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INTRODUCTION
Born in Penha, a northern working class district of Rio de Janeiro, in 1931,
Augusto Boal went to Columbia University in New York originally to study
chemical engineering, though a great deal of his time in the USA was spent
studying theatre. He was invited back to Brazil to become the Artistic Director of
the Arena Theatre in São Paolo and held that post from 1956 to 1971.
A writer and director of such works as Lean Wife, Mean Husband (1957)
Revolution in South America (1961), Arena Tells the Story of Tiradentes (1967),
Boal read the educational philosophy of Paolo Freire (whose The Pedagogy of the
Oppressed, New York: Continuum, 1970 was inspirational) and this work
coloured his theatrical practice, leading him into agit-prop in the 1960s.
Boal gradually became a little disenchanted with the limits of agit-prop, which he
judged had an element of bourgeois elitism about it. He thought it remained a
top-to-bottom process: the writer delivering the sermon to otherwise ignorant
spectators who therefore remained passive receptacles of somebody else’s view of
the world.
Boal’s most recognised development, Forum Theatre, grew out of these agit-prop
plays when he realised that he needed to listen to the views and ideas of the
audience, making the process driven by the audience: a bottom-to-top process
which Boal regards as a much more democratic, liberating method.
It had been a traditional aspect of these agit-prop performances to discuss the
implications of the play with the audience after the performance. The story goes
that a woman in the audience was so annoyed by an actor’s inability to
understand her suggestion that she came out onto the stage to show him. Thus
was born Boal’s notion of the ‘Spect-Actor’.
Boal’s political activities became uncomfortable for the military regime ruling
Brazil, and in 1971 he was arrested, tortured and subsequently exiled. He became
a wandering theatre practitioner, giving lectures, conducting workshops and
mounting productions in North and South America, Europe, India and Africa.
He runs two ‘Centers for the Theater of the Oppressed’, one in Paris, the other
in Rio de Janeiro:
CENTRE DU THEATRE DE L’OPPRIMÉ
78/80 Rue de Charolais
75012 Paris
France
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INTRODUCTION
C.T.O. – BOAL
Rua Francisco Otaviano 185/41
CEP 22080, Ipanema
Arpoador
Rio de Janeiro
RJ
Brazil
Many other centres and theatre groups have sprung up independently to
promote the practice of his Theatre of the Oppressed (TOP).
Following tentative steps towards democracy with the ending of military rule in
Brazil, Boal returned to Rio in 1986. In 1992 he was elected to the city council
and his colleagues joined him as his council staff, setting up seventeen
companies which practised ‘Legislative Theatre’ across the city.
This adaptation of Forum Theatre was designed to elicit ideas for changing the
laws of the city and became the spur to Boal’s fourth, and currently last, book in
English.
Boal was not re-elected in 1996 but has remained active – both politically and
theatrically (though he would probably not make a distinction between the two!).
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WORKS BY BOAL
SECTION 1
There are only four books by Boal published in English. They are all crucial to a
study of the man and his work.
Boal, Augusto, Theater of the Oppressed, trans. Charles A and Maria-Odilia
Leal McBride and Emily Fryer, London: Pluto, 2000
Boal summed up his stance on theatre in 1974 in the Foreword to the first
English-language edition, published in 1979. This new 2000 edition retains
the Foreword and it is still the best summary one is likely to find.
However, this edition also contains a new Preface in which Boal recreates the
first political theatre – Thespis stepping out of the socially and politically
controlled Chorus in ancient Greece and creating the Protagonist, the
Character, the Mask, the Costume – the ‘Other’.
This challenge to the accepted socio-political mores of a class-ridden Greek
society is a clear precursor of all political theatre and a strong stimulus for
Boal. It is a precursor because the tale of Thespis also includes the notions of
‘hypocrisy’, of patronage of the arts, of tax incentives and theatrical producers
pulling the purse strings and initiating censorship.
And yet it also introduces the use of dialogue, which by its very nature requires
opposing points of views to be heard. Opposing points of view mean there is
contradiction; from this one can see democratic structures emerging through
the challenge made to the oppressive use of just one voice – the monologue.
Under this kind of challenge truth can be (at least) sought and corruption
exposed. Boal clearly sees parallels with modern Brazil (and, by extension, all
capitalist states). However, Boal also sees how Aristotle’s Poetics, which laid
down the blueprint for Tragedy, condemns the barely liberated players and
audience to another system of social and political control – through Tragedy’s
initial reliance on empathy to its eventual outcome of catharsis.
Brecht, of course, took steps to reverse this tradition by reducing the
empathetic relationship of both audience-and-character and actor-andcharacter. Boal, though, does not consider Brecht went far enough (even if he
is a ‘friend’ of Brecht’s distancing devices – or Verfremdungseffekte).
