hello welcome to organic acting I'm Chris
and today we're going to talk about a very unique practitioner this is Augusto boal
exercises Augusto Boal was a Brazilian director writer and politician during over 40 years of work
in different parts of the world he developed what he called the theatre of the oppressed
boal was unique because he believed theatre could be for anyone from all walks of life as
long as the techniques were passed on to them most importantly i believe that theatre should
be for all especially for the oppressed for the sexually oppressed the salary oppressed
the politically oppressed in 1971 for political reasons boal was forced to leave brazil
he worked on different political projects before he established the centre of the
theatre the oppressed in de janeiro. In his later years he worked with groups who were involved
with teaching drama techniques to community groups trade unions and other associations
these groups would put on small pieces of theatre involving issues that were relevant to them
and then plan different interventions or different strategies to overcome the problem or the
oppression one of the most simple and effective techniques that Boal and his groups would use
would be the implementation of warm-up activities exercises that us actors might take for granted
like the name game or passing the ball these games and activities allowed actors and non-actors to
relax use new muscles create a sense of trust and relaxation and instil a heightened sense of
awareness and remember the genius of theatre of the oppressed and forum theatre was that it was
for all people from all walks of life rather than being inaccessible in a total mystery members of
the public were finally given the keys to theatre so what exactly does forum theatre involve well
this is the genius behind the technique and one of my favourite elements from boal members of the
group would discuss an element of oppression that they had encountered in their own lives or at work
the group would then put on a small piece of theatre only about a minute or two minutes
which shows this oppression and how it affected them the actors would then perform the piece for
a second time but here is what is clever at any point the actors could yell stop or pause stand up
and then take the place of one of the actors to try and change the outcome of the piece or
to steer the action in a different direction with a sense of overcoming the oppression in the piece
bowel said in this sense the spectators become the specked actors of course this had to be a
constructive non-violent approach next we move on to boar's image theatre here the specked
actors are presented with a tableau or a freeze frame showing an issue like eviction or abuse
because the tableau is silent the spec actors are asked first of all
what are you seeing where is the power what is the abuse and then asked to physically change
the tableau to try and resolve that problem this is a great way of making thoughts and concepts
visible rather than just expressing them with words this next one is exciting this is boar's
invisible theatre here bowel would take groups out to perform in public without
announcing that it was a theatrical piece and that they were acting in Sweden they had a picnic
in the middle of the road as a critique on car culture now I don't agree with having a picnic
in the middle of the road and stopping people on their daily commute but street theatre especially
when it isn't announced as being theatrical or pretend is a great way of bringing people in
people from all walks of life who aren't involved with the theatre who have never acted
bringing them in and seeing what happens how it affects them how it makes them think and finally
we have boar's newspaper theatre he believed that if you read the news you opened up a newspaper
you were affected by bias you were affected by where the headline was where the stories were the
juxtaposition of the two stories being alongside each other and even if it was unintentional this
bias could dilute certain stories so for example if you had a war story next to a
piece of celebrity news the war story's impact would be diluted when working with groups boal
would overcome this problem by presenting the news stories in a new way he would use techniques
like rhythm and music to highlight certain elements he would use improvisation and acting
right alongside the people who were reading the news stories he would use historical and sometimes
graphic imagery projected behind the readers all of these techniques highlight the important
issues and most importantly they dramatize this does away with the desensitizing experience
of sitting on your bum and reading the news so what do you think of Augusto boal the theatre
of the oppressed would you like to find out more let us all know in the comments as always I've
been Chris if you can like share subscribe it really helps me I will see you next time bye
Why do you keep doing that?