Forum Theatre A problem-solving technique in which an unresolved scene of oppression is presented. Image Theatre A series of physical exercises and games designed to uncover essential truths, opinions, and observations about society, culture, self, etc. Legislative Theatre An approach, developed by Boal when he was elected Vereador Councilman in Rio, to propose laws by using Forum Theatre to demonstrate a collective problem and collect opinions directly from the people for law makers to enact policty change.
Cop-in-the-Head A powerful technique that explores internalized oppression — the internal voices, societal messages, obstacles, fears, etc. Invisible Theatre Issue oriented scenes performed in public settings e. He's the one who guides non-actors in their journey through the appropriation of theatre techniques. A spect-actor is someone who used to be a witness of the world's affairs and who has become, through the practice of theatre, a protagonist.
This poetics is developed as a method and a praxis. For example, Peruvian workers in the early seventies used Forum Theatre to rehearse different political strategies to fight for better working conditions — they tried to break the engine, to blow up the factory, to go on strike and finally, to create a union.
That's why Boal always said that if Theatre of the Oppressed wasn't a revolution by itself, it could be a rehearsal of the revolution. First, because the main interest lies in the acting experience and not the spectating one.
At the core of these two theatrical practices is the actor. The essential is to act, not to sit and watch other people acting. Also and for the same reason, both don't necessarily implement public performance, because the biggest part is the process, not the finished work. Even if Theatre of the Oppressed's Marxist background is less obvious, yet it asserts itself as a rehearsal for concrete political actions. An artistically ostracized theatre. The French part of Theatre of the Oppressed's history provides much crucial information about the practical implementation of the Poetics of the Oppressed.
The military coup in Argentina forced Boal to flee to Europe. Popular education movements have always been, from Latin America to Europe, one of Boal's main influences.
However, Theatre of the Oppressed arrived at a time when the French radical left was at a turning point of its history. By the end of the seventies, the main trade unions were facing a decrease in membership. As a result, partnership between political organizations and this theatre didn't really get off the ground and remained occasional, except with the Family Planning feminist movement — though it was part of its popular education task — and also with one trade union, the French Democratic Confederation of Labour C.
On the artistic side, Theatre of the Oppressed was not considered as theatre either by theatre critics, academics — with the exception of a few such as Richard Monod who is a specialist of theatre and education — or cultural institutions. The aesthetic was considered as poor — they actually did create with little money — or too simplistic and considered as bad realism, and was highly criticized. Moreover, the fact that half of Boal's team was not part of the artistic field before working with him, and that Theatre of the Oppressed appeared as a popular education practice led to its ostracisation.
In addition, the French Ministry of Culture never recognized this practice as a professional artistic one. It has been hidden away with amateur theatre. In fact, the Ministry of Culture, under Jack Lang, made a decisive shift in its artistic policy, deciding to separate aesthetic creation on the one hand and social, interventionist and activist theatre on the other, hence denying the artistic nature of the latter.
So Theatre of the Oppressed was not considered theatre at all in France, and became illegitimate in the eyes of the art world. Boal's collaborators totally deserted the artistic field.
What about today? Over the years, Theatre of the Oppressed has become more professional and more institutionalized, which seems like a contradiction with respect to the original poetics. Theatre of the Oppressed has spread all around the world.
Throughout his career, Boal has developed new techniques and new purpose for Theatre of the Oppressed. Then, in the s, while assuming the function of Member of Parliament for the Worker's Party in Rio de Janeiro's Legislative Chamber, Boal used Forum Theatre as a public consultation and a support to bills, managing to promulgate a dozen laws which were directly inspired by the proposition performed on stage.
Inspired by the vision of Paulo Freire and his landmark treatise on education, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, T. It is about analyzing rather than accepting, questioning rather than giving answers. Through the evocative language of theatre, everyone is invited to share their opinion on the issues at hand. In the U. It is also practised on a grassroots level by teachers, social workers, therapists, and activists all over the world. Theatre of the Oppressed TO is an aesthetic method created by Brazilian playwright Augusto Boal that stimulates critical observation and representation of reality, envisioning the production of consciousness and concrete actions.
It is a participatory art form that is meant and applied as an empowering and liberating practice that inspires individual and collective transformation. They are devised to help anyone to make a theatrical scene using a piece of news from a newspaper, or from any other written material, like reports of a political meeting, texts from the Bible, from the Constitution of a country, the Declaration of Human Rights, etc.
If I transform the clay into a statue, I become a Sculptor; if I transform the stones into a house, I become an architect; if I transform our society into something better for us all, I become a citizen.
It is a direct intervention in society, on a precise theme of general interest, to provoke debate and to clarify the problem that must be solved. While the performance modes of Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, Cop-In-The-Head, and the vast array of the Rainbow of Desire are designed to bring the audience into active relationship with the performed event, the workshops are virtually a training ground for action not only in these performance forms, but for action in life.
Forum scenes can be virtual one-act plays or more often short scenes. In either case, a full presentation is offered to the audience.
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