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Boal and Beyond
Professor Jan Cohen-Cruz
New York University, New York. N.Y.
Tisch School of the Arts
Drama Department (Spring 2005)

An introduction to the practice and ideas of Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed, a body of theatrical techniques that physically activate spectators and empower them to rehearse alternatives to their collective and individual oppressions. Participants will begin each day playing some of Boal's games. We'll then focus on the major techniques -- forum, in which spectators explore their own solutions to collective problems by intervening at the crisis point of a scenario; image, a techniques that privileges physical expression, providing an alternative form of communication not reliant on language; invisble theatre, staged in public spaces and masquerading as life; and rainbow of desire, a body of therapeutic techniques geared toward the individual. I'll describe his more recent work with legislative theatre and sambopera. We'll then move on to adaptations of this work beyond Boal, in response to the desires of the participants and perhaps, time allowing, will explore his “joker system,” a totally beguiling and under-explored way Boal devised of working with dramatic material.

I. BOAL

#1 1/18 Beginning Boal. Games and exercises. Overview of Boal's work. Hand-out on Joker System and, in two groups, try.
For next class: read first half of Theatre of the Oppressed.

#2. 1/25 Theatre of the Oppressed, I. Design invisible theatres.
For next class: Read 2nd half of Theatre of the Oppressed.

#3. 2/1 Theatre of the Oppressed, II. Discuss and do image theatre exercises. For next class: read Bakhtin, carnival; Freire, excerpt; Marx, the Communist Manifesto; Brecht, active spectator. Bring in a newspaper clipping to which you have a strong reaction.

#4. 2/8 Sources/ Influences on Boal. Do newspaper theatre.
For next class: Read excerpt from Rainbow of Desire.

#5. 2/15 Rainbow of Desire and set up forum theatres.

#6. 2/22 Perform Forum Theatres with Rainbow Interventions as well.

Begin reading Playing Boal (Intro and first section).

II. BEYOND

#7. 2/29 Spread and Adaptation of Boal's Work in North America and Europe. Do one of the adapted exercise. Discuss multiple protagonists.
For next week: read second section of Playing Boal. 

8. 3/7 Playing Boal. Discuss middle section and, in groups, adapt invisible, image, and rainbow exercises for rehearsal techniques.
For next week: finish reading Playing Boal.

SPRING BREAK Week of March 13- 19

#9. 3/21 Adapting TO Ideas
Guest Mady Schutzman and experimentation with idea of metaxis.
For next week: read excerpts of Games for Actors and Non-Actors and any other book of exercises adaptable to non-actors (Spolin, Johnstone etal.)

#10. 3/28 Adapting TO Exercises
Compare Boal's ex.s to others you use. In groups, brainstorm workshops with particular popula­tions using Boal & another sysytem of exercises­. Make groups for Final Project: choose one Boal-based tech­nique to take further. Sign up for presentation date.

#11. 4/4 “Joking” for Particular Populations Continue last class’s project. Share works-in-prog­ress with class, with equal emphasis on the role of the leader or joker. For next week: read excerpt of Legislative Theatre.

#12. 4/11 Legislative Theatre. How would you use/ adapt that model in the U.S.? Discuss art and civic dialogue initiatives currently taking place.
For next week: Guest Paul Heritage’s adaptation of Boal for inmates and guards in prisons. Reading: hand-out.

#13. 4/18 TO with Heterogenous Groups.
Guest Paul Heritage on his adaptation of TO in prisons. 

#14. 4/25 Final Projects and Closure. 

Readings:

Augusto Boal, Theatre of the Oppressed
Mady Schutzman and Jan Cohen-Cruz, ed. Playing Boal
Class Packet, Boal and Beyond, available at NYU Book Shop, with:
Michail Bakhtin, from Rabelais and His World
Augusto Boal, from Rainbow of Desire, Games for Actors and non-Actors, Legislative Theatre
Paolo Freire, from Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
Grading is based on attendance, informed participation, and final project.
Class #1: Hand shake exercise.
Explain its significance vis-a-vis TO.

Adapted from my entry about Boal in Theatrical Directors, a Biographical Dictionary ed. John W Frick and Stephen M. Vallillo (Westport, CO: Greenwood Press), 1994: 39-41.

Augusto Boal is known internationally as the creator of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO), a body of theatrical techniques that physically activate spectators and empower them to rehearse alternatives to their collective oppressions. Boal honed his theatrical skills as director of the Arena Stage in Sao Paulo (1956-71). In 1964 and 1968 Brazil experienced two military coups. Boal worked to restore democracy through both theatrical and political means. While touring agitprop plays for peasants and workers, Boal devised “forum theatre,” a TO technique in which spectators explore their own solutions to collective problems rather than be told what to do by actors who do not share their circumstances. In forum, a collectively created scene is played up to a crisis, at which point spectators (who Boal calls “spectactors”) are invited to intervene, physically replace the protagonist, and try out their own solutions.

Based in Argentina from 1971-76 (having been jailed in Brazil for his activities), Boal further developed TO. Invited to participate in a national literacy campaign in Peru in 1973, Boal invented “image theatre,” a technique that privileges physical expression and thus provides a form of aesthetic communication that transcends spoken language and educational difference. Returning to Argentina, forbidden to do political theatre under an increasingly repressive regime, Boal devised “invisible theatre.” Staged in public spaces and masquerading as real life, these theatrical scenarios addressing social issues caught people's attention and led to energetic discussions. Finally, unable to do theatre at all because of military rule, Boal wrote Theatre of the Oppressed (1974), Latin American Techniques of Popular Theatre (1975), and 200 Exercises and Games for Actors and Non-Actors (1975).

From 1976 to 1986 Boal was in exile in Europe where, as a result of the translation of Theatre of the Oppressed into 25 languages, his reputation expanded. In 1979 he established a Parisian company and Center for Theatre of the Oppressed and led many TO workshops throughout the continent. At first frustrated by the themes of loneliness and alienation the Europenas brought to the sessions, Boal came to realize the depth of pain caused by these internal oppressions and their connection to external oppressions. He began to develop the body of therapeutic theatre work that he eventually wrote about in Rainbow of Desire (published in English in 1994).

In 1986, after a change in government, Boal returned to Brazil. In 1992 he was elected to a city council position in Rio and developed his next body of work, recently published as Legislative Theatre.

Hand out syllabus, go over.
Overview of Boal developing TO.
Handout Joker System description and, in two groups, try.