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Performance and Social Change
Professor Sonja Kuftinec
University of Minnesota (Spring 2005)

Let us be mad artists, let us be artists . . . mad. — Augusto Boal

COURSE DESCRIPTION

A practical and theoretical exploration of Boal’s work in conversation with those who influenced and critiqued him . . . in a safe space for student risk-taking where amazing things can happen every week.

Brazilian-born Augusto Boal has been working for five decades to transform individuals and societies through theater. Believing that everyone has the capacity to act—to take action and reflect on their conditions of being—Boal developed a “theater of the oppressed,” embracing techniques including forum, image, invisible and legislative theater, all designed to raise consciousness and propel action towards individual and social change. Performance and Social Change investigates the possibilities and limitations of Boal’s techniques through workshops, presentations, and discussions. Critical and practical readings, impassioned debate, and community-based research will dynamize our learning as we explore Boal’s strategies, applying them to our own lives and surroundings. We will do so through a structure that gradually moves us from the safe space we create in the classroom to one you will co-create with communities, always reflecting on our practice as we do so.

PEDAGOGY “Education is transitive or it isn’t education” (Boal)

Boal’s work is based in part on the radical pedagogy theories of Paolo Freire who critiques the “banking model” of education. In this model, the teacher is the subject and the students objects of learning who return to the teacher what has been deposited into their minds (though often without interest to either party). We will engage three principles designed to resist this model:

1. Dialogic Interactions in which we learn from each other. This process will become essential as workshop exercises move from the classroom to community engagement and facilitation.
2. Praxis, an ongoing intersection of action and theory-- learning and applying principles through active, reflective practice.
3. Learning Community: Modeling bell hooks, this kind of community requires active presence, preparation, and participation from everyone to create a relational network of learning rather than either monologic or even dialogic experiences. This process requires the difficult work of reflecting on our social and individual differences--expressing respectful dissent rather than passive consensus that may unconsciously mask dominant ideologies and behaviors.

STRUCTURE

The class incorporates three basic units designed to build community, practice facilitation techniques, and move students into the role of facilitators of each other and finally external communities. In the final unit of class we will also attend to critiques of Boal’s methodologies through in-class readings as well as graduate student presentations. Assignments are designed to build relationships and practice techniques as well as to critically engage in and reflect on readings and activities. The class will culminate with final group projects and a critical anthology based in student case studies, applied critical analysis, and external research.

COURSE GOALS

By the end of the semester students should be able to:

1. Practice several TO methods for building community/ creating safe space for risk-taking
2. Design a provocative activating scene for a forum theater workshop
3. Co-create a workshop suited for a particular community’s interests and concerns designed to reflect on and imagine possibilities for constructive change
4. Joker a TO workshop within the classroom and selected community
5. Give and receive honest critique
6. Understand and enunciate key theories underlying Boal’s theatrical practice
7. Apply these theories to practical case studies

Graduate students should additionally be able to:

1. Critically analyze Boal’s work via theoretical paradigms from their disciplines
2. Refine TO practices based on these critiques

READINGS

Required [*Indicates that the text is also on reserve in Wilson library. These are expensive through bookstore—try Amazon for better deals.]

Frances Babbage Boal
* Augusto Boal Games for Actors and Non-Actors
* ---, Rainbow of Desire
* Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
Michael Rohd Theatre for Community, Conflict and Dialogue
* Mady Schutzman and Jan Cohen-Cruz Playing Boal

Recommended Reading

* Augusto Boal Theatre of the Oppressed ($13)
*---, Legislative Theater ($27)

Additional readings will be placed on electronic reserve or handed out in class. For E-RESERVE: http://eres.lib.umn.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=51. PASSWORD: badg987

ASSESSMENTS

1. Participation - 30%

• Active Participation in and preparation for classroom exercises/discussion
• blog/postings

2. Reading and Short Assignments - 35%

Careful reading of selected articles reflected in:
Group discussions/presentations, formal reflection papers, and case studies
Graduate students: additional oral presentations

3. Final Project - 35%

• Group Presentation - 15%
• Final Paper - 20%

BRIEF ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES

PARTICIPATION - To work effectively, this class requires active participation every week. Deep commitment will help to model the challenges and delights of community-building. If you can not attend class for an important reason, please contact me BEFORE hand so that we can options for making up work. More than one absence—excused or unexcused—will impact your grade, but more importantly it will impact class dynamics and your learning. Please be here on time each week!

Blogs: Space is available on our website for students to keep an informal blog about the class. This is not graded or required, but strongly encouraged as a way to reflect on your journey in a way that will inform later projects and assignments.

Postings: Critical reflection on events happening in class sessions. Rather than being simple entries journaling events of the class, postings should engage in critical thought about the work happening in class. You may be asked to incorporate material from specific readings into your postings. All postings should be done on our course website in the “Postings” section.

