Augusto Boal

Augusto Boal was a Brazilian dramatist, born on March 16, 1931, in Rio de Janeiro, and died on May 2, 2009 (Leukemia) in Rio de Janeiro. He created the Theatre of the Oppressed, which is a form of interactive theatre that intends to transform lives as viewers become performers, acting out solutions to social issues. He began his career in 1956 with the Arena Theatre in São Paulo, where he was a director until 1971, the time in which he developed his theories.

Boal was arrested in 1971 by the military party that ruled Brazil and spent the next 15 years in banishment. During this time he published Teatro del oprimido y otras poéticas políticas (Theatre of the Oppressed) in 1974, set up a centre in Paris for the practice of his theory, and arranged international Theatre of the Oppressed festivals during the first half of the 1980s.

In 1992 he published Jeux pour acteurs et non-acteurs (Games for Actors and Non-Actors), which discusses techniques for putting his system into practice. He also arranged international festivals for practitioners that had the same style of theatre.

Boal drew inspiration from Freire, Brecht, and Stanislavski, which allowed his to develop the Theater of the Oppressed in practice throughout his career, starting in the '50s in Brazil and then in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador and France while being exiled by the military dictatorship.



Theatre of the Oppressed:

His form of theatre was merely suggestive and the performances were almost completely improvised, given that the audience would implant their ideas and questions into the play whilst it was being performed. There was a case in which a woman had felt her ideas were not being shown own stage or her question was not answered on stage so she got up on stage and performed it herself.

Is a plethora of theatre techniques and games that seek to motivate individuals, restore true dialogue, and create areas for participants to rehearse taking action. It starts with the concept that everyone has the ability to act in the "theatre" of their personal lives; everyone is at once an actor and a spectator. We are "spect-actors!", which is a word Boal invented. 

Boal emphasises on the fact that we are merely passive audience members, we shift our desire to take action onto the characters we identify with, and then find that desire complete as the conflict settles itself on stage, films or the news. 

Boal, in the footsteps of Brecht, refers to this as bourgeois theater, which operates to reproduce elite visions of the world and appease spectators. He says bourgeois theatre is "finished" theatre; the bourgeoisie already know what the world is like and then merely perform it onstage.

In contrast to bourgeois theatre, "the people" are not yet aware of what their world will be like. Their "authentic"  theatre is therefore incomplete, and can provide space to practice various possible outcomes. As Boal says “One knows how these experiments will begin but not how they will end, because the spectator is freed from his chains, finally acts, and becomes a protagonist.”


Different forms of the Theatre of the Oppressed:

Image theatre- invites spect-actors to create an arrangement of frozen poses to capture a moment in time dramatizing and oppressive scenario. 

Forum theatre- a short performance or scene that dramatizes a scenario, with an extremely oppressive ending that spect-actors cannot be satisfied with. 

Invisible theatre- a performance that masquerades as reality, performed in a public area. 




Marking the moment:

This is a method of underlining the most important moment in a scene in order to draw the audience's attention to its importance. There are multiple methods of marking the moment:

- A still image may be used. Freezing the action at a certain time fixes it in the audience's minds and makes sure its significant isn't lost. 

- The key moment may be repeated or performed 'on a loop'. 

- Slow motion may be used to highlight a key moment, so that its not lost on an audience.

- Narration or a thought-track may be included as a commentary on what has just took place. 

- Lighting and sound. A spotlight could be used to direct the focus of the audience towards the key moment and a sound effect could also be used to draw attention to it. 

Marking the moment is helpful in rehearsal as it aids actors consider the most significant moments communicated within a scene and confirms their impact is not lost upon the audience.  





Forum theatre

Wad developed by Augusto Boal, which is an extremely useful tool for exploring drama during the process of rehearsal. Company members become 'spect-actors' as opposed to spectators. This means that while watching the performance they can stop it and take the place of a performer on stage to test out a new idea. Sharing ideas in this improvised practical way can give fresh insight into a role and desist the drama from becoming stale.

A facilitator is required to manage communication amongst the players and the audience. This strategy destroys the barrier between performers and the audience, making the equal. It also permits participant to test out courses of action which could be relevant to their everyday lives. The technique was originally developed by Boal as a political tool for change, although it is often used in drama work.