This thesis looks at the following questions: (a) Why use a popular theatre method (Legislative Theatre) rather than hold a town hall meeting? and (b) How can the co-optation of popular theatre and civic engagement be avoided? Using a variety of methodologies including narrative inquiry, autoethnography, arts-based inquiry, and popular culture theory and methodology the converging points of democracy, civic engagement, and popular theatre are explored. This research provides the basis for a comparative analysis of four Legislative Theatre experiments and the exploration of the democratic facilitator, an idea for revitalizing local governance.