Over many years, Boal continued to strengthen his relationship with liberatory educator, Paulo Freire, author of the acclaimed Pedagogy of the Oppressed. At the Second Annual Pedagogy of the Oppressed Conference in Omaha in March 1996, both men appeared together on a public platform to reflect on liberatory education and to answer questions from an audience of around one thousand people. Because of their several necessary flights for personal and family safety during the 1960's - 1980's, this co-appearance was the first time Augusto Boal and Paulo Freire shared a common public stage.
Paulo Freire was a major influence on Boal’s teachings. He and Freire became close in later years. When Freire died, Boal said "I am very sad. I have lost my last father. Now all I have are brothers and sisters". Boal is also known to quote the famous play Hamlet by Shakespeare, in which the playwright explains (through Hamlet the character) that theater is like a mirror that reflects our virtues and defects equally. Although Boal find this quote beautiful, he likes to think of theater as a mirror in which one can reach in to change reality, to transform it.
Sadly, Paulo Freire passed away in early May, 1997. Said Boal:
"I am very sad. I have lost my last father. Now all I have are brothers and sisters."
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Boal says
“..... its most archaic sense, theatre is the capacity possessed by human beings – and not by animals – to observe themselves in action. Humans are capable of seeing themselves in the act of seeing, of thinking their emotions, of being moved by their thoughts. They can see themselves here and imagine themselves there; they can see themselves today and imagine themselves tomorrow. This is why humans are able to identify (themselves and others) and not merely to recognise.”
“The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!).”
“Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.”
“When does a session of The Theatre of the Oppressed end? Never – since the objective is not to close a cycle, to generate a catharsis, or to end a development. On the contrary, its objective is to encourage autonomous activity, to set a process in motion, to stimulate transformative creativity, to change spectators into protagonists. And it is precisely for these reasons that the Theatre of the Oppressed should be the initiator of changes the culmination of which is not the aesthetic phenomenon but real life.”Page 245
“In truth the Theatre of the Oppressed has no end, because everything which happens in it must extend into life….The Theatre of the Oppressed is located precisely on the frontier between fiction and reality – and this border must be crossed. If the show starts in fiction, its objective is to become integrated into reality, into life.Now in 1992, when so many certainties have become so many doubts, when so many dreams have withered on exposure to sunlight, and so many hopes have become as many deceptions – now that we are living through times and situations of great perplexity, full of doubts and uncertainties, now more than ever I believe it is time for a theatre which, at its best, will ask the right questions at the right times. Let us be democratic and ask our audiences to tell us their desires, and let us show them alternatives. Let us hope that one day – please, not too far in the future – we’ll be able to convince or force our governments, our leaders, to do the same; to ask their audiences – us – what they should do, so as to make this world a place to live and be happy in – yes, it is possible – rather than just a vast market in which we sell our goods and our souls. Let’s hope. Let’s work for it!”Pages 246-247
“The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!).”
“Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.”
“When does a session of The Theatre of the Oppressed end? Never – since the objective is not to close a cycle, to generate a catharsis, or to end a development. On the contrary, its objective is to encourage autonomous activity, to set a process in motion, to stimulate transformative creativity, to change spectators into protagonists. And it is precisely for these reasons that the Theatre of the Oppressed should be the initiator of changes the culmination of which is not the aesthetic phenomenon but real life.”Page 245
“In truth the Theatre of the Oppressed has no end, because everything which happens in it must extend into life….The Theatre of the Oppressed is located precisely on the frontier between fiction and reality – and this border must be crossed. If the show starts in fiction, its objective is to become integrated into reality, into life.Now in 1992, when so many certainties have become so many doubts, when so many dreams have withered on exposure to sunlight, and so many hopes have become as many deceptions – now that we are living through times and situations of great perplexity, full of doubts and uncertainties, now more than ever I believe it is time for a theatre which, at its best, will ask the right questions at the right times. Let us be democratic and ask our audiences to tell us their desires, and let us show them alternatives. Let us hope that one day – please, not too far in the future – we’ll be able to convince or force our governments, our leaders, to do the same; to ask their audiences – us – what they should do, so as to make this world a place to live and be happy in – yes, it is possible – rather than just a vast market in which we sell our goods and our souls. Let’s hope. Let’s work for it!”Pages 246-247
External Link
International Theatre of the Oppressed Organization
http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?useFlash=0
Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed
http://www.ptoweb.org/
CTO-Rio International Exchange Program INFO
http://ctorio.org.br/novosite/
New York Times Obituary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/theater/09boal.html?_r=2&ref=obituaries
http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?useFlash=0
Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed
http://www.ptoweb.org/
CTO-Rio International Exchange Program INFO
http://ctorio.org.br/novosite/
New York Times Obituary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/theater/09boal.html?_r=2&ref=obituaries
workshop
Preemptive Education:Language, Identity & Power / Urban Word NYC's Annual Mentor. Teacher, Educator & Community Activist Traning. Oct.2, 3, 4, 2009.
