of this event.

This creative forum will not tell people what to think but instead will invite them to think, Weinblatt said in a news release.

All opinions will be welcome and valued, he said, adding that “through the evocative and universal language of theatre, everyone is invited to share wisdom on the issues at hand.

“It can literally be a rehearsal for the future in which audience ‘spect-actors’ take action toward creating the kind of world they want,” Weinblatt said.

Attendees are welcome to participate actively or simply sit back and witness the process.

“This unique approach to theater as community dialogue can be playful, intense, hilarious, deeply moving and enlightening,” Weinblatt said.

Although the themes tend to be sophisticated, children with an inclination to critical thinking are welcome and can get much out this engaging theatrical experience, he said.

As created by Brazilian visionary and recent Nobel Peace prize nominee Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed is a form of popular community-based education using theater as a tool for transformation, Weinblatt said.

Originally developed out of Boal’s work with peasant and worker populations, it is now used all over the world for social and political activism, conflict resolution, community building, therapy and government legislation, he said.

Based in Port Townsend, the Mandala Center is a multi-disciplinary education organization dedicated to community dialogue, social justice and societal transformation, said the news release.

For more information, contact 360-344-3435, email info@mandalafor change.com or see www.mandala forchange.com/.