Augusto Boal

Date of Birth: 1931 Place of Birth: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Date of Death: N/A Age on Death: N/A Occupation: Theatrical Director, Writer & Politician

Childhood: Boal was raised in his home town of Rio de Janeiro

Education: He was a trained chemical engineer from the Columbia University in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s.

His Career: He took an interest in theatre at an early age, but didn’t become involved in it until after his degree. Shortly after graduating from University, Boal was asked to work with the Arena Theatre in São Paulo, South-East Brazil. It was here that he began to experiment with new forms of theatre that would totally change its future.

Boal in Politics: In 1992, Boal ran for the position of Vereador in Rio, which is the Brazilian equivalent to the City Council seat in the US. Over one thousand candidates ran for just forty-five seats. Boal was selected, but was not re-elected in 1996.

His Teachings: Paulo Freire was a major influence on Boal’s teachings. Boal was intrigued by Freire’s works, especially his book ‘Pedagogy of the Oppressed.’ He and Freire became so close in later years, that when Freire passed away, Boal is quoted to have said “I am very sad. I have lost my last father. Now all I have are brothers and sisters.” Before Boal came along, it was tradition for audiences to be invited to discuss a play at the end of the performance. According to Boal, this kept the audience as viewers and “reactors” to the action before them. Then, in the 1960’s, Boal developed a process where the audience members could stop a performance, and suggest different actions that the actor could do. The actor would listen to the suggestion, and then carry it our onstage. One time, a woman in the audience was so annoyed that the actor couldn’t understand her suggestion that she stormed onto the stage and performed it herself! For Boal this meant the birth of the spect-actor, and his theatre was transformed. He then built upon his process, inviting audience members onto the stage to demonstrate their ideas. He discovered that through this participation, the audience members became empowered not only to imagine change, but to actually practice that change, reflect collectively on the suggestion, and thereby become empowered to generate social action. Because of this, theatre became a catalyst for grass-roots activism. Boal’s teachings caused a lot of controversy, and he was labeled a cultural activist – which the 1960’s Brazilian military coups saw as a threat. In 1971 shortly after his first book “Theatre of the Oppressed ” was published, Boal was arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to Argentina, the self-exiled to Europe. Eventually Boal found himself in Paris, teaching his revolutionary approach to theatre for twelve years, and creating several Centers for the Theatre of Oppressed . Then in 1981, he organized the first ever International Festival of the Theatre of Oppressed in Paris. After the end of Brazil’s Military Junta, Boal returned to his hometown of [[Rio de Janeiro ]] where he still lives today. He has since established a major Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed in Rio, and has started over a dozen theatre companies that work to develop community-based projects The main methods used for these projects are Forum Theatre and Image Theatre. Forum Theatre relies upon the presentation of short scenes which depict issues in society such as sexism and racism. The audience members interact by replacing the characters in scenes and improvising new ways to solve the problems that are being presented. Image theatre is an integration of contemporary dance and non-verbal acting with black light theatre effects. It uses the body to sculpt events and relationships, sometimes with the use of narrative. Here two other theatre types that are associated with the Theatre of the Oppressed, along with Boal’s description of what they entail:

Newspaper Theatre “A system of twelve techniques… giving the audience the means of production rather than the finished artistic product. They are devised to help anyone to make a theatrical scene using a piece of news from a newspaper, or from any other written material.”

Invisible Theatre “… A direct action against society, on a precise theme of general interest, to provoke debate and to clarify the problem that must be solved. It should never be violent, because its aim is to reveal the violence that exists in society, and not to reproduce it. It is a previously rehearsed play that is performed in a public space without anyone knowing that it is a play.”

Boal also wrote a book entitled “Games for Actor’s and Non-Actors,” which was described by Doug Patterson as “…a splendid basic introduction to the entire range of the Theatre of the Oppressed theory and practice, and useful to people both experienced and inexperienced in theatre making.” In 1994, Boal won the UNESCO Pablo Picasso Medal, and In August 1997 was awarded the ‘Career Achievement Award’ by the ‘Association of Theatre in Higher Education’ at their national conference in Chicago, where he conducted a five-hour workshop for conference attendees as well as collecting the award. Boal went on a first major tour of the US in February and March 1999, traveling to various Universities and Colleges, many of which now have student ‘Theatre of the Oppressed’ companies working regularly on Boal’s techniques.

External link

Augusto Boal and the Theater of the Oppressed