From: Bill Koehnlein <nyms1-AT-blythe.org>
Subject: Theater of the Oppressed w/ Augusto Boal NYC 3-30
To: nyms1-AT-nyxfer.blythe.org (Bill Koehnlein)
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 05:00:59 -0500 (EST)



The Brecht Forum

122 West 27 Street, 10 floor
New York, New York 10001
(212) 242-4201
(212) 741-4563 (fax)
nyms1-AT-nyxfer.blythe.org (e-mail)


The Brecht Forum
and the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory
present

Image Theater: An Introduction to the Theater of the
Oppressed

a workshop conducted by Augusto Boal

Saturday, March 30 from 12 noon to 6 pm

Designed for educators and activists in all fields, this
introductory workshop offers a series of exercises, games,
and problem-solving techniques, such as "The Image of
Images," that explore relations of power and group solutions
to concrete problems through living body imagery. Aimed at
transforming spectators into "spect-actors"--protagonists of
theatrical action--Image Theater helps develop dialog and
critical thinking.

Augusto Boal, Brazilian playwright/director and major
innovator in Brechtian theater, is the founder of the
Theater of the Oppressed. He served as Artistic Director of
the Arena Theater in Sao Paulo from 1956 to 1971. In the
early 1970s, he came under attack from the Brazilian
government, resulting in his imprisonment, torture, and
subsequent exile. An activist in the Brazilian Workers'
Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores; PT), Boal was elected to
the City Council of Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Once installed
in office, he adapted his theater techniques for use in city
politics, with some hilarious--and sometimes rancorous--
results. Boal has written numerous books and articles, and
has lectured, performed, and conducted workshops on six
continents. In New York, he has presented workshops with The
Brecht Forum and the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory
since 1990.

Tuition is $100. Limited enrollment, and pre-registration
and pre-payment is required. To enroll, please call The
Brecht Forum at (212) 242-4201.

*****


WHAT IS THE THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED?

"The Marxist poetics of Bertolt Brecht does not stand
opposed to one or another formal aspect of the Hegelian
idealist poetics but rather denies its very essence,
asserting that the character _is not absolute subject_ but
the object of economic or social forces to which he responds
and in virtue of which he acts...

"In Brecht's objection [to idealist poetics], as well as in
any other Marxist objection, what is at stake is who, or
which term, precedes the other: the subjective or the
objective. For idealist poetics, social thought conditions
social being; for Marxist poetics, social being conditions
social thought. In Hegel's view, the spirit creates the
dramatic action; for Brecht, the character's social
relations create the dramatic action....

"Brecht was a Marxist; therefore, for him, a theatrical work
cannot end in repose, in equilibrium. It must, on the
contrary, show the ways in which society loses its
equilibrium, which way society is moving, and how to hasten
that transition.

"Brecht contends that the popular artist must abandon the
downtown stages and go to the neighborhoods, because only
there will he find people who are truly interested in
changing society: in the neighborhoods he should show his
images of social life to the workers who are interested in
changing that social life, since they are its victims. A
theater that attempts to change the changers of society
cannot lead to repose, cannot re-establish equilibrium. The
bourgeois police tries to re-establish equilibrium, to
enforce repose: a Marxist artist, on the other hand, must
promote the movement toward national liberation and toward
the liberation of classes oppressed by capital...[Hegel and
Aristotle] desire a quiet somnolence at the end of the
spectacle; Brecht wants the theatrical spectacle to be the
beginning of action: the equilibrium should be sought by
transforming society, and not by purging the individual of
his just demands and needs....

"I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical
groups should transfer to the people the means of production
in the theater so that the people themselves may utilize
them. The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who
should wield it."

 Augusto Boal, _Theater of the Oppressed_

The Theater of the Oppressed, established in the early 1970s
by Brazilian director and Workers' Party (PT) activist
Augusto Boal, is a form of popular theater, of, by, and for
people engaged in the struggle for liberation. More
specifically, it is a rehearsal theater designed for people
who want to learn ways of fighting back against oppression
in their daily lives. In the Theater of the Oppressed,
oppression is defined, in part, as a power dynamic based on
monologue rather than dialogue; a relation of domination and
command that prohibits the oppressed from being who they are
and from exercising their basic human rights. Accordingly,
the Theater of the Oppressed is a participatory theater that
fosters democratic and cooperative forms of interaction
among participants. Theater is emphasized not as a spectacle
but rather as a language designed to: 1) analyze and discuss
problems of oppression and power; and 2) explore group
solutions to these problems. This language is accessible to
all.

