Theater+of+the+Oppressed

Introduction: The Fable of Xua Xua, the pre-human woman who discovered theater.

// But in a most archaic sense, theatre is the capacity possessed by human beings – and not by animals – to observe themselves in action. Humans are capable of seeing themselves in the act of seeing, of thinking their emotions, of being moved by their thoughts. They can see themselves here and imagine themselves there; they can see themselves today and imagine themselves tomorrow. //// That’s why humans are capable to identify (themselves and others) and not merely to recognise. A cat recognises its master, who gives it food and strokes it, but can not identify him as a teacher, a professional person, a lover. To identify is to be able not only to recognise within the same repetitive context but also to extrapolate to others contexts; to see beyond what the eyes see, to hear beyond what the ear hears, to feel beyond what touches the skin, to think beyond what words mean. //// I can identify a friend by a single gesture, a painter by his style, a politician by the policies he supports. Even in the absence of the subject, I can identify his mark, his traces, his actions, his merits. // **//Augusto Boal.//**

Starting from the teachings of Paulo Freire, **Augusto Boal** first came up with this form of theater in the 1960's. The main goal of Theater of the Opressed is the "transformation of reality in the social and relational field" (1). The second main characteristic of Theater of the Opressed is that the audience become actors. The concept for this is "spect-actors".

//Oppression: the act of subjugating by cruelty (3).//

At first, Theater of the Oppressed was called **Newspaper Theater**. The idea behind it was that this form of theater would solve local problems. However, this form of theater later got to grow and get to be known as **Forum Theater.** It was applied to Peru under that name in the 1970's and then it grew towards Argentina as **Invisible Theater** (under a form of Political Theater) and as **Image Theater** (as a way to start dialogue between indigenous nations and Spanish descendents).

It has grown to have many shapes, many forms, many ways. As the Theater of the Oppressed Organization puts it: "TO was used by peasants and workers; later, by teachers and students; now, also by artists, social workers, psychotherapists, NGOs... At first, in small, almost clandestine places. Now in the streets, schools, churches, trade-unions, regular theatres, prisons..." (4).



Theater of the Opressed - Declaration of Principles Bibliography