Augusto Boal
Early Life
· Born in 1939 and died 1999
· Formally trained as an engineer in Columbia University but the loved Theatre
· Returned to the Arena Theatre in São Paulo, Brazil
Early Work
· He became interested in experimenting with theatre
· He made the spectators part of the piece. He didn’t want that 4th wall so he broke it down. He asked them for suggestions on what the actors should do on stage
His Idea
· Give the audience a chance to be actors on stage
· He did this for mostly oppressed characters. The characters with no power on stage
Why
· He used the power of theatre to give the people with no voices (the poor/oppressed), a voice. Things like domestic violence and neighbourhood violence were finally portrayed
Spec-actor
· An audience member who became a part of the performance. A spectator to actor. Spec-actor
· Theatre became a vehicle for political activism
· Political organizations saw this as a threat
· He was tortured, beaten, arrested and exiles to Argentina
· The military government took over then
Theatre of the Oppressed
· He wrote all of his ideas down into a book called Theatre of the Oppressed
· Everything he did and everything that he had ever wanted to do was written in that book. It came to be known as Theatre of the People
Types
· Invisible Theatre
- Protagonist chooses to deal with a problem in a way that they would like to in real life. This is real life acting. The audience is unaware that they’re an audience
· Forum Theatre
- Presented with unsolvable problem. The audience is then asked for suggestions. There is then a competition for the most effective solutions
· Image Theatre
- Create a very short snippet with minimal amounts of speech. This end up being very symbolic
Boal said that characters are very multidimensional. They have layers to them its not all black and white. He trained theatre practitioners so that his work would go on even after he died
Early Life
· Born in 1939 and died 1999
· Formally trained as an engineer in Columbia University but the loved Theatre
· Returned to the Arena Theatre in São Paulo, Brazil
Early Work
· He became interested in experimenting with theatre
· He made the spectators part of the piece. He didn’t want that 4th wall so he broke it down. He asked them for suggestions on what the actors should do on stage
His Idea
· Give the audience a chance to be actors on stage
· He did this for mostly oppressed characters. The characters with no power on stage
Why
· He used the power of theatre to give the people with no voices (the poor/oppressed), a voice. Things like domestic violence and neighbourhood violence were finally portrayed
Spec-actor
· An audience member who became a part of the performance. A spectator to actor. Spec-actor
· Theatre became a vehicle for political activism
· Political organizations saw this as a threat
· He was tortured, beaten, arrested and exiles to Argentina
· The military government took over then
Theatre of the Oppressed
· He wrote all of his ideas down into a book called Theatre of the Oppressed
· Everything he did and everything that he had ever wanted to do was written in that book. It came to be known as Theatre of the People
Types
· Invisible Theatre
- Protagonist chooses to deal with a problem in a way that they would like to in real life. This is real life acting. The audience is unaware that they’re an audience
· Forum Theatre
- Presented with unsolvable problem. The audience is then asked for suggestions. There is then a competition for the most effective solutions
· Image Theatre
- Create a very short snippet with minimal amounts of speech. This end up being very symbolic
Boal said that characters are very multidimensional. They have layers to them its not all black and white. He trained theatre practitioners so that his work would go on even after he died