Augusto Boal

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Augusto Boal (born 1931 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) is an innovative and influential theatrical director, writer and politician. He is the founder of "Theatre of the Oppressed" (T.O.), a political theatrical form originally used in radical popular education movements, growing up alongside Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed." Boal was elected as a Vereador (Brazilian equivalent of city council seat in US politics) in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 but he was not reelected in 1996. He received a Ph. D. in Chemical engineering from Columbia University in the 1950s.

1 Career
2 Teachings
- 2.1 Newspaper Theatre
- 2.2 Invisible Theatre
3 Recognition
4 Bibliography
5 See also
6 External links

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Career

Boal took an interest in theatre at an early age, but didn’t become involved himself until he received his degree. Shortly after graduating from university, Boal was asked to work with the Arena Theatre in São Paulo, southeast Brazil. It was here that he began to experiment with new forms of theatre that would totally change its future.

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Teachings

Maddy Alexander was a major influence on Boal’s teachings. He and Freire became so close in later years, that when Freire died, Boal is quoted to have said:

I am very sad. I have lost my last father. Now all I have are brothers and sisters.

In the 1960s, Boal used to apply 'simultaneous dramaturgy' a process where the audience members could stop a performance and suggest different actions for the actors to carry out onstage in order to disrupt the traditional audience/actor split. Eventually 'Forum Theatre' was born from 'simultaneous dramaturgy' when audience members began taking the place of actors, further disrupting the audience/actor split. He discovered that through this active participation, the audience-actors, who Boal calls "spect-actors,"become empowered not only to imagine change, but to actually practice that change, reflect collectively on the suggestion, and thereby become empowered to generate social action. Theatre soon became a catalyst for grass-roots activism.

Boal created his techniques after realising the limitations of didactic politically motivated theatre in poor areas. He found that his attempts to inspire people living in poor or 'slum' areas into rising up against racial and class inequality and injustice was inhibited by his own racial and class background (himself being white and comparatively well off). Therefore he created techniques which allowed the idea of rebellion and therefore the impetus for change to come from within the target group. He became a mere 'Facilitator' in the process. Although in origin these techniques were designed with 'left wing' and 'revolutionary' intention they have subsequently been used by Boal and by others to address social concerns such as sexism, childhood bullying, inequality in the workplace and home, and a plethora of other matters of social concern to communities across the globe.

Boal’s teachings caused a lot of controversy, and he was labeled a cultural activist – which the 1960s Brazilian military coups saw as a threat. In 1971, shortly after his first book Theatre of the Oppressed was published, Boal was arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to Argentina, later fleeing to Europe. Eventually Boal lived in Paris, teaching his revolutionary approach to theatre for twelve years, and creating several Centers for the Theatre of Oppressed. In 1981, he organized the first ever International Festival of the Theatre of Oppressed in Paris.

After the end of Brazil’s military junta, Boal returned to Rio de Janeiro where he still lives today. He has since established a major Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio, and has started over a dozen theatre companies that work to develop community-based projects. Brief descriptions of the Theatre of the Oppressed arsenal are listed below.

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Newspaper Theatre

A system of twelve techniques… giving the audience the means of production rather than the finished artistic product. They are devised to help anyone to make a theatrical scene using a piece of news from a newspaper, or from any other written material.

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Invisible Theatre

… A direct action against society, on a precise theme of general interest, to provoke debate and to clarify the problem that must be solved. It should never be violent, because its aim is to reveal the violence that exists in society, and not to reproduce it. It is a previously rehearsed play that is performed in a public space without anyone knowing that it is a play.

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Recognition

In 1994, Boal won the UNESCO Pablo Picasso Medal, and in August 1997 he was awarded the 'Career Achievement Award' by the Association of Theatre in Higher Education at their national conference in Chicago, Illinois, where he conducted a five-hour workshop for conference attendees as well as collecting the award. Boal went on a first major tour of the US in February and March, 1999, traveling to various universities and colleges, many of which now have student T.O. companies working regularly on Boal’s techniques.

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