Theatre of the Oppressed 101

1. Theatre of the Oppressed 101 A Theatrical Workshop: By Michelle Nguyen Mrs. Foran | ADA 4M | April 2013

3. INTRO to TO • Theatre of the Oppressed is a form and set of techniques developed by Augusto Boal from Brasil in 1971. • The goal of this style is to promote social and political change, and being able to understand the reality. The audience/participants become "spect-actors" and explore, show, analyse and transform the reality in which they are living through series of exercises, games, techniques and four types of drama forms.

4. Boal recognized that humans have a unique ability to take action in the world while simultaneously observing themselves in action and believed that humans were a self-contained theatre, actor and spectator in one. • Reality is shown not only as it is, but more importantly, as it could be. Because we can observe, amend, adjust and alter our actions, we can make a change and difference in this world. • So far this aim has been largely successful: Theatre of the Oppressed is now used by millions of people in more than 70 countries.

5. TERMINOLOGY • Oppressed: anyone who is subject to others having power over them. • Oppressor:: person who has power over another person. • Spect-actor: person who takes part as both an actor and an audience. • Difficultator: the facilitator who offers challenges to a group with the games and techniques that examine and dismantle dynamics of oppression and social change. • Sculpt: process of creating images with people's bodies. • Self-sculpt: to create an image with one's own body. • Dynamization: process of adding movements, sounds and words into a piece of Image Theatre.

6. FORMS OF THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED

7. IMAGE THEATRE • Image Theatre is a form that uses collectively constructed still images to convey meaning when exploring issues of oppression. • It uses nonverbal expression and sculpting their own and other participants' bodies into static physical images that can depict anything concrete or abstract, like a feeling, issue, relationship or moment. • This theatre is great with groups where there are students who have little or no experience with drama, and enables students to explore their own feelings and experiences in a less forbidding way than usual improvisation.

8. QUICK IMAGE THEATRE EXCERCISE! • Everybody stands in a circle. Students create physical images (tableau) in response to a given theme- bullying. This should be done quickly without pre-thought. Then each person one by one steps into the circle and remake their image. Once all students are in, it can be "dynamized" or can stay as an abstract cluster image.

9. FORUM THEATRE • Forum Theatre is a play performed in front of an audience in which audience members can step onstage, and take the place of a character or characters and change the story's outcome. It is the most commonly used tools from Theatre of the Oppressed. • The protagonist is in a real-like situation, and becomes oppressed. After the first performance, we transform from a spectator to "spect-actor" and at any point, yell "freeze" and take the place of an actor to attempt to transform the outcome. • Things "spect-actors" will realise in this theatre is that without intervention, nothing will change. Doing "something" is not enough, it's got to be strategic. On stage oppressors will maintain their oppression until they are naturally and authentically stopped. The point is not to show what we think other people should do but what we CAN do.

10. FORUM THEATRE cont’d • The facilitator of Forum theatre will pop in realistic questions after interventions, ex. "Can this work in real life?" or "Was this realistic?". • Throughout stopping and attempting to change outcome through action, this is active, fun and creates community dialogue and development. • In a nutshell, it’s interactive! • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vi1HfSiMxCU

11. LEGISLATIVE THEATRE • Legislative Theatre is an extension of Boal's Forum Theatre techniques and functions to determine the need for, create, and enact laws. Beyond community building and issue awareness, Legislative Theatre uses theatrical techniques to create concrete and specific socio-political impact.

12. INVISIBLE THEATRE • Invisible Theatre is theatre that seeks never to be recognized as theater, performed in a public place. The goal is to make the intervention as realistic as possible so that it provokes spontaneous responses. The scene must be loud and heard by the people, and should not appear as if it is pre-staged (which it is). Bystanders can and will engage the scene as if it's real, which it will be for them. The unique achievement of Invisible theatre compared to other is that it removes the barrier between the performers and the audience. This can create accessible conflicts/situations where people are forced upon to engage in sensitive issues they might otherwise avoid. • Ex. In New York City in 2003, actors posing as tourists made loud comments about the potential terrorist threat posed by two Muslim women in hijab (also actors) who were taking photos of the Empire State Building. This scene sparked important dialogue about racial profiling and the “War on Terror.” 

13. RAINBOW OF DESIRE • Rainbow of Desire is a specific therapeutic theatrical technique that releases personal internalized oppression. • In a nutshell, it’s a smaller form of psychological theatre.

14. WARM UP ACTIVITIES • Game playing is the core of Theatre of the Oppressed. An extensive arsenal of well crafted and expertly facilitated games allows participants to stretch the limits of their imaginations, demechanize habitual behaviors and deconstruct and analyze societal structures of power and oppression. Plus, game playing is fun and builds community!

15. So we’re going to play a couple games!

16. Concentric Interview Circles: This game is aimed at re-imagining and re-shaping how we communicate, both verbally and non-verbally, and how that affects power relations in our daily lives.  • An even number of participants face each other in an inner and outer circle. Facilitator asks a question that each partner answers for the other for one minute before switching. • Questions move from broader to more specific, or from less personal to more intimate. Ask these ones! • What is the story/meaning of your name? • What experience do you have with social issues; which one means to you most? • What kind of Forum Theatre audience would you like to work with if you had the chance? • What was the last dream you can remember?

17. Human Knot: This game will help problem solving skills and team work. Everyone is working towards one goal- to untangle themselves! • All participants in the Human Knot game should stand in a tight circle, and put one hand in the centre. There should be a large tangle of hands, in which no one can tell which hand belongs to whom, and each person should grab another hand. (Look up to the ceiling if need!) • Once everyone has grabbed a hand, participants should put their other hand into the circle, and grab another hand. • When everyone is holding two hands, each person should find out who they are holding hands with. If this is being played as an ice-breaker, everyone should introduce themselves to the two other people. Make sure that each person is holding hands with two different people, or the Human Knot cannot be untangled! • Untangle the Human Knot! The only rule is that participants must hold onto the two other individuals' hands until the Human Knot has been untangled - anything else goes! • End result is a circle.

18. To end off my workshop... • Here’s a quick quote by Augusto Boal: “The theatre itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution.”