Theatre of the Oppressed

Summer 2004

	illustration: PJBF

By Herbert Kohl

Augusto Boal, a Brazilian, was a friend and colleague of Paolo Freire. His work in the theater emerged from techniques he developed working in poor and oppressed communities and from the education ideas expressed in Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed . Three of Boal's books, Games for Actors and Non-Actors, Legislative Theatre, and Theatre of the Oppressed, provide a theory and practice for a theater "of" the people, not "for" the people.

Many of the traditional roles of stage, actor, set, and director are turned upside down. The actors are at the service of the audience, which can direct their performance, change their script, or actually get on stage and replace them.

Boal believes that oppressed people can examine themselves and the causes of their oppression through performances they control. By doing so they begin to undo that oppression through enhanced awareness and the development of programs for social action. Performance, for Boal, is a form of social action for freedom.

After the performance, the director helps the audience and the actors analyze and discuss what happened during the session.

I have found that Boal's ideas can be easily translated into a classroom participatory theater that examines central and sensitive themes in students' lives.

The history of the theatre of the oppressed, as well as many specific examples of how it works, can be found in Theatre of the Oppressed. It is to the growing theatre of the oppressed movement what Pedagogy of the Oppressed is to critical pedagogy. Boal's book Legislative Theatre elaborates on these ideas and describes some of his more recent work.

	illustration: PJBF

I have found Games for Actors and Non-Actors to be the best source to start exploring Boal's ideas in the classroom. There are specific exercises, many of which are short and easily done by people who have no prior theater experience. The exercises get students thinking and talking about issues of power, oppression, and the emergence of positive efforts to undo oppression.

Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed (PTO) is a national organization of educators and theater people engaged in theatre of the oppressed. It can be reached at PTO, P.O. Box 31623, Omaha, NE, 68131-0623 or at www. unomaha.edu/-pto. The organization hosts conferences and connects teachers with workshops on how to use Boal's ideas. Boal gives many of these workshops himself. I urge teachers across the curriculum to explore this powerful and effective tool for learning.

Games for Actors and Non-Actors, by Augusto Boal (New York: Routledge, 1992).

Legislative Theatre, by Augusto Boal (New York: Routledge, 1999).

Theatre of the Oppressed, by Augusto Boal (New York: Theatre Communications Group, 1985).

Summer 2004