Theater of the Oppressed is an umbrella name that encompasses techniques devised by Brazilian theater practitioner Augusto Boal. The Theater of the Oppressed includes the following techniques:
- Newspaper theater
- Invisible theater
- Picture theater
- Forum-theater
- Long wishes
- Legislative Theater
- Aesthetics of the oppressed
Boal's theater takes advantage of what makes theater specific and uses it to enable individuals and groups to become aware of their position in society and to create strategies for changing society, ie liberation. Namely, theater, unlike other art forms, is based on the coexistence of spectators and actors in the same space. This specificity gives us the possibility of interaction and therefore, in the Theater of the Oppressed, the spectator is transformed, from a passive observer, into a spectator-actor, or an active participant in the action. In other words, the viewer observes his reality on stage, but has, as an actor, the opportunity to change the way he thinks is best. In all this, he is helped by a character called a kuringa (or joker) who coordinates the whole process.
This education concentrates on the forum-theater technique, as the central technique of the Theater of the Oppressed, but also touches on some other techniques such as the Theater of Images, the Legislative Theater, and the Aesthetics of the Oppressed.
Education is divided into several parts:
- The Tree of the Theater of the Oppressed - Theory
- Exercise games - Games and exercises of dynamization and demechanization
- Picture theater - from idea to play
- Dramaturgy forum - theaters
- Rehearsal techniques
- Does Kuringa help or retaliate? - role and skill of curry (joker)
- Legislative theater - how to use forum-theater for the development of democracy
Theater of the Oppressed
Theory and practice of the Theater of the Oppressed, socially engaged methods of empowering individuals and groups