Youth workers are increasingly confronted with performance pressure among young people. Therefore, this project focuses on this topic. Research institutions have been noticing increasing pressure to perform among schoolchildren for years. Young adults are in a dynamic phase of life and are thus confronted with questions about who they are, what they stand for and how they want to organize their lives. This causes stress, internal and external performance pressure (expectations from your environment).

In Greece, young people are in a constant battle to discover who they are without any help. They need to be in contact with youth workers who help to discover themselves, to understand and acknowledge their needs, hopes and wills for the future. Due to the economic and social crisis, there is increasing and continuous pressure on young people. There is a combination of performance pressure and expectations by society to have a career, to have the perfect life with young people not having any actual support, and this leads to struggling. The result is young people facing with a forced adulthood pretending that they have the perfect life despite the difficulties. It is a vicious cycle where there is no escape unless there is a social reflection.

Through theatre we want youth workers in two countries to work with young people on this theme to inform an audience of other young people and their parents/guardians. Working with theatre gives young people a voice and the performance can contribute to greater understanding and awareness about performance and participation. The project contributes to making it normal that young people still need to find answers to all the questions in the life phase of a young adult. Working with theatre methods at the same time contributes to the development of their soft skills.