read more at www.urbanwordnyc.org
TOPLAB: The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory(TOPLAB) was founded in 1990 and is the oldest organization in the United States dedicated to and offering ongoing training in the techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. Since its inception, TOPLAB has presented annual (and sometimes twice yearly) master workshops led by Augusto Boal, the founder of the Theater of the Oppressed, as well as monthly TO workshops presented by our core group of facilitators, all at the Brecht Forum. For the last several years Julian Boal has co-facilitated the NYC workshops with his father and we are honored to have him as a facilitator.
TOPLAB is a multiracial/multiethnic collective of ten women facilitators/trainers, based mostly in New York, but also from Boston, Toronto, Maine and Brazil, who are active as cultural workers, educators, organizers and health care professionals, as well as theater artists, and who have trained and worked extensively with Augusto Boal. /read more at http://brechtforum.org/
books
Theatre of the Oppressed
This is Augusto Boal's most academically influential work in which the reader follows Boal’s detailed analysis of the Poetics of Aristotle and the early history of western theatre. Therefore oppressive states, such as the Brazilian government of the time, from Boal's perspective, use theatre to propagate their oppressive system.
Games For Actors and Non-Actors (second edition 2002)This is probably Augusto Boal's most practically influential book in which he sets down a brief explanation of his theories, mostly through stories and examples of his work in Europe, and then explains every drama exercise that he has found useful in his practice. In many ways it is everything that 'Theatre of the Oppressed' is not: it contains little academic theory, instead relying upon practical example. Therefore drama practitioners have found this to be a particularly useful reference book whether or not they are practicing theatre that is related to Boal's academic or political ideas.
The Rainbow of Desire
Ast the Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy, this book re-evaluates the practices commonly associated with the Theatre of the Oppressed for a new purpose. It has been argued that Boal contradicts himself with this take on his work as it mostly concerns itself with creating harmony within society when his early work was concerned with rebellion and upheaval. However, Boal's works can be seen as a progression and exploration of a Left Wing world view rather than a unified theory.
Augusto Boal by Frances Babbage
This book is useful study of Augusto Boal that combines; a biographical and historical overview of Boal's career as playwright and director, in-depth analysis of Boal's classic text on radical theatre, Theatre of the Oppressed, exploration of training and production techniques and practical guidance to the Theatre of the Oppressed workshop methods.
Frances Babbage is Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Leeds University. She has taught and practised Boal's methods, in a range of context, and i s the editor of Working Without Boal: Digressions and Developments in the Theatre of the Oppressed (1995)
Key Terms
Joker/ Facilitator
Much of Augusto Boal’s theatrical process requires a neutral party to be at the centre of proceedings, in most cases, but not all, this would be a Drama workshop leader.
In Western practice the name of this individual is usually the Facilitator, although in Boal’s literature this role is referred to as the Joker.
Spect-actor
This is a term created by Augusto Boal to describe those engaged in Forum Theater.
Equally, the term 'spect-actor' can be attributed to the participants in invisible theatre (who are unaware that they are part of a theatrical production, but nevertheless contribute to the discussion) and image theatre (who, upon viewing the image created, may alter it to reflect their own ideas).
Rainbow of Desire
Rainbow of Desire is a technique and also a family of techniques explanied by Boal in his book of the same name. Ranibow techniques stem from Image Theater and tend to focus on forms of internalized oppression played out by a protagonist in relation to an antagonist. Rainbow of Desire is often considered a form of drama therapy.
New Media Art
Boal's general framework can be productive adapted to discuss issues of participation in New Media Art, especailly where crowds and unknown users are concerned. The same ideas of audience participation and decision-making apply in many online works being created with the aid of modern technology.
Much of Augusto Boal’s theatrical process requires a neutral party to be at the centre of proceedings, in most cases, but not all, this would be a Drama workshop leader.
In Western practice the name of this individual is usually the Facilitator, although in Boal’s literature this role is referred to as the Joker.
Spect-actor
This is a term created by Augusto Boal to describe those engaged in Forum Theater.
Equally, the term 'spect-actor' can be attributed to the participants in invisible theatre (who are unaware that they are part of a theatrical production, but nevertheless contribute to the discussion) and image theatre (who, upon viewing the image created, may alter it to reflect their own ideas).
