Thanks for that link Shawn, I'll send it out via this mailing-list
meant to discuss theatre issues in India
http://groups.google.com/group/curtain-call-india
FN
2009/5/10 Shawn Sobers <[log in to unmask]>:
> Here are some quotes by Augusto Boal about his notion of ‘Theatre of the
> Oppressed’, taken from his 1992 book ‘Games for Actors and Non-Actors’ that
> I would like to share with you. Augusto sadly died last week.
>
> Inspired by Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed he understood the
> activist and emancipation role of culture for individuals and communities
> living in societies where power is in the hands of the few, where the
> majority are disenfranchised from being seen, heard or being in a position
> to affect change, which both Boal and Freire knew was basically every
> society in the world. They both also understood how culture could be used
> as a tool to pacify and numb the masses. For Freire his emancipation weapon
> was education – for Boal it was Theatre. For community media education
> activists, it is essentially both.
>
> “[In] its 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. This is why humans are able to identify (themselves and
> others) and not merely to recognise.”
> Page xxvi
>
> “The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of
> the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and
> Spectators (they observe!).”
> Page xxx
>
> “Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of
> transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just
> waiting for it.”
> Page xxxi
>
> “When does a session of The Theatre of the Oppressed end? Never – since the
> objective is not to close a cycle, to generate a catharsis, or to end a
> development. On the contrary, its objective is to encourage autonomous
> activity, to set a process in motion, to stimulate transformative
> creativity, to change spectators into protagonists. And it is precisely for
> these reasons that the Theatre of the Oppressed should be the initiator of
> changes the culmination of which is not the aesthetic phenomenon but real
> life.”
> Page 245
>
> “In truth the Theatre of the Oppressed has no end, because everything which
> happens in it must extend into life….The Theatre of the Oppressed is located
> precisely on the frontier between fiction and reality – and this border must
> be crossed. If the show starts in fiction, its objective is to become
> integrated into reality, into life.
>
> Now in 1992, when so many certainties have become so many doubts, when so
> many dreams have withered on exposure to sunlight, and so many hopes have
> become as many deceptions – now that we are living through times and
> situations of great perplexity, full of doubts and uncertainties, now more
> than ever I believe it is time for a theatre which, at its best, will ask
> the right questions at the right times. Let us be democratic and ask our
> audiences to tell us their desires, and let us show them alternatives. Let
> us hope that one day – please, not too far in the future – we’ll be able to
> convince or force our governments, our leaders, to do the same; to ask their
> audiences – us – what they should do, so as to make this world a place to
> live and be happy in – yes, it is possible – rather than just a vast market
> in which we sell our goods and our souls. Let’s hope. Let’s work for it!”
> Pages 246-247
>
> Rest in Perfect Peace Augusto Boal – April 16, 1931 – May 2, 2009
>
> A Luta Continua
>
> http://beyondproject.wordpress.com/2009/05/09/augusto-boal-theatre-of-the-oppressed-has-no-end/
>
> Shawn Sobers
> Firstborn Creatives - UK
>
> ________________________________
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--
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