Theatre
of the Oppressed History and Outline
Background and Key People:
Paolo Freire : Paolo Freire was a Brazilian teacher who based
his pedagogy in education through the notion that there exists an inevitable
connection between knowledge and social conditions. He stressed that not only
is it important for students to read the word, but to read the world. The
foundation of his theories begin with the teacher immersed in the daily life of
the community, asking questions of the people.
The teacher begins to understand the social reality of the people, and
develop a list of themes which could lead to discussion. Freire was imprisoned
and exiled to Chile for threatening the political systems in his country. While
in exile, Freire did most of his activist work and published his most acclaimed
works. Freire traveled worldwide helping
countries to spread his praxis of “freedom through education.” Freire’s work
continues to be reviewed and re-clarified according to current political and
intellectual thought. As long as the
struggle for more humane educational practices, for deeper insights
into constructions of power and oppression, and the impulse for people to invent
their own identities and realities exists—Freirean praxis will challenge
people toward personal and
social liberation, both in thought and action.
Augusto Boal :
Boal was a Brazilian actor, writer, theorist and teacher who initially did most
of his work on the stage in Brazil. Educated in the United States, Boal had his
‘breakthrough’ to the Theatre of the Oppressed during a ‘talk back’ from a
performance. A woman in the audience suggested that an actor change the way
they did something, and she came on the stage and showed them herself how she
believed it was to be done. This approach of empowering the audience members to
imagine and practice change as well as reflect on the action and then
generate a plan for the future, is the main point of TO. At this time in
the 1960’s, this empowering of the people was threatening to the political
systems in place in Brazil, and so Boal was kidnapped off of the streets,
arrested, tortured and exiled to Argentina. He eventually self-exiled to Europe
where he further developed his pedagogy and practice. Boal published his most
renowned writings before he returned to Brazil. He also formed over a dozen
companies which develop community-based performances and helped to form the PTO
Organization. (Pedagogy of the Theatre of the Oppressed) He died in the spring of 2009 but his son
Julian carries on his work through PTO.
Basic Tenets of the Theatre of the Oppressed
* The body is a unity of the physical and the
emotional, which are inseparable. By activating genuine emotions and physical
actions, we have more confidence and insight to a situation which enables us to
be genuinely capable of exploring how we can change the way we feel or react in
a similar moment.
*
Theater is the rehearsal for reality. It is considered as a political tool to
make change.
*
Audiences should not just be spectators, but rather spect-actors, active
observers whose input and opinions have the power to change a scene or a
situation.
*
Reflection is necessary to be able to collectively generate an action plan for
the problems posed in the rehearsal for reality and understand how theater
connects to reality.
What does this look like in general?
Games and Exercises:
A
series of acting games and exercises that warm up the body and the awaken the
senses, create the essential culture of trust and comfortability within a group
that is necessary to cultivate the most honest work. Facilitator-ed, can be in
any size group.
Image theatre:
Individuals
are used to sculpt events and relationships sometimes to the accompaniment of a
narrative. The audience can participate in the image, activate the image, ask
for sound from the image or even manipulate the image. This is practiced in
many different forms with a facilitator leading the group to create the images
and respond to the images.
Forum Theatre:
A presentation of short, improvised scenes
that represent problems of a given community (example: gender inequality,
racial stereotyping). Audience members
observe than volunteer to interact by replacing characters in scenes and
improvising new solutions to the problems being presented. Reflection and focus
on changing the position of oppression comes through participants activating
their truest desires within a given situation.
What does this look like in schools?
* Facilitating
games/exercises, doing image work with students
* Creating a spectrum in
your classroom about an issue, and asking a student to show their placement on
the spectrum based on their feelings and their desired feelings.
* Student-generated
scenes or skits to demonstrate problem-solving with peers, or understanding an
academic issue, mini- forum theater
* Character education,
emotional expression, practicing
team building
* Facilitating groups
that you work with, teachers, administrators.
Movement based activities:
The
cross and the circle
Make an imaginary circle with their
right hand, cross with their left hand
Colombian
Hypnosis
One person as the leader, the follower
is guided by their hand; variations include
one leader, two followers.Minimum
surface contact
Participants try to keep the least amount of your body touching the floor, but always changing that body part; variation includes touching every part of the body should come in contact with the floor, always changing that body part.