READINGS/REFLECTIONS - Readings help to place our practical work in historical, theoretical, or critical contexts. They introduce key ideas and provide a space for reflection on what happens in and outside of the class. I’ll sometimes ask that you respond to readings in a threaded web discussion, posting, or written paper.

Discussions: Postings that engage with our learning community on various topics, generally focusing on specific readings for a given week. Critical discussions give students the opportunity to discuss key ideas, terms, and problems posed in our course readings with each other before class meetings. What distinguishes discussions from critical postings is that discussions will be in direct conversation with other students, often replying to their concerns and ideas, rather than serving as an autonomous sharing of thoughts.

Critical sums: In a critical summary you will present a brief, neutral summary of the key argument of the article and then present your own commentary on that argument, positioning yourself within your own area of discourse (theatre, education, cultural studies, etc.).

Key Terms: Similar to a critical summary, the key term assignments serve as formal writing assignments in which students engage with key terms from a unit of study and then position/critique these ideas from their own areas of research/discourse. Rather than looking at one specific article or reading, the key term assignments work as a critical summary of an entire unit of study.

Case Studies: Formal writing assignments in which students explicates specific activities or events with analytic engagement. The case study serves as a documentation, but also foregrounds the underlying theory at work and offers critiques from this perspective.

Letter to Boal: Students will have an opportunity to craft an email to Boal himself! This will provide the student with opportunities to ask questions, share practices, etc. These emails will be sent directly to Boal (and who knows—perhaps he will respond to some of them!).

COURSE WEBSITE: vista.umn.edu for electronic postings and discussions [see attached]

GRADUATE PRESENTATIONS

Graduate students will give oral presentations that offer framings and critiques of Boal’s work from their particular discipline. Presentations should be 20-30 minutes in length and include an exercise that has been modified to reflect their critical perspective.

FINAL PROJECT

You will be working with communities in groups of between 2-4 to rehearse TO strategies informed by knowledge of the communities and external research (in the case of graduate students). Tactics might include forum theater or Rainbow of Desire workshops, legislative theater pieces, or critical literacy projects through theater. We will also be creating Playing Boal II, an anthology of critical articles (graduate students), case studies (undergraduates), and a manual of exercises used based on your final project.

Participating communities include Jane Addams Citizenship Center in St. Paul, Stillwater Prison, St. Paul Central High School, Intermedia Arts, and the Public Achievement program with the Humphrey institute. You may also choose to work with a community with whom you have contact.

Writing: Graduate students will compose a critical essay applying external field critique and expanding on their modifications of Boal exercises. Undergraduates will compose a case study related to their project that includes one clear description of an exercise that they helped to develop/joker.

COURSE POLICIES

Disability
Please see me if you have a disability which I should be aware of, or that requires assignment adjustments.

Grading
Grading is based on preparation, thoughtfulness, and creativity. Please note that As are reserved for truly exceptional work. I have no problem, however, assigning everyone an A in the class if you all do exceptional work. In fact, I would love it.

• A – Achievement that is outstanding relative to the level necessary to meet course requirements
• B - Achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to meet course requirements
• C - Achievement that meets course requirements in every respect
• D - Achievement that is worthy of credit even though it fails to meet fully the course requirements
• F – Represents failure and signifies that the work was either (1) completed, but at a level of achievement that is not worthy of credit or (2) was not completed and there was no agreement between the instructor and the student that the students would be awarded an Incomplete (see Incompletes)

Academic Dishonesty in any portion of the academic work for a course shall be grounds for awarding a grade of F or N for the entire course

Incompletes

Incompletes may be assigned, as the CLA Bulletin states, only when (a) I can reasonably expect that you can successfully complete unfinished coursework no later than the end of the next semester (Fall 2005) and (b) I believe legitimate reasons exist to justify extending the deadline for course completion. Legitimate reasons may include personal trauma (physical harm, grieving) and religious observance. They do notinclude travel, vacations, employment, or requirements for other courses. Any "incomplete" grades I assign will be done so only after we agree in writing and in advance on the conditions for make-up. An "I" not completed by the last day of Fall semester 2005 will be changed to a "F" grade.

Readings

All readings should be completed before class begins on Friday, in the week in which they are listed. For E-RESERVE: http://eres.lib.umn.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=51. PASSWORD:badg987

Rehearsal Spaces

See attached guidelines for use of rehearsal spaces.