Boal thinks Brecht left a division between actor-and-audience and, more
importantly, left a degree of oppression by raising (or maintaining) the status
of the Poet and inculcating a power relationship in which the audience is the
inferior partner.
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For Boal the next logical step was to turn the Spectator into the ‘Spect-Actor’
who would invade the stage. By this act of occupation, or ‘possession’, or
‘symbolic trespass’, the social being who is the Spect-Actor is both real and
fictional, in a ‘dual reality’, ready, as Boal would see it, to transform both his
oppressed self and his oppressive society. This way, Boal says, lies freedom.
All of this in the Preface alone.
Boal goes on to lay the theoretical framework for his practice by dismantling
‘Aristotle’s Coercive System of Tragedy’, which he says is basically a structure
designed to intimidate its audience; then by looking at Machiavelli and
bourgeois values; at Hegel’s inversion by Brecht and Boal’s differences with
Brecht, and then some very useful background reading of Boal’s earlier
theatre practice in both Peru and in São Paolo – in which we learn of the
idea, role and function of the ‘Joker’.
Boal, Augusto, Games for Actors and Non-Actors, trans. A Jackson, London:
Routledge, 1992
This is an invaluable book. It is the arsenal that houses all the techniques –
‘games’ – which can be used to enable Theatre of the Oppressed to take place.
Jackson’s Introduction is a good explanation of Boal’s work, especially of the
three major elements (also referred to as ‘games’) – Image Theatre, Invisible
Theatre and Forum Theatre – and of the terms ‘Joker’ and ‘Spect-Actor’.
Boal himself adds more detailed experiences and examples of these three
theatre games and then, in the body of the book, devotes his time to listing
and explaining nearly 300 games or exercises. These are designed to train the
actor (by which he means, of course, both professional and amateur,
performer and audience, that is, the ‘Spect-Actor’ – for Boal, we are all actors)
and prepare for theatre which should change or transform society.
A must-buy.
Boal, Augusto, Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and
Therapy, trans. A Jackson, London: Routledge, 1995
Encountering individual, internalised oppressions (as opposed to the wider,
socio-political oppressions which had driven his work previously) encouraged
Boal to adapt or seek alternative techniques in order to deal with them.
Boal recounts (and this is recounted elsewhere – see Cohen-Cruz, p18 and
Schutzman, p20) how his first experiences in Europe and North America were
somewhat confusing: he had become less familiar with the more affluent
societies outside the developing world, or those which were less immediately
aggressive, than those under armed dictatorships.
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People in the western industrial capitalist societies seemed, to Boal, to be
oppressed by less tangible forces: ‘emptiness’ and ‘loneliness’ rather than
torture or slavery.
‘The Rainbow of Desire’ and ‘Cop in the Head’ are the major techniques
developed to overcome these oppressions and form the basis for this book.
Boal goes on to explain the theoretical concept of ‘aesthetic space’ (the
‘interpenetration’ of stage and auditorium) and – in ‘The Three Hypotheses of
“Cop in the Head”’ – the notions of ‘osmosis’, ‘metaxis’ and ‘analogical
induction’.
This book reflects the more therapeutic ends to which Boal’s work has been
utilised with techniques such as ‘Rashomon’ and a predominant use of Image
Theatre. As such, it is possibly the most difficult aspect of his work with which
to experiment (and maybe the most dangerous in untrained hands).
Boal, Augusto, Legislative Theatre: Using performance to make politics,
trans. A Jackson, London: Routledge, 1998
Boal entered ‘official’ politics at the Rio de Janeiro city council elections in
1992 when he won a seat for the Workers’ Party. He set about taking his
theatrical practice into the city to seek ideas, strategies and justifications for
changing the laws directly from the people.
This latest in the canon of Boal work translated into English sets about
charting the genesis of this new ‘Legislative Theatre’, analysing and explaining
its theory and rationale, providing examples of it in action and offering other
Boalian insights into the practice of theatre, of playwriting/dramaturgy, of
‘popular theatre’ (a very old essay), of Newspaper Theatre – all sprinkled with
a liberal dose of the sort of entertaining anecdotes one will be used to from
Boal’s other work. Boal also pays his respects to Paolo Freire, the
educationalist who died in 1997.
Above all, Boal makes it very clear to readers and practitioners who might want
to follow some of these ideas that this is a work in progress – he calls it a Beta
version – and, in its book form, very specific to the political climate in South
America.
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SECTION 2
One of the dangers of the World Wide Web is that anybody can say whatever they
please about anything at all. It is an unregulated mass of opinions, some
wonderfully academic, some woefully shoddy and infantile. Many come,
unsurprisingly, in between. It is democracy in virtual action.