Participants try to keep the least amount of your body touching the floor, but always changing that body part; variation includes touching every part of the body should come in contact with the floor, always changing that body part.
Pushing
against each other to find equal balance
Variations include arm-to-arm,
back-to-back, hand-to-hand, back dancing, back
walking.
Object
at equilibrium
Participants keep an object in the air
as long as possible, or balancing an object
between two people and two body parts to keep that object at equilibrium.
Racing
on chairs
Walk across a line of chairs, last
person has to bring the last chair to the front
of the line
Rhythm
with chairs
Facilitator calls out numbers, actors
have to make the image of the number with
their body and a chair, actors move around the room
Movement
with levels
Setting speeds with numbers, 1 being
slowest, most tired, most weighed down.
10 being fastest, most phrenetic, energetic. Find middle and different degrees of movement
Walks
Have a slow motion race
Do other races like crab walk,
3-legged race, monkey walk, all 4’s, camel walk,
elephant walk, kangaroo walk, leaning against each other walk, wheelbarrow walk, your own walk, imitation
walk
Massages
In a circle, backs then faces, back to
back massages
Group based activities
The
Bear of Poltiers
One person as the bear turns their back
on the foresters, who go about their own
business, the bear gives an enormous growl, and all the woodcutters have to fall to the floor and ‘play dead,’ and remain motionless. The bear goes up to each dead
woodcutter and can growl at them,
touch, tickle, anything to make them laugh or move. Their goal is to make them reveal they are alive. When the bear
succeeds, the forester, who has given
themselves away, becomes an additional bear.
Reflection
focus for Bear of Poltiers: feeling nothing, sending the senses to sleep. Being told to do this sends the exact
opposite reaction, when you are aware
of sending them to sleep, they become
extra sensitive.
Sit,
stack and remove chair
Actors sit on the knees of the first
sitting actor, and so on, they lift left then right
until the first actor is off the chair.
Reflection
focus: balance, team work
Grandmother’s
Footsteps (green light, red light)
What you remember from elementary
school, one person’s back is turned and
the others move towards that person until they turn around. Anyone still moving is out.
One person in the center, each person
on the outside makes contact with them
with a sheet of paper in between and has to keep the paper on them as they are moving.
Cat
and Mouse
This is a variation of a“tag” game, where each person is linked up,
and you can save yourself by
linking on to someone, but then that extra person has to be the one that is being chased.
Good
day
Participants grab hand and say name,
can’t let go until they have grabbed another
hand.
Exquisite
corpse (drawing or story)
Piece of paper is folded into multiple
sections, one person starts a story or a drawing
on one section, then the paper is passed to the next person to add on to it, then it is passed on to the next
person, revealing at the end a combination
of everyone’s pictures or parts of the story.
Listening/observing based activities
A
round of rhythm and movement
One person sets the rhythm and
movement, then goes to another in the circle
and that person is challenged with changing the rhythm and movement.
Reflection
focus
How subtle the changes were to the
changes.
Group
setting a rhythm and movement
Group sets the sound and the movement,
then uses intuition and observation to
change the rhythm.
Ball
game
Group passes the ball and keeps i
moving, maintaining a rhythm and pace that
the group has to follow.
Machine
game
Motions set in place have to set the
next machine’s motions in place, same rhythm,
mechanical sounds and movements used.
Accelerate rhythm, slow down rhythm,
increase volume on sounds, decrease volume
on sounds. Variation could be that the machine has a theme of love or hate, and they can only use sounds and
movements that relate to that theme.
The
Peruvian ball game
Participants mime to create an
individual ball for a sport, play with it, use it, get familiar with it, then you have to trade with a partner,
play with the ball, use the play,
then trade with another partner, repeat a few times then look for your own ball.
West
Side Story
Participants are split into two groups lined
up, facing each other. One group ‘challenges’
the other with a unified rhythm/dance from their side to the other side of the room. The other group has to
come back with a reactionary rhythm
or dance. The groups alternate, one person starts the dance, and others follow.
