Augusto Boal Born 16 March Died 2 May 2009 A Brazilian Theatre Director, raised in Rio de Janeiro He was also a writer and politician Founder of Theatre of the Oppressed Formally trained in chemical engineering and attended Columbia University in the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Although his interest and participation in theatre began at an early age, it was after he finished his degree at Columbia that he was asked to return to Brazil to work with the Arena Theatre in Sao Paulo. His work at the Arena Theatre led to his experimentation with new forms of theatre that would have an extraordinary impact on traditional practice. Boal has influenced, general public, writers, teachers, audiences

Because of Boal’s work, he drew attention as a cultural activist. But the military coups in Brazil during the 1960’s looked upon all such activity as a threat. Walking home from an Arena performance of Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo, Boal directed in 1971, Boal was kidnapped off the street, arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to Argentina, then self-exiled to Europe. In Argentina in 1973 he published his first major theatre text, The Theatre of the Oppressed.

Boal returned to Rio de Janeiro in He has established a major Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed there and has formed over a dozen companies which develop community-based performances. Primarily Forum Theatre and Image Theatre. Forum Theatre relies upon presentation of short scenes that represent problems of a given community. Audience members interact by replacing characters in scenes and by improvising new solutions to the problems being presented. Image theatre uses individuals to sculpt events and relationships sometimes to the accompaniment of a narrative.

Image theatre consists of creating short scenes, no longer than a minute or two, with a strong image that the entire audience can easily understand, identify, and apply to their own lives. Images can be realistic, surrealistic, symbolic or metaphorical. The only thing that matters is that it is true; that it is felt as true by the protagonist. (the person leading the performance) Images tell the story in a condensed, outline form using pictures with very little or no talking. The audience is pulled in immediately because they know exactly what is being said. Movement, music, and ensemble are used to heighten the impact.

Boal developed the idea of Spect-actors. Forum Theatre is a type of theatrical game where a problem is shown in an unresolved form. The audience is invited to suggest and enact solutions. The scenario is then repeated, allowing the audience to offer alternative solutions. The game is a contest between the audience and actors trying to bring the play to a different end.

Invisible theatre is a technique of rehearsing a scene with actions that the protagonist would like to try out in real life. This is done in a place where these events could really happen and in front of an audience who, unaware that they are an audience, accordingly act as if the improvised scene was real. Thus, the improvised scene becomes reality. Fiction penetrates reality. What the protagonist had rehearsed as a plan, a blueprint, now becomes an act.

COMPLETE THE IMAGE -Two people shake hands and freeze. The leader asks the spectators what story they see. One person then comes out of that frozen picture, leaving an incomplete image. A volunteer then comes in and completes the image to make a different story. Work in pairs or work in threes. INDIVIDUAL IMAGES -As a group stand in a circle facing out. Leader says a word or theme and counts down from 3 to 1 at which time the group turns around and face into the circle presenting a frozen image of that word.

1.Where is Boal from? (Country) 2.What are Boal’s 3 theatre techniques? 3.What did he study at University? 4.Where was Boal exiled too? 5.Why did people see Boal as a threat? TRY YOUR BEST!!! :D