Websites have a habit of changing addresses, changing names, changing content
or disappearing completely. This is the nature of the Internet; this bibliography
offers some sites as examples of what existed at the time of going to print.
Typing ‘Augusto Boal’ into your search engine can throw up many useful and
interesting sites. It can also lead you to Myrtle Boal, the Conservative
parliamentary candidate for Belfast South in 1997; sites condemning, reporting,
denying or defending Augusto Pinochet’s crimes against humanity; Boal Designs,
a ‘young, dynamic’ design company; Ken Boal, a tournament croquet player from
Victoria, Australia, or just about anybody named Augusto or Boal who has a
website or has been referred to in a website.
On the Net you must learn to be patient – because nobody can hear you scream.
United States, Canadian and Australian universities and academics have a greater
tendency to post their thoughts and ideas in the cybermailbox of virtual reality
for all and sundry to read – whether with a genuine sense of libertarian
magnanimity or through plain vanity. British academia maintains an almost eerie
silence, as if to broadcast its ideas is somehow to devalue them.
Much of what exists is not linked to any academic institution. This need not
necessarily prove a danger, though it usually is. Look out for refereed articles
(those scrutinised by other academics and given the quality-assured ‘all clear’) –
though these are often in sites to which you must subscribe. Plug in your
modem, dial up your provider (or ISP), ignore all the americanised spelling and
punch in those website addresses (or URLs).
There is a great deal of tedious nonsense out there in cyberspace, but there is
also much to admire and enjoy. Strap on your codswallop detector and happy
hunting.
http://www.toplab.org
Probably the best site you will encounter for both depth and breadth of content.
TOPLAB, founded in 1990, is the ‘Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory’, a group
of educators, artists and activists who have collaborated and/or trained with
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Augusto Boal. This site is titled ‘TOPLAB – Interactive Theater Workshops for
Social Change’ and will illustrate just how far Boal’s work has gone from the
confines of traditional theatre to promoting and instigating political change.
The TOPLAB workshops (like the workshops of other groups who have formed to
promote social change through the ideas and practice of Boal) use the
techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed (TOP) to help solve problems caused
by injustice or discrimination – or oppression – in the school, community or
workplace.
These problems, TOPLAB states, range from being AIDS-related, to abuse,
homelessness, unemployment, racism, sexism etc. – anything, fundamentally, that
is perceived to be a matter of unresolved conflict due to the ‘protagonist’
suffering at the wrong end of a power relationship, i.e. at the hands of the
antagonist(s).
The goal of the workshops is to transform the power relationship where it is
seen as exploitative and oppressive.
TOPLAB will not work with or for, or accept funding from, profit-making
institutions and is closely linked to the Brecht Forum and the New York Marxist
School. It has given workshops across New York in schools, universities and
community organisations such as the Urban Pathways/Travelers’ Hotel Women’s
Shelter (to build solidarity among women), and the Foundation for Research on
Sexually Transmitted Diseases; at the annual Socialist Scholars’ Conference; in
Mexican communities and with Mexico City street children; in Guatemala with
educators, alcoholism treatment centres and women’s rights groups. TOPLAB’s
members also participated in street theatre projects opposing US aggression in
Iran and the Balkans.
‘Some Discussion Points on the Politics of the Theater of the Oppressed to be
Considered by TO Practitioners’ states that Boal has defined TOP as a ‘rehearsal
for revolution’ though TOPLAB is at pains to point out the extent, and the limits,
of this definition: that it may be revolutionary but only insofar as it is at the
service of revolution and that TO practitioners reflect upon the meaning of
revolution in, and the revolutionary potential of, their work.
This page also makes readers aware that the techniques of TOP are not enough,
in themselves, to be radical or revolutionary. In fact, it is made abundantly clear
that the techniques can only serve a political ideology and, therefore, can easily
be used in a reactionary fashion.
The practitioners of TOPLAB are keen to promote models of democracy; they
guard against their own practice becoming oppressive, and question how to
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de-commodify its work and its very existence in a society (the US) that
commodifies everything from burgers and the arms trade to the Presidency and
the policing of the world.
There are more interesting pages in the section of the site ‘What is the TOPLAB?’.
‘Augusto Boal and the Theater of the Oppressed’ is an article by Aleks Sierz
originally published in the British magazine Red Pepper in February 1995 (it was
originally titled ‘How to Play Boal’). Sierz’s article focuses on Boal while he was a
member of the Rio de Janeiro city council, having been elected in 1992 as a
member of the Workers’ Party.
