Games Theater of Oppressed
Games Theater of Oppressed
Games Theater of Oppressed
PART 1
A. Notes about Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre.(*)
THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED
Augusto Boal is the Brazilian dramatist who, during over forty years of work in
different parts of the world, has developed the techniques of Theatre of the
Oppressed.
Boal begins with the principle that theatre, like language, can be appropriate to
anybody so long as the methods are passed on to them. It is this teaching role
that Theatre of the Oppressed sets out to achieve. Through series of exercises,
games, techniques and drama forms (of which Forum Theatre is the most
commonly used), the aim is to understand social reality, to then be able to
change it. As in the Education of the Oppressed of Paulo Freire, in Theatre of
the Oppressed there is no room for the passive spectator. There is a time to
observe and another to act.
In 1971, for political reasons, Boal was forced to leave Brazil and went to live in
other countries in Latin America, from which he was also exiled due to the
political regimes of these countries. He then went to Portugal and later France,
where he lived for more than ten years and established the Centre of Theatre of
the Oppressed in Paris. At the beginning of the eighties, the political situation
became more liberal and Boal returned several times, until he finally decided to
settle back in his homeland. He worked on different projects until he established
the Centre of Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio de Janeiro, with five other people.
At the beginning of the nineties, Boal realised it was necessary to progress his
work, to create new forms of expression of Theatre of the Oppressed and to
guarantee its existence in Brazil. And so, he began to develop the Legislative
Theatre project, a drama form which would go beyond rehearsing the future, and
which could be used as a basis for altering social reality.
In 1992, Boal decided to stand as parliamentary candidate for the municipal
government of Rio, with the proposal of democratising politics through theatre, in
other words, to carry out Legislative Theatre. During the electoral campaign,
Boal demonstrated his ideas through various pieces of Forum Theatre,
performed by different groups and presented in different parts of the city. Many
people voted for Boals project and he became a senator of the city of Rio de
Janeiro. He was then able to invite a group of assistants to work with him, to
carry out the political project for which he had been elected. Today, Boal works
with a group of fifteen people, some of whom are legislative advisers and cultural
that they can offer alternatives to the actions of the Protagonist are encouraged
to shout Stop, halt the action, and take over the role and try out another
solution. Anyone who wants to can have a go. The protagonist is usually the
only role replaced, but there are a few rules governing whether and when other
characters can be substituted. Together, they rehearse change.
The nature of society is reflected in its smallest cells. The great themes are
inscribed in the smallest personal themes. Theatre of the Oppressed is the
theatre of the first person plural. It absolutely must begin with the individual
story, but Boal says, if it does not pluralize itself, it is not fulfilling its purpose. In
a group of spect-actors, each individual is encouraged to see the commonality of
what is taking place and to act on behalf of the others as well as herself.
* The above Notes are from TIPP (Theatre in Prison and Probation Centre) at
Manchester University 1995
B. The rules of the game for an audience
Forum Theatre is like a game, and, as with any game there are rules, which must
be addressed for the game to be successful.
1. First, you will watch a performance, which shows a problem/ issue/ situation of
oppression.
2. At the end of the performance, you are invited to applaud the efforts of the
actors and then some time discussing amongst yourselves the situation and
some possible solutions for changing the series of events.
3. The performance will then be repeated. At any time, any audience member
can call out freeze, come up on stage and take the place of the central character
(protagonist), in order to try to change the series of events. (In this way, the
spectator becomes the spect-actor). You need never have experienced drama
in your life to take part in this - what you need are ideas of how to change the
events to effectively resolve the problem/oppression.
4. In terms of the rules of the game, you may only swap places with the
characters that want to change the circumstances presented. Alternatively, you
may introduce characters that may be able to support other characters that wish
to change.
5. You may feel nervous about standing up in front of everyone - this is only
natural. However, if no one gets up, the performance will continue as it did the
first time and therefore the series of events will go unchanged.
6. The Joker is at hand at all times to guide and support anyone who is slightly
nervous. If you have an idea for change but do not want to come up on stage,
you may still call out freeze and offer your suggestion to the group of actors who
will then perform this suggestion.
7. One final thing to say is that no one may offer violence as a suggestion for
change. Forum Theatre does not accept this as a method of change.
C. Rules for the Joker
1. Jokers must avoid all actions, which could manipulate or influence the
audience. The audience should never be confronted with the jokers own
personal interpretation of events.
2. Jokers must personally decide nothing. They must keep relaying doubts back
to the audience i.e. does this solution work or not? Is this right or wrong?
3. Watch out for magic solutions. The joker may interrupt the spect-actors
action if they consider an action to be magic. They must not make that decision
but must ask the audience if they believe it to be.
4. The joker is the midwife, assisting in the birth of all ideas, of all actions!
5. It is more important to achieve a good debate than a good solution
6. The joker should not mingle with the audience or the actors but remain
separate from them - physically alert and dynamic at all times. If the joker is tired
or confused, she will transmit a tired and disorientated image to the audience.