Rainbow of Desire
Rainbow of Desire is a technique and also a family of techniques explanied by Boal in his book of the same name. Ranibow techniques stem from Image Theater and tend to focus on forms of internalized oppression played out by a protagonist in relation to an antagonist. Rainbow of Desire is often considered a form of drama therapy.
New Media Art
Boal's general framework can be productive adapted to discuss issues of participation in New Media Art, especailly where crowds and unknown users are concerned. The same ideas of audience participation and decision-making apply in many online works being created with the aid of modern technology.
Interview about 'Rainbow of Desire'
Interview with Augusto Boal about Rainbow of Desire
Mette Bøe Lyngstad and Stig A. Eriksson;
- from Europe to South-America
Augusto Boal: Forum theatre came to life in Peru, and then of course I perfected it a little bit. When I came to Europe, the first thing that they told me was that "oh yes, that’s very good for Latin America, but here the situation is different” And then we saw that it is not much different at all; the mechanics of the Forum theatre is for everyone, it is not only for the people in Peru, it is for people in Europe too. Here in Europe I started developing the Rainbow of desire series. Now we have 15 techniques of the Rainbow of desire. The initial techniques were developed in Europe (and here in Scandinavia). Then I went back to Brazil, where I went on developing the other techniques. Now we do Rainbow of desire all over the world; and my son Julian has done it too, in India. I don’t believe that once you discover something, it is only good for that one thing. If it is only good for that, it is circumstantial and it is going to disappear very soon, because that reality will also change. The techniques that we developed are not going to die tomorrow, because they do not come impregnated by the specific conditions of Peru or Scandinavia. They come as a structure, and you are discussing themes in the group with which you use them. For instance in Brazil, I had not seen drugs before, and I had not talked about drugs or the violence of drug gangs. But now, in Rio if you do four plays, at least one will be about drugs, and at least one will be about police violence. So the themes change, but the mechanics are the same. Like if I learn English, I can talk about anything. I can talk about metaphysics, I can talk about history, I can talk about science, because I have the language. The discourse, the speech you want to make, needs a language. So you learn that language and use it to the needs of your group.
Some people will say that the Rainbow of desire direction in your work is
close to therapy; how would you comment on that?
Augusto Boal: My comment is that theatre is therapeutic, it is not therapy but it is therapeutic. I think that is so for all of you; if you do theatre it is good for you. And the theatre of the oppressed is dynamic theatre, it is not static. It allows people to go and try, and to try again a third and a fourth time - and this is extremely therapeutic. Forum theatre is therapeutic. When you come here and you exert it, it is therapeutic. It does good for you, because the fact that you made the transgression and took part, makes you stronger. It makes you a person who does not accept the fiction of the reality here, and that’s good. It is therapeutic, but it is not a therapy. Therapy assumes that you have a psychological problem and a need for treatment. Therapy also assumes that there is a therapist, a person who knows better than us.
Where is the borderline between being educational and therapeutic?
Augusto Boal: I do not believe in a borderline there, I think there is an overlapping.I believe that if you do Hamlet sincerely and well, it is therapeutic for the actor. It can also make him sick if it is not well done,
but it is therapeutic.
Is it a different theatre work in the Rainbow of desire than in the Theatre of the oppressed?
Augusto Boal: I think the techniques of the Rainbow of desire are more complex. Really, if you look at the Forum, it is simplicity itself. You make a scene, with a protagonist and you show what to do; basically that is it. You can for example have ideas about how to use music, but it is still relatively simple. However, if you do techniques from the Rainbow of desire, it is much more complex, and it takes much more time to do it. That is because it is much more difficult to make theatre from what is hidden in your mind, maybe hidden from yourself. You do not know, so you have to go through regions in your head, which are not clear to yourself. So it is more difficult, more complex, but it is theatre. I always insist: I am a man of the theatre. I am not a therapist, I am not a pedagogue, but of course theatre is therapeutic. Of course theatre is pedagogy, of course theatre is politics above all - politics in the sense that whatever we do here, is not to stay here. Whatever we do here, we will go out and do in real life. Whatever we learn here is to be extrapolated. To be a citizen is to change society. To be a citizen is to help make society better. The Theatre of the oppressed can help with this. I think that all forms from Rainbow of desire should go to Forum theatre, and then Forum theatre should go into the real world. What we do here is also real life, but I mean to life outside the Forum. All forms of Rainbow of desire are ways of externalising the oppression that you have internalised, but it is necessary to have a go at the reality outside, too. It is not to cure yourself, it is to teach yourself what the authoritarian education prevented you from learning. I say that inside ourselves we have killers, that is why we can play Macbeth. Inside ourselves we have melancholy, that is why we can play Hamlet. But we have good things also inside that can help us. The authoritarian education strangled those things, but they are still alive inside of us. Many characteristics that can be useful for us are sleeping there. The Theatre of the oppressed can bring those characteristics out.