It was at this time that Boal was pushing his theatre work into the political arena
in the most tangible fashion – by using it to help introduce legislation (and
would later form the basis for his book Legislative Theatre, see p5). From this
political vantage point Boal tweaked the idea of Forum Theatre and urged that
solutions or ideas thrown up by the workshops be enshrined in law. Apparently,
one such law has been the re-design of public telephone boxes to help the
blind.
Elsewhere on this extensive site one will find ‘The Theater of the Oppressed
Across the Curriculum’ by Carmelina Cartei and Marie-Claire Picher, which is a
rationale rather than lesson plans (though ‘Sample Image Theater Workshop’ on
the Internship page contains what is almost a lesson plan!); ‘What is Theater of
the Oppressed?’ by Marie-Claire Picher, which emphasises the way in which Boal
highlights the difference between ‘monologue’ and ‘dialogue’ – the former
being a one-way, top-to-bottom process and therefore more likely to be
oppressive; the latter being a two-way process and therefore much more likely to
be fruitful and liberating.
Further, Picher states, TOP is a rehearsal for social action and Boal follows the
principles set down in Paulo Freire’s educational methodology, i.e. observe the
situation; analyse its causes; act to change it.
Other pages of interest contain explanations of the techniques employed in both
Forum and Image Theater; the Internship Program run by TOPLAB (a weekend
course will set you back $60–75; a whole course several hundred dollars); an
extensive bibliography (though all books by Boal – except the four listed in
Section 1 in English translations – are in Portuguese, Spanish, French or
German), and a very good links page – including other Centers for the Theater
of the Oppressed in the US and Brazil; scores of radical political activist sites and
the Paulo Freire Institute site (which now includes an English-language section:
scroll down the left-hand frame until you see the tiny Union Jack icon and click).
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TOPLAB will answer inquiries and can be contacted at:
Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory
122 West 27 Street
10th Floor
New York
NY 10001
USA
Or e-mail them at: [email protected]
http://www.unomaha.edu/~pto/
The site of ‘Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed’, or PTO, ‘A Global Forum to
Promote Critical Thinking and Social Justice’. It was founded out of the
developments of conferences held between 1995 and 1998 in Omaha, Nebraska,
USA, and which took the works of Paulo Freire and Augusto Boal as their starting
point. [Although this is an American site, it uses the English spelling of Theatre.]
This site contains very good biographies, bibliographies, explanations of theories
and links to other sites. One can become a member of PTO by filling out a
subscription form online (current annual rate for students is $15) or by writing
to:
Pedagogy & Theatre of the Oppressed
P.O. Box 31623
Omaha
Nebraska 68131-0623
USA
Or, alternatively, email: [email protected]
One can also join the PTO ‘listserv’ to ask questions, share ideas and keep in
contact with others committed to the goals of PTO. The listserv – that is, a
discussion list in which people post questions, remarks etc. (something quite
different to a chatroom!) – is open to anyone wishing to participate.
In order to join the listserv one should:
•
•
•
•
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send an email message to: [email protected].
do NOT write anything in the subject line.
in the body, write: subscribe ptolist (Note: no punctuation goes on this line).
if you have an automatic signature at the end of your email, insert a hyphen
(-) on the line above it.
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You will automatically receive a message indicating that you have been subscribed
along with directions for unsubscribing and contacting a person if you have any
questions or difficulties with the listserv. If you have problems with the listserv,
e-mail Karen Mitchell ([email protected]).
The listserv is housed at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The University
does not monitor messages – anyone can subscribe and read your postings.
http://www.unomaha.edu/~paterson/
This a slightly different site: the homepage of Doug Paterson, Professor of
Dramatic Arts at the University of Omaha at Nebraska.
Paterson has worked with Boal and this has led him to take up Forum and Image
Theatre as tools for addressing issues of race, gender, class, disability, and sexual
preference in education, social services, and the workplace. The Centers [sic] for
the Theatre [for some reason Professor Paterson is fond of the American spelling of
center but not theatre] of the Oppressed, organised out of Rio de Janeiro, have
been established in half a dozen European capitals including London, Paris,
Berlin and Rome; related organisations have developed in India, Africa, Puerto
Rico and Canada. The Omaha CTO, founded by Paterson, was the first such centre
in the US.
http://www.londonbubble.org.uk/
London Bubble Theatre Company is a touring theatre company producing
professional and non-professional performances, workshops and participatory
projects. Among their work are outdoor promenade productions, school
residencies and Forum Theatre workshops.
They can be contacted at:
5 Elephant Lane
London
SE16 4JD
One can join their mailing list or email any of the company – the current
Participatory Projects Director is Trisha Lee and her email address is:
[email protected]
http://www.qut.edu.au/arts/acad/cia/boal3.html
A Queensland University of Technology, Australia page which advertises the
documentary ‘como querem beber agua’ (like wanting to drink water) by Ronaldo
Morelos. Morelos is the writer, director, cameraman and producer of this 53minute video which documents five months of Boal’s work in 1994 when a city
councillor (Vereador) in Rio de Janeiro.