Orchestra
of emotion
Facilitator chooses an emotion, the
group makes a noise to reflect this emotion,
and the conductor can have some people ‘singing’ or turn it up or down. The group has to follow the
director’s cues.
Imitation
circle
Group forms a circle, and one person
walks up to anyone in the ciricle, they switch
positions and that next person walks up to another, imitating the first person’s walk. Notice how the very
first walk has transformed into something
completely different.
Walk,
stop, justify
Group walks around the space until
‘freeze!’ is called, then the facilitator activates
participants and asks them to justify why they are stopped the way that they are stopped.
Carnival
in Rio
Start a dance that others will imitate,
then change, imitate then change
Breathing based exercies
Breathing
techniques:
Lying on back completely relaxed
Leaning against a wall
Standing up straight
Breathe as slowly/quickly as possible
Explosion- as loud as aggressive as
possible
Lifting arms - during inhale, lowering
arms during exhale
pressure cooker- hold close nose and
mouth, making effort to expel effort
Deeply through mouth
With clear definition and lots of
energy
‘Pulling out the stopper’ of a partner
Partners, groups- alternate in and out
Hold one finger over one nostril when
breathing in, then switch to cover the other
nostril with you breathe out
Blind exercises (all with eyes closed
or covered)
Point
of focus
Pick a point to focus on and walk to, then
close eyes, try to make it to that point,
if you hit someone you must hug them, then move to your target.
The
imaginary journey
Partner guides another partner around
the space, then the partner has to say
exactly what the journey was, or guess where the ending location is.
The
glass cobra
Everyone stands in a circle with their hands
on the shoulders of the person in
front of them. With their eyes closed, they use their hands to investigate the
back of the head, the neck and the shoulders of the person in front of them. Then the glass cobra is shattered into
many pieces and the pieces of the cobra
have to try to find each other again to form a steel cobra.
The
magnet
Participants wander around the space with
their eyes closed, as negative charges,
if they hit someone else, they are to bounce off that person, they have to avoid touching other people. Then the
facilitator can change the charge to
positive, and participants have to stick to each other for a few moments and keep moving when they hit
someone else. Finally, everyone stops
and each person has to find a face and feel that face in order to construct an image in their mind about what
that face looks like. When the facilitator
prompts them, participants open their eyes to see how their image is different from the actual face.
The
vampire of Strasbourg
Everyone walks around the room with their eyes
closed, their hands covering their
elbows without colliding or touching others, The facilitator applies a little squeeze to the neck of the
one who is the first ‘vampire,’ after
a few seconds they give a scream of terror and from this point must seek out necks in order to vampirize
others. The vampire’s scream indicates the
whereabouts of the vampire so the others can escape him. As vampires are accumulating, if a vampire gets
another vampire, the victim lets out a cry
of pleasure and drops their arms to their sides, having been returned to normal human status.
Guess
the object
The blind participant has to guess what an
object in their hands is, can change to
multiple objects.
Draw
your own body
With eyes closed, participants lay on their
backs on the ground and think about their
body as a totality, and they try to move each part of their body as they are thinking about it. The after a few
minutes of concentration, they are
asked to draw their own bodies on a piece of paper, then write their names on the back. Drawings are arranged on
the floor, and facilitator asks the
participants what they notice about the different drawings, positions of bodies, clothing, body parts, then
finally to identify their own body drawing.
Friend
and enemy
Groups of 3 decide one person to be the
protagonist, then with their eyes closed,
the other two people choose to be the friend or the enemy. The protagonist closes their eyes and the
other two alternate between giving that
person orders or suggestions. The group switches after 2 minutes, then afterwards, reflect on the reasons
they had decided in their minds that a person
was either an enemy or a friend.
The
blind person and the bomb
One blindfolded person is surrounded by
the other people, the blind person must
imagine that a bomb will explode if she touches someone for longer than a second. At each contact, she moves
as far away as possible.
Touch
the color
Facilitator gives the blind participant
5 pieces of the same type of clothing that
are 5 different colors. The blind actor has to feel the pieces of clothing and describe what color it is.
Space based exercises
Leave
no space empty
Participants walk and move to fill the
entire given space, high, low, perimeter,
middle, etc.
