This project examined the role of youth theatre and performance in responding to the multifaceted effects of climate change and eco-anxiety, and to experiences of trauma and loss within disaster-affected communities. Research shows that young people are disproportionately impacted by climate change and disasters, and this negatively impacts their mental health (Cox et al., 2017; Gislason et al., 2021). Arts-based interventions have been proven to positively impact children and young people's ability to process eco-anxiety in relation to climate change and to recover from disasters (Egan & Quigley, 2015; Madsen et al., 2015; Osnes, 2018; Peek et al., 2016; Wake and Birdsall, 2020). Applied theatre in particular has been shown to help young people develop ‘creative resilience’ and ‘critical hope’ and encourages young people to act socially and politically in response to climate catastrophe and global capitalism (Gallagher et al., 2017; Heras et al., 2016; Rhoades, 2021). Initially, the intention of this project was to work with grassroots practitioners and established youth theatre companies to investigate how theatre and drama might facilitate a sense of wellbeing and agency for children and young people, both in direct approaches to post-disaster recovery, and in addressing eco-anxiety and ecological grief experienced on a societal level. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we shifted our methodology to accommodate government limitations on inperson gatherings. We conducted online interviews with 12 youth theatre practitioners, some of whom work at the ‘coal face’ of disaster recovery and youth theatre. We found that there is a trend toward young people ‘performing resistance and survival’ in response to disasters and the climate crisis. This trend motivated us to change the title of our research outputs from ‘embodying recovery and hope’ to ‘performing resistance and survival’. ‘Resistance’ recognises young people’s relationship to climate activism, which is characterised by speaking back to structural inequalities. ‘Survival’ acknowledges the existential threat that climate change poses to younger generations, and how they respond to this threat as theatre makers and community leaders. Our major theoretical contribution is the development of a model that illustrates the key interacting elements of youth performance and the climate crisis (see Figure 1 in Key Findings). We also submit that youth arts and performance are in a fight for their own survival, and the capacity of practitioners who support young people in this work is increasingly threatened. This project ran from 01/11/2021 to 01/11/2022.