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Associate producer of the documentary (and Associate Professor at the Centre for
Innovation in the Arts at QUT) Rod Wissler will take requests for the video at:
[email protected]
http://www.academy.qut.edu.au/works/boal/boal.html has stills from the
documentary.
http://www.headlinestheatre.com/mainset.htm
Headlines, a community theatre group in Vancouver, Canada call their work
‘Theatre for Living’ and it is directly based on the work of Boal’s TOP.
The group met Boal in 1984 and have said it totally changed their emphasis –
from one of making theatre for communities to making theatre with communities.
Though by no means their predominant form of workshop, Headlines also
conduct workshops for businesses – an interesting divergence from the work of
TOPLAB in New York, who would not entertain the idea of the ‘corporate
workshop’. This site outlines all the different types of workshops Headlines run
for communities – the Corporate (4 hours); Rainbow of Desire (6–8 hours); Cops
in the Head (6–8 hours); Image Theatre (1–3 days); Your Wildest Dream (3 days);
The Gagged Voice (3 days), and Power Play – including Forum Theatre (5–6 days).
2001 is the company’s twentieth anniversary and their site reflects this sense of
longevity and celebration. Some of its productions have included: Squeegee – a
Legislative Theatre experiment (1999) on the Exploitation of Youth; Corporate U
(2000) – an anti-globalisation event which explored the global dominance of
corporations; ¿Sanctuary? (1989), filmed for live broadcast, was a Forum Theatre
event with the refugee community.
¿Sanctuary? is available on video (along with some other productions) and can be
purchased from the company for CDN$20, plus CDN$5.35 shipping costs. An
online order form is available, or send to:
Headlines Theatre – Video Order
#323–350 East 2nd Ave.
Vancouver, BC
V5T 4R8
Canada
The company can be emailed at: [email protected]
http://home.echo-on.net/~mixedco
The homepage of Mixed Company, established in 1983. This company uses the
technique of Forum Theatre, which gives audience members a chance to step
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right inside the action of the play, to participate directly in changing negative
situations into positive ones.
They can be contacted at:
Mixed Company
157 Carlton St Suite #201
Toronto,
Ontario
M5A 2K3
Canada
Or, alternatively, email: [email protected]
http://pages.nyu.edu/~as245/AITG/boal.html
The ‘Applied & Interactive Theatre Guide’ housed by New York University gives
links, names and addresses of companies who use Boal’s techniques in their
work.
http://www.interlog.com/~artbiz/boal1.html
ArtBiz publishes performing arts related books and this is the part of their site
that is concerned with the work of Boal.
Other sections of the site house the Theatre Network magazine where you can
read ‘Brazilian Theatre’; ‘Brazilian Theatre News’ with an account of a Boal
performance, and an abbreviated history of the Arena Theatre, São Paulo, culled
from O Teatro Brasileiro Moderno (Modern Brazilian Theatre) by Decio de
Almeida Prado, all lovingly translated by Adriana Lessa de Miranda, a 21-year-old
journalism student and English teacher.
http://www.interlog.com/~artbiz/neterview1.html is de Miranda’s interview
with Boal, titled ‘A Myth Between Politics and Theatre’, on the eve of the
publication in Brazil of Rainbow of Desire. Worth a read, if you don’t mind
deciphering the translation.
Artbiz can be contacted at:
2300 Yonge Street
P.O. BOX 67059
Toronto
Ontario
M4P 1E0
Canada
Or, email at: [email protected]
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http://www. wwcd.org/action/Boal.html
Doug Paterson’s (see entries from University of Omaha, p11) entry on the work
of Boal in ‘Webster’s World of Cultural Democracy: The World Wide Web Center
of The Institute for Cultural Democracy’.
http://www.northernvisions.org/index.htm
Northern Visions is a media centre in Belfast. In October 1989 Boal visited Belfast
to deliver a lecture and visit theatre and community groups from either side of
the divide in the city. His tour of the city and an interview with him was filmed
by David Hyndman and can be bought on video for £20 including postage and
packaging.