What are the most important challenges for the joker?
Augusto Boal: The joker has the most responsibility in coordinating the creators, because everyone has to be involved creating. As the joker you have the responsibility to coordinate all the creations and the creators. But you also have to take care not to impose your own view. You are not superior to anybody. You have your opinion, you have your intelligence, you can have all the qualities you have, but you never say I am like this or I have more knowledge of this; that is the basics of it. Why is it called the joker? In Portuguese it is "coringa" , in Spanish "comodin", but in English, unfortunately, joker also relates us to joking. We say "jokering" and not joking, because it means the white card. A joker, a real joker, is a person who can help the people write a play, help people do the blocking of the play, help the people with the music, with the text, with everything. That is the white card, so the responsibility is to learn more and more and know more and more, so that you can teach in many ways. That is a bigger responsibility. But you have to teach in a democratic way, to respect the other ones. When the audience want to discuss what they think, the joker’s responsibility is a moral responsibility above all. It is important not to use this privileged position to impose ideas, because it is a privileged position. It is like when I am in a privileged position here, and Julian is in a privileged position here, because you invited us. So we have come here, and we are supposed to know something. Maybe we do know it, maybe we do not; but supposedly we know everything about uses of our theatre forms - and it is not true. Today I learned that here in Norway you are using Forum theatre for children 4 and 5 years old. I had not heard about that before: How can you do Forum theatre with so young children? How do they react? I would love to see a film about using Forum theatre for children of 4 and 5 years. I have never seen that. But you have done it here! Now I can tell everyone: Look, I am sure you can do Form theatre for 4 year olds. If it is possible in Norway, then it is a possible in Brazil, too. So I shall take this back to Brazil! Thank you…
The interview took place at Høgskolen i Bergen (Bergen University College), November 4th 2003. It has been transcribed from video tape by Jørn Lavoll.
Sitater:
So the themes change, but the mechanics are the same.
To be a citizen is to change society. To be a citizen is to help make society better. The Theatre of the oppressed can help with this.
Today I learned that here in Norway you are using Forum theatre for children 4 and 5 years old. I had not heard about that before: How can you do Forum theatre with so young children?
Now I can tell everyone: Look, I am sure you can do Form theatre for 4 year olds. If it is possible in Norway, then it is a possible in Brazil, too.
Mette Bøe Lyngstad and Stig A. Eriksson;
- from Europe to South-America
Augusto Boal: Forum theatre came to life in Peru, and then of course I perfected it a little bit. When I came to Europe, the first thing that they told me was that "oh yes, that’s very good for Latin America, but here the situation is different” And then we saw that it is not much different at all; the mechanics of the Forum theatre is for everyone, it is not only for the people in Peru, it is for people in Europe too. Here in Europe I started developing the Rainbow of desire series. Now we have 15 techniques of the Rainbow of desire. The initial techniques were developed in Europe (and here in Scandinavia). Then I went back to Brazil, where I went on developing the other techniques. Now we do Rainbow of desire all over the world; and my son Julian has done it too, in India. I don’t believe that once you discover something, it is only good for that one thing. If it is only good for that, it is circumstantial and it is going to disappear very soon, because that reality will also change. The techniques that we developed are not going to die tomorrow, because they do not come impregnated by the specific conditions of Peru or Scandinavia. They come as a structure, and you are discussing themes in the group with which you use them. For instance in Brazil, I had not seen drugs before, and I had not talked about drugs or the violence of drug gangs. But now, in Rio if you do four plays, at least one will be about drugs, and at least one will be about police violence. So the themes change, but the mechanics are the same. Like if I learn English, I can talk about anything. I can talk about metaphysics, I can talk about history, I can talk about science, because I have the language. The discourse, the speech you want to make, needs a language. So you learn that language and use it to the needs of your group.
Some people will say that the Rainbow of desire direction in your work is
close to therapy; how would you comment on that?
Augusto Boal: My comment is that theatre is therapeutic, it is not therapy but it is therapeutic. I think that is so for all of you; if you do theatre it is good for you. And the theatre of the oppressed is dynamic theatre, it is not static. It allows people to go and try, and to try again a third and a fourth time - and this is extremely therapeutic. Forum theatre is therapeutic. When you come here and you exert it, it is therapeutic. It does good for you, because the fact that you made the transgression and took part, makes you stronger. It makes you a person who does not accept the fiction of the reality here, and that’s good. It is therapeutic, but it is not a therapy. Therapy assumes that you have a psychological problem and a need for treatment. Therapy also assumes that there is a therapist, a person who knows better than us.