Numbers
and figures
Leader calls out a number, geometric
figure, part of the body, color/item of clothing,
group has to walk according to the direction of the leader, correlating in groups of that number or
those wearing that color, or create that
shape or number on the floor.
Leader
prompts different speeds
Mirror
sequences
Plain mirror - subject and image
directly mirroring each other, leader can alternate
or be a mystery
Mirror breaks - keep one part
stationary, the rest of the image can move
Modeling
sequence
Sculptor touches model - sculptor makes
model their subject using touch
Sculptor doesn’t touch model - sculptor
makes model their subject without touching
them, just using pressure or mimicry
Sculptors spread out around the room -
models have to watch their sculptors
prompting them from different areas of the room
Sculptors make one model together - a
group of sculptors alternate positioning
one model, without speaking
One sculptor, multiple models - a group
of models are sculpted by one model
without speaking
Image games
Complete
the image
Two actors shake hands and freeze, ask
the watching group what is happening
in this image, used to show there are many meanings to one image.
One partner removes themselves from the
image, leaving the other with their hand
extended. The other partners returns to the image and completes it in a different position, with a different relationship
to the partner with the
outstretched hand, changing the meaning of the image, but conveying an idea, emotion, feeling. Then
the first partner comes out of this new
frozen image, looks at it, then completes it, changing the meaning again.
The important thing is to keep the game
moving and the ideas flowing.
Boxing
match
Two people stand 5 feet a part, each must
react immediately to the ‘blows' doled
out by their partner. This works best if one person comprehensively beats up the other, then the roles are
reversed, it is difficult to react to imaginary
blows and dole them out at the same time.
lover’s
variation- partners are caressing each other
dancing
variation - dancing in couples, have to continue dances as if they were still
in each other’s arms
Choosing one protector, and one enemy
Look
around the group and choose one enemy and one protector, move around the space, trying to stay far away from
the enemy and close to the person that is
their protector
Furnish the space
Two
participants stand face to face, one moves and the other fills ‘the empty space’ if one draws back their hand,
the other pulls theirs in, if one shrinks,
the other grows taller, etc.
Complimentary activities
One of
the participants starts any movement, and the others try to discover what they are doing so they can then
engage in the complementary activities.
Tell your own story
An actor
recounts an experience, of any kind, as long as it is something that really happened to them, the rest of the
group illustrates the story. The storyteller
must not intervene to correct the group during the exercise. At the end they discuss the differences, the
storyteller can compare their reactions
to those of their colleagues.
Antiquated telephone exchange
Circle
of people watching each other, all have a number themselves and then one other number that they are observing.
The instruction is to do nothing, but
when the observed makes any one, tiny movement, the observer has to mirror that movement. After a few
minutes there are all extremes of behavior.
The
Child’s Dream
Half the groups writes their names on a
piece of paper, and a hero or mythical
figure that they dreamt of being when they were children. First, the participants move around the space using only
their bodies to show the characteristics
of that person they wanted to be. The then have to find a partner and start a dialogue with their
partner without saying anything to reveal
that character. After that, they switch partners again. Then the facilitator calls out a name and the other
group watching has to describe the
characteristics that they observed that person displaying. They should not try to guess, but rather the person will
reveal after all observations are reported.
The same game can be played with the
thing that they feared the most as a child.
The same game can be played with what
grown ups wanted me to be.
The
opposite of myself
Same game with the opposite
characteristic of themself highlighted, or written
on a piece of paper.
Reconnecting memory, emotion and
imagination
Memory
sequence
Remembering yesterday with the body,
with words- going through all the details
of the previous day, with movement and words, sitting in silence and thinking through the
day, then acting it all out, reflecting on
what they highlighted and what they left out, variations include a partner helping to probe for more
details or ask questions
Remembering a day in the past,
significant day, holiday- same as above
Remembering emotion and imagination -
remembering feeling a certain way, and
even dramatizing that emotion, taking it to a surreal level, the point being to reawaken the
sense to feeling that specific emotion
Remembering an actual oppression - same
exercise as above, the partner may
suggest actions which may eventually lead to the breaking of the oppression being related. The
protagonist has to break oppression even
if they are following the directions of the partner.