The full transcript of the interview is available at
http://www.northernvisions.org/boal
Northern Visions can be contacted at:
4 Donegall Street Place
Belfast BT1 2FN
Phone 028 90245495
Fax 028 90326608
email: [email protected]
http://www. glastonburynetradio.co.uk/prog5.htm
A 30-minute radio broadcast of varying quality titled ‘Theatre, Politics and Social
Change’ given by Boal on the reopening of County Hall, London in November
1998 for a Symbolic Session of Legislative Theatre. The Debating Chamber was
closed in 1986 during the reign of Margaret Thatcher and her assault upon the
Greater London Council.
http://www. georgetown.edu/murphy/netsearch/index.html
The site ‘DBM’s Theatre NetSearch’ run by Donn B Murphy, Senior Professor of
Theatre Art, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. Click on ‘Participation
Theatre, Theatre for Social Change, Theatre of the Oppressed, Therapeutic
Theatre’ [note English spelling of ‘Theatre’].
Among several links is ‘Rehearsal For Reality: Theatre and Education’ by Rani
Moorthy, which places Augusto Boal within the context of Theatre-in-Education
and considers how theatre can be part of a ‘dynamic pedagogy’. Moorthy is a
Lecturer in Drama and Performance, School of Arts, Nanyang Technological
University.
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http://www. goucher.edu/library/wilpf/boal_bio.htm
Part of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom 27th
International Congress 1998 site. Boal gave workshops at the WILPF ’98 Congress
and delegates were able to obtain background information from the biography
and bibliography listed here.
http://www. valleyadvocate.com/articles/pig3.html
‘What Would You Do?’, an interesting article, written by Sean Glennon for the
online Massachusetts newspaper, Valley Advocate, as a prelude to Boal’s visit to a
college in Vermont. A handy example of Invisible Theatre and a thoughtprovoking assessment of Boal’s work.
http://www. cita.org/Xn_Drama/small.htm
‘Small Time Players and their use of Augusto Boal’s forum theatre [sic]
techniques’ by Rhett Luedtke. The Small Time Players is an outreach educational
group taking work to schools in Alabama, USA. This essay describes their practice
and experience.
http://www. pagebuilder.com.br/proscenio/proswelc.htm
‘Proscenio’ was originally intended to be a TV programme on Rio de Janeiro’s
theatrical activities but has materialised as a website titled ‘Brazilian Theatre’.
There are various links to sites about Brazilian Theatre History, current activities,
theatres, etc. The site is still under construction.
The translators are not cited in this English-language site though, judging from
some of the material, I suspect Adriana Lessa de Miranda may be involved
somewhere along the line. You can post questions to: [email protected]
http://www. brazil.ox.ac.uk/
Oxford University’s Centre for Brazilian Studies. It has been open only since
1997. You could take a chance and contact them, should you have any queries, at:
92 Woodstock Road
Oxford
OX2 7ND
Alternatively, email: [email protected]
http://www. lusobraz.com/
‘Luso-Brazilian Books’, an online bookshop specialising in books in Portuguese,
in English translations of Brazilian and Portuguese writers and books in English
about Portugal and Brazil.
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http://www.brazil.org.uk/welcome.html
One might expect the Brazilian Embassy (London) site – which this is – to be
fairly ‘official’, i.e. sanitised and bland but, much like Brazil itself, it is pretty
vibrant. It also has an introduction to the history of theatre in Brazil: follow the
‘Culture’ icon in the left frame to the Theatre icon and there it is, written by
Sábato Magaldi.
http://www.brazzil.com/rpdmay99.htm
‘Brazzil’ [sic] is an online magazine with items of interest. This is the May 1999
issue which includes items on Social Behaviour (women looking at pictures of
naked men); Population studies (Brazilian women on the Pill); the Environment
(the effect of sewage in the sea), Urban Life (building and construction in São
Paolo); an obituary of well-loved playwright Dias Domes; and the Culture page
which reports on a vote to find Brazil’s top scenic artists (Boal came in 16th,
fairly low down the order with 11 votes – the winner, Nelson Rodrigues, won 24
votes).
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CRITICAL WORKS
SECTION 3
Babbage, Frances (ed.), Working without Boal: Digressions and
Developments in the Theatre of the Oppressed, Vol. 3, part 1, Newark, NJ:
Harwood Academic Press, 1995
A collection of essays on Boal’s influence in Britain.
Bentley, Eric (ed.), The Theory of the Modern Stage: An Introduction to
Modern Theatre and Drama, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1968
A good introduction and background to the subject of Unit 2, if not Boal.
Bilder, Erica, (ed.), Theandric: Julian Beck’s Last Notebooks, Newark, NJ:
Harwood Academic Publishers, 1992
Julian Beck and Judith Malina ran the Living Theatre, a veritable hothouse of
experimental and radical theatre. See the sections ‘For an Anti-Aristotelian
Theatre’ and ‘How can the theatre teach?’
Brandt, George W (ed.), Modern Theories of Drama: A Selection of Writings
on Drama and Theatre 1840–1990, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998
This contains an extract from Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed titled ‘Poetics of
the Oppressed’.
