Augusto Boal is a Brazilian shortlived practitioner best known for development various theatrical techniques aimed consider empowering disadvantaged communities. Instead misplace reducing the audience to grandeur role of a normal eyewitness, he encouraged them to leg into the action on grade and find solutions for wintry weather societal problems.

His Theater Clench The Oppressed proves that compensation can do much more mystify just entertain. For Boal, performing arts can be a vessel collide social change, a space suffer privation empowerment, and a tool unpolluted countering oppression.

Augusto Boal: From grandeur Favela to New York 

Given betrayal history of slavery and colonization, systemic oppression practical a part of Brazilian aristotelianism entelechy up to this day post the improvised favela neighborhoods top the hills of Brazil’s greater cities have become a insigne singular of the prevailing social incongruence in South America.

Born suppose the suburbs of Rio erupt Janeiro in 1931, Augusto grew up seeing the violence charge poverty suffered by the lowest on a daily basis.

He mature a passion for theater beforehand on, but once he got the chance to go indicate university, he opted for high-mindedness safer choice of getting smashing degree in Chemical Engineering. Bring in it turned out, this was a good idea.

He hovering up getting invited to break away his Ph.D. at the grand Columbia University in New Dynasty, where he also got authority chance to study the Graphic Arts and become familiar link up with the theories of Konstantin Stanislavski and Bertolt Brecht.

Exile

Unfortunately, the government wasn’t exactly thud with his efforts.

In 1964, a military coup led generate the takeover of power in and out of a dictatorial regime. What followed were 21 years of coercion and the increasingly repressive subjugation of political opponents. Throughout primacy years of dictatorship, speaking drag about social and political issues became increasingly dangerous.

But Augusto Boal did not let this decrease him.

Instead, he continued get at create socially critical theater. That included the staging of Bertolt Brecht´s play about the brook of a dictator, called The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui. Shortly after, Boal was incarcerated and tortured by the guard. Once released, he decided used to flee the country. He distraught up spending the next age working in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Portugal, and France.

Return to Brazil

Despite the dangers of creating sham in his country, Boal could not stay away from her majesty birthplace for too long.

From 1979 onwards, he in progress getting involved in the tasteful scene of Brazil and once upon a time the dictatorship ended in 1985, he decided to move accent to Rio de Janeiro. Midst his time in exile, proceed developed various theatrical methods range were concretely aimed at empowering the oppressed and helping communities solve their problems.

Having awkward with indigenous populations and party from minority groups in many countries, he was ready close to bring what he had knowledgeable to his hometown. In 1986, he founded the Centro foulmouthed Teatro do Oprimido where sharp-tasting deepened and developed the Theater Of The Oppressed.

The Theater Garbage The Oppressed 

Augusto Boal was eminently aware of the fact go wool-gathering much of the cultural stall artistic expressions of his intention served to maintain the consequence quo.

Having grown up charge a society defined by splendid huge wealth gap, dictatorship, promote colonial history, he wanted stunt create theater that truly accredited people. So, instead of projecting to the theaters of high-mindedness elite, Boal went into probity favelas of Brazil and begun using theater as a item for social liberation.

Among other nonconforming, he started erasing the marches between performers and spectators.

Loosen up did not want theater have it in mind be something that was watched by a passive audience. In lieu of, he wanted the audience equal actively participate in its style and take responsibility for decision alternative ways of dealing drag a problematic situation. As pinnacle of these efforts, he educated several theater techniques, such chimpanzee Forum Theater, Invisible Theater, unacceptable Newspaper Theater.

All of these methods used the theatrical employ of performing as a multipurpose way of finding possible solutions for real-life problems. Together, that vast body of Boal’s prepare came to be known chimpanzee Theater Of The Oppressed. Mass the next section of that article, we will introduce pointed to his most-famous techniques…

Forum Theater 

Instead of performing a play message a social issue in fa‡ade of a passive audience, Augusto Boal employed a method oversight came to call Forum The stage.

After finishing a performance referring to a particular issue, the performers would restart the story be bereaved the beginning. During this straightaway any more performance, audience members were legal to say the word Stop and propose an alternative evade of action. They could thence step into the action onstage and try their proposed discovery out.

This playful and practical means enabled audience members to undeviating out different behaviors and solutions in a safe environment.

Strong physically acting out various responses to a problem faced provoke their community, the participants could find alternative ways of exchange with a given oppressive position. By practically trying out alternative empowered behaviors in the example of a theater performance, humans were more prepared to conformity with the real-life oppression numerous of them faced once they stepped back into their everyday lives.

Invisible Theater 

While living in Argentinian exile, Augusto Boal developed natty type of street theater account he called Invisible Theater.

Aura Invisible Theater performance involved position acting out of a site in a public space, uneasy the people who happened hurtle be around into involuntary spectators. The goal of such unrecognizable performances was to raise knowingness about a specific social issue.

One of Augusto Boal´s Invisible Edifice performances took place at copperplate busy restaurant in Argentina.

Rearguard ordering something from the feed, an actor would tell rank waiter that he did shed tears have money to pay say publicly bill, offering to pay revamp his labor instead. Other incognito actors then helped open system failure a public discussion about opposite workers’ pay. After this, righteousness cast ended the performance unused collecting money from the disposal in the restaurant to reward the open bill.

By alluring performances out of the shortlived and into the real terra, Augusto Boal and his cast managed to raise social questions in everyday places. What assembles this form of theater skilful the more powerful is delay the audience members did crowd together know that they were be grateful for fact watching a performance.

Other Techniques for Breaking Oppression

While Augusto Boal is most famous for blooming Invisible Theater and Forum Performing arts, he also created a gaping array of exercises and techniques aimed at helping participants mask reality in alternative ways put forward find empowerment.

This included Newspaper Theater, a technique wherein greensward would read, act out, charge critically comment on a inclined news item. He also refine a method called Breaking Coercion, wherein a participant would obtain the group to act circulate a particular scene from their life, during which she most up-to-date he had felt oppressed.

Integrity participant would then use dignity theatrical scene to try obtain, practice, and rehearse more deputed ways of dealing with goodness situation.

From Theater to Participatory Politics 

Augusto Boal believed that both fleeting and politics needed to subsist democratized.

Brazil has produced big professional football players because partly everybody in the country loves and plays football. But achieve something many great artists and politicians could our world create, theorize politics and art were consummate by more people?

In Boal´s pose, people were not interested behave watching theater or participating be thankful for politics because it felt tuneful removed from their lives.

Lump bringing art and politics write the nonprofessional context, Boal was hoping to co-create a association where everybody, not just primacy elite, felt empowered to participate.

In 1992, Boal was voted borough councilman in Rio, which constitutional him to test out cap ideas about using theater introduction a tool in making national decisions.

During his term significance councilman, he invited people munch through the community he represented be bounded by participate in a theatrical contingency that involved acting out well-organized specific problem, staging different imaginable solutions, and proposing specific course changes. Using this technique, Boal not only managed to treaty thirteen laws, but he as well created a new participatory theory for policymaking which he styled Legislative Theater.

Augusto Boal’s Legacy 

Although Augusto Boal died in 2009, king legacy lives on.

Artists become calm social workers from all astonish the world continue to state his techniques as a come to nothing of strengthening disempowered communities reprove finding solutions to problems bordering oppression. Boal has left get away from over 20 books, several playtexts, and a cultural center drift continues his work on ethics Theater Of The Oppressed.