7. Be flexible according to your audience e.g. An audience of Year 8 girls may
have an agenda of simply wanting to get on stage with their friends, rather than
progressing the action so you can afford to be strict with them
8. Decide with the performers during the rehearsal process whether there are to
be missing characters i.e. characters who do not appear in the performance but
can be introduced during the forum. For example if the protagonist is living with
his father, where is mum? Can she be brought into the action or is she too far
away or even dead? The devising process can create an elaborate character
network or simply be left for the spectators to create during the forum. This can
however, sometimes lead to magic solutions whereby wonderful grandparents
appear to save the day!
E. IMAGE THEATRE
Complete the Image
Two people shake hands and freeze. The leader asks the spectators what story
they see.
One person then comes out of that frozen picture, leaving an incomplete image.
A volunteer then comes in and completes the image to make a different story.
Variation: Work in pairs
Variation: Work in threes
Second Model
1. An oppression is agreed upon by the group.
2. An individual creates an image of the oppression, sculpting spect-actors into a
group image. This may then be discussed with the audience to agree upon the
Real Image of this oppression.
3. The joker then asks the spect-actors within the image to change in order to
represent an Ideal Image whereby the oppression is no longer there (try not to
be too magic in this presentation)
4. Re-showing the original Real Image the Joker then asks the spect-actors to
move in slow motion from the Real Image to the Ideal Image this is the
Image of Possible Transition. This may be modified throughout by audience
members to make the transition as realistic as possible.
PART 2
THE FORUM THEATRE SESSION IN ATHENS
A. Session Plan
11.0 Introduction who we are (SHOUT! theatre company), what weve done
Who are you, why have you come here?
11.10 Warm up Games
Name & Gesture (10)
Tangles & Knots (15)
Rhythm with Chairs (10)
French Telephone (5)
Complete the image (15)
12.05 Soldiers and the Skipper (6 soldiers)
12.45 Devising & Rehearsal:
Introduce basics of forum theatre performance (5)
Group share and brainstorm ideas of their own oppressive experiences
(15)
Group vote on one of those ideas
Person comes onto stage and with Joker create: (10)
IMAGE OF ALL CHARACTERS; Physical distance, posture, emotional
distance
Create image of each scene audience input and become characters (20)
Run whole story as series of images
Develop and improvise each scene (20)
2.0
LUNCH
4.0
First Forum
4.40 Second Forum
5.30 Evaluation
6.00 End
B. The workshops
General introduction
Warm up games from Boals Arsenal of games for actors and non actors
Forum theatre exercise a practical introduction to how Forum Theatre
works The Soldier and the Skippers
Devising and rehearsing two pieces of Forum Theatre
The Forum begins(2 models)
Model One
(Susies group)
A daughter and her family
After a brainstorm of ideas, it was agreed by the group that one womans story
was of particular interest to forum. When growing up, this woman had felt
oppressed by her family; her father ignored her interest in theatre and desire to
achieve a career in this area, her mother was more interested in her own son and
his well being, and her brother mocked and bullied her. She eventually felt
unable to stay in the family and left, unnoticed by any of her family members.
Once the story had been established, 5 images were created to represent the
narrative structure. The protagonist held a paper mask throughout the images to
represent her love of theatre and desire to succeed professionally. One image
showed the brother throwing the mask to the floor with a mocking gesture.
Following the creation of these images the group rehearsed the scenes through
improvisation.
On showing the model to the audience, one woman immediately said that there
was nothing to forum, as, at the end the protagonist leaving was a positive result
and something to be applauded not thought of as oppression. Others disagreed
with this although it was a very valid comment to make. Other strategies were to
talk to the father on his own, at a quiet time when he could be made to listen to
the protagonists wishes. This met with some success. One spect-actor tried
bringing the mother and father together to talk to them, which was less
successful.
Model Two
(Daniels group)
Sexual harassment in the workplace
A woman is sexually harassed by a colleague at work, in a school. He
undermines her professionalism, saying she must be putting off pupils from
learning by how she looks and what she wears. A group of female students
come to her to say that this teacher has been making suggestive comments to
them but that they dont want her to tell the head teacher about this. However,
she does go to the head teacher to complain about her male colleagues
behaviour. The head teacher refuses to listen to her, saying that the male
teacher is well respected and valued and has a long career in the school.
The woman is left not knowing what to do for the best.
A number of strategies were tried out during the forum; spect-actors tried
confronting the male teacher, usually with little effect as he appeared to be set in
his ways. Others tried being more assertive with the head teacher, to try to make
him understand the seriousness of the problem.
However, both groups created very solid, focused plays, which held the essence
of forum theatre i.e. the protagonist has an unresolved problem. The time to
forum both performances, too, was far too short to come to any kind of
conclusion about the issues raised, but was an opportunity (which we had set out
originally to achieve) for teachers to see how a piece of forum theatre is put
together and how the forum process works.
Daniel and Susie believe, also, that a forum theatre workshop is not necessarily
about resolving/solving a problem presented to an audience, but is an
opportunity for them to try out lots of strategies to see which one works best for
them. It is a time to raise a debate around an issue so that individuals become
aware of the different elements of the issue and go away still thinking about it,
rather than having a cathartic theatrical experience, which they walk away from
and forget about in five minutes.