Braun, Edward, The Director and the Stage, London: Methuen, 1982
An invaluable resource for the whole course and particularly this unit,
regardless of which practitioner you have chosen. A broad, outstanding
overview of the rise to prominence of the director since the late nineteenth
century.
As the nearest thing you will find to a course reader, it will introduce students
to the work of Meiningen, Antoine, the Symbolists, Jarry, Stanislavski, Craig,
Reinhardt, Meyerhold, Piscator, Brecht, Artaud and Grotowski – though, sadly,
nothing on Boal.
Brook, Peter, The Empty Space, Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1972
A seminal text for modern theatre workers.
Burns, E Bradford, A History of Brazil, New York: Columbia University Press
(rev. edn), 1993
Some consider this the best single-volume history of Brazil in English. This
revised and updated edition includes new material on the role of women in
Brazil’s past, race relations, social and cultural movements and the crisis of
democracy of 1992.
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Cohen-Cruz, Jan (ed.), Radical Street Performance: An International
Anthology, London: Routledge, 1998
Cruz has helped to document some of the hundreds of politically active street
performances which have taken place all over the world – including some
Invisible Theatre – with this collection of essays by activists, directors,
academics and performers.
Delgado, M M, and Heritage, P (eds), In Contact with the Gods?: Directors
talk Theatre, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996
A very interesting look at many contemporary directors and their influences,
theories and practice.
Delgado and Heritage provide a good introductory biography of Boal and
then the transcript of a talk Boal gave – with audience questions – in
Manchester in 1995.
In it Boal gives a graphic account of the dangers inherent in practising theatre
in Brazil in the late 60s and early 70s (actors wore loaded revolvers in their
costumes – just in case). He goes on to describe his experience of taking
theatre out into public spaces (the Argentinian restaurant and the husband and
wife shopping are gems of ideas for students to experiment with).
From this point in the talk Boal takes us through the genesis and rationale of
Forum Theatre and of his Rainbow of Desire (i.e. the form of theatre designed
to deal with issues beyond the scope of Forum Theatre) and ‘the Cops in the
Head’.
Valuable background reading.
Fausto, Boris, A Concise History of Brazil, Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1999
Covering 500 years of Brazilian history, Fausto – a professor at the University
of São Paulo – looks at the events which have shaped the formation of Brazil,
from the arrival of the Portuguese to the political events that defined the
transition from an authoritarian to a democratic political regime. Periods
covered by this history are: Colonial Brazil; Imperial Brazil; the first republic;
the Vargas state: the Democratic experiment; the military government and the
transition to democracy.
George, David, Flash and Crash Days: Brazilian Theater in the PostDictatorship Period, London: Routledge, 2000
Describing and analysing the developments in Brazil’s theatre during the
1980s and 90s, by reflecting on the legacy of the thriving theatre scene of
which Boal was a part in the 1950s and 60s, through the difficult years of
censorship and state terror in between.
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González Echevarría, Roberto (ed.), The Cambridge History of Latin
American Literature, Vol. 3 : Brazilian Literature, Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1996
An extensive collection of essays – see ‘Brazilian Theatre through 1900’ and
‘The Brazilian Theatre in the 20th Century’, both by Severino-Joao
Albuquerque.
Goodman, Lizbeth, and de Gay, Jane, The Routledge Reader in Politics and
Performance, London: Routledge, 2000
A collection of extracts from work by leading theatre practitioners and
academics, including Boal, Brook, Grotowski and Schechner.
Harrison, Charles and Wood, Paul (eds), Art in Theory 1900–1990: An
Anthology of Changing Ideas, Oxford: Blackwell, 1992
A real door-stopper of a volume which contains a comprehensive collection of
selected writings on art and art theory. For dipping into, of course, but it can
also provide a valuable history of the ideas that shaped artistic practice during
the twentieth century.
Johnston, Chris, House of Games: making theatre from everyday life,
London: Nick Hern Books, 1998
A very handy textbook for drama practitioners working in education or the
community. Part Three: ‘Animations’ has a section titled, ‘The Sun Shines at
Midnight: Models of Participatory Theatre’ which explains Johnston’s own
understanding and use of some of Boal’s methods.
Keck, Margaret E, The Workers’ Party and Democratization in Brazil, New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1992
Boal was elected to the city council of Rio de Janeiro as a member of this
party – the first legal mass party of the left in Brazil’s recent history. The
Workers’ Party played a crucial role in the country’s transition from military
rule to democracy. Keck describes its origins and formative years.