Image theatre
Image
of the word:
Illustrating
a subject with your body- express a chosen theme in a visual form, work without seeing each other, then
then positions their bodies to express
an opinion, idea or expression of a theme given. When all the volunteers have shown, the facilitator
can ask if anyone in the group can suggest
an image different to those shown. Then one by one anyone who wants to add themselves to the image
can be in the image
The facilitator can suggest the participants move within the image in the following ways -
Ask participants to move
closer to the desired state of being
Ask participants to move
further away from the desired state of being
Ask participants to
interrelate themselves to the other participants in the image
Ask participants to further
dynamisize themselves in either the oppressed
or oppressors position in the image
Illustrating others’ word
A theme is proposed, and one person
sculpts people in the image, then follows
the facilitators prompts to make the image follow their prompts. The bodies in the image have no power to
change their position, only the sculptor.
Image
of transition
The subject matter has to be an
oppression of any kind the group has suggested.
Group is asked to construct an ideal model, in which the oppression will have been eliminated and
everyone in the model will have come to a
plausible equilibrium, a state of affairs which is no oppressive for any of the characters. Then return to the
image of oppression, then dynamise
it.
Each person has a chance to sculpt and
change whatever they feel to be a transformation
to eliminate the oppression. After each person has showed their two images of transition, the
group starts to move towards freeing themselves
out of the position of oppressed or oppressor, that they are in. Stopping along the way to notice the
position that they are in in relationship to
others around them. The movement ceases when all conflicts have been resolved in the image.
Multiple
images of Oppression/Happiness
Now the aim is to show several images
which represent the subject of oppression.
The group can compare several perspectives of one subject. Participants enter the image on their own
choosing. They can ‘tap out' someone
already in the image, or they can add themselves to the image. The dynamization involves moving towards
their desired state within an image,
going back and forth from its original image to the ideal. They move together autonomously. They can show a
realistic or idealistic representation
of how they would like to see the image change.
Image
of the group
The whole group is inescapably part of
the image. Those outside the image are
still a part! (they are taking on the role of the happy watchers, and can choose whether or not become a part of
the nucleus of the group). Create an
image of this group, placing yourself in the position that corresponds exactly to the image each of them feels
they exist in, then move the image towards
the desires of each individual and the image that each is capable of realizing.
Rehearsal for the Change Exercises -
Beginning of Forum Theatre
Within
images, tap a person to speak their 3 wishes, activate into actions, activate
into dialogue, activate proposals for change.
Improvise
a story: personal story of oppression, someone tells the story and others act
it out, improvising the story as they interpreted it from the story teller.
Different dynamisations are practiced, different dialogues are engaged.
People
within the forum suggest ideas to break the oppression in the story. They can
either direct the scene or put themselves in the scene. They can suggest
changes in blocking, dialogue, they can manipulate any actor in the scene.
From
there, group discussion is incited for the group to engage in generating ideas
for change for similar stories to the one that is presented.
Actors
can switch positions within a scene, try being another actor/observer in the
scene.
Emotional
warm-up exercises - space walk that goes through all of the emotions, with or
without speaking.
Stop!
Think!
Actors
stop in their actions and let out an inner-dialogue of the scene
-Exaggeration-
doing everything in heightened dramatics
-Caricature
- highlighting a specific characteristic of a character in the scene
-Swapping
characters/Rashomon
-Need
vs. Will - stopping and asking if you are acting on a need or want impulse
-Secret
whispers- doing all dialogue in a whisper
-Long
Beach telegram- actors emphasize one word in their line of dialogue
-I
don’t believe you - actors can say that to another actor only a few times in a
line of dialogue
Sociometry
Exercises
Making a map of the country/world - what do you call
home, where do you live
Placing yourself on a spectrum, hot to cold, scale of
1 to 10
Touching a person you knew before you came here
Touching a person that said something that you
remember today
Resources:
Boal, A. (1979) Theatre of the
Oppressed. New York: Theatre Communications Group.
Freire, P. (2006) Pedagogy of the
Oppressed. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group
Freire, P. (2005) Teachers as Cultural
Workers. Cambridge, MA: Westview
Games for
Actors and Non-Actors (Routledge Press)
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