Where is the borderline between being educational and therapeutic?
Augusto Boal: I do not believe in a borderline there, I think there is an overlapping.I believe that if you do Hamlet sincerely and well, it is therapeutic for the actor. It can also make him sick if it is not well done,
but it is therapeutic.
Is it a different theatre work in the Rainbow of desire than in the Theatre of the oppressed?
Augusto Boal: I think the techniques of the Rainbow of desire are more complex. Really, if you look at the Forum, it is simplicity itself. You make a scene, with a protagonist and you show what to do; basically that is it. You can for example have ideas about how to use music, but it is still relatively simple. However, if you do techniques from the Rainbow of desire, it is much more complex, and it takes much more time to do it. That is because it is much more difficult to make theatre from what is hidden in your mind, maybe hidden from yourself. You do not know, so you have to go through regions in your head, which are not clear to yourself. So it is more difficult, more complex, but it is theatre. I always insist: I am a man of the theatre. I am not a therapist, I am not a pedagogue, but of course theatre is therapeutic. Of course theatre is pedagogy, of course theatre is politics above all - politics in the sense that whatever we do here, is not to stay here. Whatever we do here, we will go out and do in real life. Whatever we learn here is to be extrapolated. To be a citizen is to change society. To be a citizen is to help make society better. The Theatre of the oppressed can help with this. I think that all forms from Rainbow of desire should go to Forum theatre, and then Forum theatre should go into the real world. What we do here is also real life, but I mean to life outside the Forum. All forms of Rainbow of desire are ways of externalising the oppression that you have internalised, but it is necessary to have a go at the reality outside, too. It is not to cure yourself, it is to teach yourself what the authoritarian education prevented you from learning. I say that inside ourselves we have killers, that is why we can play Macbeth. Inside ourselves we have melancholy, that is why we can play Hamlet. But we have good things also inside that can help us. The authoritarian education strangled those things, but they are still alive inside of us. Many characteristics that can be useful for us are sleeping there. The Theatre of the oppressed can bring those characteristics out.
What are the most important challenges for the joker?
Augusto Boal: The joker has the most responsibility in coordinating the creators, because everyone has to be involved creating. As the joker you have the responsibility to coordinate all the creations and the creators. But you also have to take care not to impose your own view. You are not superior to anybody. You have your opinion, you have your intelligence, you can have all the qualities you have, but you never say I am like this or I have more knowledge of this; that is the basics of it. Why is it called the joker? In Portuguese it is "coringa" , in Spanish "comodin", but in English, unfortunately, joker also relates us to joking. We say "jokering" and not joking, because it means the white card. A joker, a real joker, is a person who can help the people write a play, help people do the blocking of the play, help the people with the music, with the text, with everything. That is the white card, so the responsibility is to learn more and more and know more and more, so that you can teach in many ways. That is a bigger responsibility. But you have to teach in a democratic way, to respect the other ones. When the audience want to discuss what they think, the joker’s responsibility is a moral responsibility above all. It is important not to use this privileged position to impose ideas, because it is a privileged position. It is like when I am in a privileged position here, and Julian is in a privileged position here, because you invited us. So we have come here, and we are supposed to know something. Maybe we do know it, maybe we do not; but supposedly we know everything about uses of our theatre forms - and it is not true. Today I learned that here in Norway you are using Forum theatre for children 4 and 5 years old. I had not heard about that before: How can you do Forum theatre with so young children? How do they react? I would love to see a film about using Forum theatre for children of 4 and 5 years. I have never seen that. But you have done it here! Now I can tell everyone: Look, I am sure you can do Form theatre for 4 year olds. If it is possible in Norway, then it is a possible in Brazil, too. So I shall take this back to Brazil! Thank you…
The interview took place at Høgskolen i Bergen (Bergen University College), November 4th 2003. It has been transcribed from video tape by Jørn Lavoll.
Sitater:
So the themes change, but the mechanics are the same.
To be a citizen is to change society. To be a citizen is to help make society better. The Theatre of the oppressed can help with this.
Today I learned that here in Norway you are using Forum theatre for children 4 and 5 years old. I had not heard about that before: How can you do Forum theatre with so young children?
Now I can tell everyone: Look, I am sure you can do Form theatre for 4 year olds. If it is possible in Norway, then it is a possible in Brazil, too.
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