Tomato Talk on Augusto Boal and the Theatre of the Oppressed

This is an entry by Cathy Mc. Fadden, who will be delivering a presentation on her experience with Community Theatre in Dublin, her city of origin. This will be held on Saturday, June, 25th at our Going Tomatoes Drama Club and it will be a one day seminar in July. Check for the exact dates on our calendar within next week-.

Next, some more details by Cathy herself:

Dear Tomato Drama Club,

Well, to whet your appetites about what to expect in my part of the workshop on June 25th, here are some thoughts about community drama and one of its founding fathers, Augusto Boal...

I first heard the name Augusto Boal when a friend and I developed a piece of street theatre to be used to launch Amnesty International Ireland's 'Stop Violence Against Women' campaign. Boal is a Brazilian theatre director and teacher who developed a theatrical system called 'The Theatre of the Oppressed'. His idea was that people who are experiencing any kind of oppression, for example in the workplace, family or community, try to find a way to resolve this oppression using theatrical means. There are various strands to 'The Theatre of the Oppressed' and 'Forum Theatre' is one of the most interesting ones. In 'Forum theatre', a group of people who are experiencing an oppression in their own lives present it as a play: for example community members who are being intimideated by drug dealers in their neighbourhood. The audience watching the play are also experiencing this oppression, and as the action unfolds, anybody can shout 'stop', go up on to the stage, and intervene in the action so as to bring about a more positive ending, or offer a potential solution to the problem being presented. Boal called Forum theatre " a rehearsal for life": the idea being that the solutions proposed could then be put into practise to solve problems in real life. Forum theatre has been used all over the world to explore solutions to real societal and cultural problems.

One of Boal's most famous books is called "Games for Actors and Non-Actors", ie the Theatre of the Oppressed is for everybody, no theatrical experience is required. This spirit of democracy can be seen in the concept of the audience member being converted into an actor; in this way Boal breaks down the artificial wall which usually exists between actor and audience. Before a piece of Forum theatre, if possible some of Boal's theatre games should be played with everybody, and we will try out several of these games in my workshop! They are all fun games, but with a deeper societal significance under the surface. We will then go on to some Image Theatre, which is a kind of improvisation without words, people using their bodies to make images, often still images. And perhaps in a future workshop, we might be able to come up with our own piece of Forum Theatre! I was privileged to be able to do some workshops with Boal himself and with his son, Julian, in Ireland. I'm really passionate about his work and his ideas, and I hope you will be too after I share them with you!

Cheers,
Cathy