 

WEEKLY SCHEDULE (subject to adjustments)

UNIT I BASICS (safe space, performance, theory, and praxis)

Week 1 Building and Exploring Community - Jan. 21

Assignment #1: Blog/posting on class; Select newspaper article

Week 2 Key Ideas & Concerns - Jan. 28 - Posting/reflection

Readings: [all on electronic reserve except Freire]

Theory
Paulo Freire preface, Ch. 1, Ch. 2
Boal on Freire – Legislative 126-128
Theatre of the Oppressed selections
Context/Intro
Playing Boal intro 1-4
Babbage- Context for TO 2-33
Boal- 3 stories in Games . . . intro, preface—16

Assignment #2: Discussion groups and newspaper theater

Week 3 Theater as a Language of Literacy Feb. 4

Newspaper theater

Readings:
Legislative Theater- Categories of popular forms 211-246
Theatre of the Oppressed- Alfin 119-156
Sample newspaper from journal
Supplemental: Freire Education for Critical Consciousness

Assignment#3: Key Term Analysis

UNIT II TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES (students begin jokering)

Week 4 Image Theater Feb. 11

Key Terms Reflection

Readings:
Rainbow of Desire “Aesthetic Space” 13-39 [Electronic Reserve]
Games for Actors and Non-Actors on image 174-192 [Electronic Reserve]

Assignment #4: Group discussion and Image theater work

Week 5 Rainbow of Desire/Moreno Feb. 18

Image Theater

Readings:
Rainbow “Cop-in-the-head” 40-73; Practices Part II
Games “Cop-in-the-head” 206-214
Feldhendler on Moreno in Playing Boal 87-109 [electronic reserve]

Assignment #5: Posting; 2 groups lead forum

Week 6 Forum I-Preparation Feb. 25

Jokering review Posting/abstract
Pre-forum work; basic forum

Readings:
Games – Forum in Europe . . . 18-28; 226-276
Babbage- Forum examples 64-105
Freire Chapters 3, 4

Assignment #6: Formal reflection on Freire as posting or handed in Friday

Week 7 Community-Based Theater & Storytelling March 4

Free Southern Theatre/story circles and Community building John O’Neal
Masks and Ritual Michael Agnew

Reading: O’Neal articles [electronic reserve or hand out] Formal writing
Rainbow Masks and Rituals 198-205

Assignment #7: Threaded web discussion

Week 8 Forum Theater II- Jokering March 11

Warm-up/Workshop- preparation for forum; discussion Final Project guides Jan Mandell

Reading:
Paul Heritage, Doug Paterson articles on International Festival [electronic reserve]
Schutzman- “Brechtian Shamanism” in Playing Boal Threaded web

Assignment #8: Develop activating scene in groups with discussion of articles

SPRING BREAK [potential Stillwater visit]

Week 9 Forum III- Activating Scenes March 25

Activating Scenes Final Project groups

Grad Presentation guides

Readings:
Rohd- Activating Scenes 97-111; Facilitation 112-127; Peer Education 128-140
Babbage “Forum Theater in Production”
Sharon Green/Grace Telesco “Boal and Beyond” [Electronic reserve]
Supplemental: Service Learning Reading

Assignment #9: Case Study of forum theater project

Group meetings, discussions, legislative theater

UNIT III: CRITICAL AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENTS

Week 10 Legislative Theater April 1

Grad Presentations (2) in conjunction with readings- praxis model (exercise and reading) Case study
Legislative Theater presentation
Charles- Case studies

Readings:
Legislative Theater 3-52 ; Playwriting: Show and the Community 53-101
Selections from Harry Boyte Everyday Politics and Legislation [Electronic Reserve]
“Theatricalizing Politics” interview with Boal in Playing Boal 227-234

Assignment #10: Group meetings, posting on Shinina, Mattingly, write to Boal

[Devising Theater Workshop with Michael Rohd Wed. 6 April 6:30-9:30]

Week 11 Devising workshops April 8

Readings: Guglielmo Shinina “ Here we are” [electronic reserve] Michael Rohd

CUT Dorren Mattingly [electronic reserve or hand out] Posting, Write Boal

Assignment #11: Blog, group meetings, presentations, 2 groups prepare for outside visit

Week 12 Community Workshop/Critique April 15

Possible outside visit
Grad presentations (2) in conjunction with readings [Laura, Rachel]

Readings: summary response
bell hooks “Politics of Radical Black Subjectivity”
“Feminist Acts” Berenice Fisher 185-197
[“Subverting Whiteness”]

Assignment #12: Abstract/response to critical article on Boal (due by April 29th)

Week 13 Community Workshops April 22

Grad Presentations (2) in conjunction with readings [Christopher]

Readings:
CUT Philip Auslander “Boal, Blau, Brecht” in Playing Boal 124-133 summary response
Julie Salverson “Mask of Solidarity” in Playing Boal 157-170
“Structures of Power” Lib Spry in Playing Boal 171-184

Assignment #13: Group work prepare in-process presentations

Week 14 Final Projects in Progress April 29

Demonstrate technique; technique change

Week 15 Final Project Presentations May 6

Official Reading Day: time available to work on projects

Week 16 [Final Exam week]- critical case studies due May 11

Wed. May 11 10:30-12:30 Final Exam time- project presentation/documentation

Final writing due