Levine, Robert M and Crocitti, John J (eds), The Brazil Reader: history,
culture, politics, Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1999
Essays, letters, interviews, legal documents, reminiscences and scholarly
analyses. These include observations by ordinary residents, both urban and
rural, as well as foreign visitors and experts on Brazil. The book also looks at
social behaviour, women’s lives, literature, sexuality, music and popular
culture.
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Milling, Jane and Ley, Graham, Modern Theories of Performance: from
Stanislavski to Boal, New York: St Martin’s Press, 2000
This explores the theoretical work – rather than the practice – of many
practitioners: Stanislavski, Appia, Craig, Meyerhold, Copeau, Artaud,
Grotowski and Boal.
Oddey, Alison, Devising Theatre: a practical and theoretical handbook,
London: Routledge, 1994
There is a curious anomaly, of course, in Unit 1: Devised Drama, for which
candidates must devise a presentation individually, when devised drama is
widely regarded as a group collaboration. However, Oddey’s book will aid
students in more than this first unit. For the purposes of the Advanced
Higher’s Unit 2: Twentieth Century Theatre: Theories of Performance, Oddey
describes how influenced she has been by Boal’s practical ideas (see Section 8,
‘Learning to Devise: practical ideas and suggestions’).
Schutzman, Mady and Cohen-Cruz, Jan (eds), Playing Boal: Theatre, Therapy
and Activism, London: Routledge, 1994
Of all the works in this section, this is perhaps the most valuable and is worth
buying for a study of Boal.
A very wide-ranging collection of essays on all aspects of Boal’s work and
influence, interviews with Boal (one a reprint from The Drama Review, see
p21) and two snippets from Boal himself. One of these, ‘She Made Her
Brother Smile: a three-minute forum theatre experience’, is an account of a
short workshop Boal conducted with eighty 12–17-year-old street children and
is an object lesson in how simple and complex Boal’s concepts are.
Elsewhere in the book, Pam Schweitzer (‘Many Happy Retirements’) recounts
a theatrical activity – using and adapting Boal’s methods and techniques – with
elderly participants and Age Exchange, a London-based theatre company. Jan
Cohen-Cruz writes about the re-birth and re-shaping of activist theatre in the
USA (‘Mainstream or Margin?’). In ‘The Mask of Solidarity’, Julie Salverson
discusses her own activist work in Canadian theatre and the links between the
process known as ‘Naming the Moment’ (NMT) and Theatre of the Oppressed
(TOP).
Highly recommended.
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Styan, J L, Modern Drama in Theory and Practice: Volume 1. Realism and
Naturalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983
— Modern Drama in Theory and Practice: Volume 2. Symbolism,
Surrealism and the Absurd, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983
— Modern Drama in Theory and Practice: Volume 3. Expressionism and
Epic Theatre, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983
All three volumes of a superb series will give students of theatre and drama a
solid background to work in the twentieth century.
Periodicals
Tulane Drama Review – later known just as The Drama Review
• Fall 1990, Vol. 34 No.3 (T–127):
– ‘Boal at NYU: A Workshop and its Aftermath’ by Jan Cohen-Cruz;
– ‘Theatre of the Oppressed Workshops with Women’ by Mady Schutzman
and Jan Cohen-Cruz;
– ‘Boal in Brazil, France and the USA: An Interview with Augusto Boal’ by
Michael Taussig and Richard Schechner (this interview is reprinted in
Schutzman and Cohen-Cruz’s Playing Boal, p20);
– ‘The Cop in the Head: Three Hypotheses’ by Augusto Boal (see The
Rainbow of Desire, p4).
• Fall 1994, Vol.38 No.3 (T–143):
– ‘The Courage to be Happy: Augusto Boal, Legislative Theatre and the
7th International Festival of the Theatre of the Oppressed’ by Paul
Heritage;
– ‘A Role to Play for the Theatre of the Oppressed’ by Douglas Paterson;
– ‘Activism, Therapy or Nostalgia? Theatre of the Oppressed Workshops
with Women’ by Mady Schutzman;
– ‘Vindicated: A Letter from Augusto Boal’.
Contemporary Theatre Review
Modern Drama
• September 1986, Vol.29, No.3 – ‘Conflicting Signs of Violence in Augusto
Boal’s Torquemada’ by Severino-Joao Albuquerque.
Latin American Theatre Review
• Spring 1982, Vol.15, No.2 – ‘Victims and Violators: The Structure of
Violence in Torquemada’ by Judith I Bisset.
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Courses
The Royal National Theatre Education and Training Department provide InService Training courses for teachers. Their 2000–2001 programme of courses
included ‘Understanding and Practising Forum Theatre’ – a two-day course which
cost £100.
Information can be obtained by writing (with an SAE) to: Education and Training,
Royal National Theatre, South Bank, London, SE1 9PX.
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