Bridging the separation between actor (the one who acts) and
spectator (the one who observes but is not permitted to
intervene in the theatrical situation), the Theater of the
Oppressed is practiced by "spect-actors" who have the
opportunity to both act and observe, and who engage in
self-empowering processes of dialogue that help foster
critical thinking. The theatrical act is thus experienced as
conscious intervention, as a rehearsal for social action
rooted in a collective analysis of shared problems of
oppression. This particular type of interactive theater is
rooted in the pedagogical and political principles specific
to the popular education method developed by Brazilian
educator Paulo Freire: 1) to see the situation lived by the
participants; 2) to analyze the root causes of the
situation; and 3) to act to change the situation following
the precepts of social justice.


THE THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED LABORATORY

The purpose of the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory,
founded in New York City in July 1990, is to provide a forum
for the practice, performance and dissemination of the
techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. We work with
educators, human service and mental health workers, union
organizers, and community activists who are interested in
using interactive theater as a tool for analyzing and
exploring solutions to problems of oppression and power that
arise in the workplace, school, and community problems
connected to AIDS, substance abuse, family violence,
homelessness, unemployment, racism and sexism.

Just as the principal goal of popular education is to change
the power relations in our society and to create mechanisms
of collective power over all the structures of society, so
too the principal goal of the Laboratory is to help groups
explore and transform power relations of domination and
subjugation that give rise to oppression. Within this
learning process: 1) all participants are learners; 2) all
participate in and contribute equally to the production of
knowledge, which is a continuous dialogue; 3) the learners
are the subject and not the object of the process; 4) the
objective of the process is to liberate participants from
both internal and external oppression, so as to make them
capable of changing their reality, their lives, and the
society they live in.

Since 1990, through the auspices of The Brecht Forum, the
Laboratory has initiated and organized intensive workshops
led by Augusto Boal in New York City. It has also planned
and led more than sixty public training workshops in the
techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. In this
capacity, the Laboratory has brought together people from
diverse backgrounds, occupations, and organizations, and
functioned as a resource, information, and networking center
serving individuals and groups interested in theater for
social change.

In the past years, the Laboratory has given workshops in the
New York City public schools, and has developed and
conducted on-site workshops with different community
organizations to explore problems specific to their
particular work: the role of the arts in the struggle
against racism, at the North Star Conference; building
solidarity among women, at the Urban Pathways/Travelers
Hotel Women's Shelter; AIDS prevention, with the Shaman
Theater-Pregones-ASPIRA coalition; and promoting health
among homeless people with HIV/AIDS, at the Foundation for
Research on Sexually Transmitted Diseases. The Laboratory
also led a workshop at the April 1995 teach-in in New York,
"Out from under the Bell Curve: A Teach-in on Confronting
Right-wing Ideology and Social Policy." Members of the
Laboratory attended the International Festivals of the
Theater of the Oppressed held in France in 1991 and in Rio
de Janeiro in 1993, strengthening relations with theater
activists from twenty-two different countries, while
planning the creation of an International Association of the
Theater of the Oppressed.

The Laboratory also gives advice and support to individuals
and groups who use the techniques of the Theater of the
Oppressed in their particular field (education, social work,
community organizing, the arts). The Images Theater
Collective, for instance, grew out of the meetings and study
sessions led by the Laboratory on the political potential of
interactive theater. In 1992, as part of the movement to
counter the official Columbus Quincentennial celebrations,
the Collective wrote and performed a play, based on Image
Theater techniques, on colonial oppression and resistance in
Latin America. In addition, as a result of Laboratory
activity, Theater of the Oppressed theory and techniques
have been integrated into the basic curriculum of both the
Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre Training Unit and the
Education Program of the Shaman Repertory Theater. Finally,
in 1993, the Laboratory became an independent affiliate of
the Institute for Popular Education at The Brecht Forum,
established to promote the Paulo Freire approach to popular
education.

*****

"We must emphasize: What Brecht does _not_ want is that the
spectators continue to leave their brains with their hats
upon entering the theater, as do bourgeois spectators."

 Augusto Boal

For more information, or for workshop schedules, please
contact The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory, 122 West 27
Street 10 floor, New York, New York 10001 or call (212)
924-1858 or fax (212) 741-4563, or respond by e-mail to
toplab-AT-nyxfer.blythe.org.

//30


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