Independent Project Portfolio

Edgar Rodríguez

Odessa High School

002300-010

May 2011

2,981 words

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Preparation 1

Action 5

Reflection 11

Conclusion 12

List of sources and works consulted 13

Introduction

It all began with one simple presentation concerning dating violence in our school.

Renée Morris was the speaker who had influenced our theatre class to put on a show as a

means of teaching our school peers what dating violence was. The day came that we had

finished writing the play and was ready to be performed. Surprisingly, the audience wasn’t just

made up of student; it also had many community members. Unlike any other show I’ve ever

performed in this one had a conclusive viva voce, a face to face with the audience where I saw

with my own eyes how our performance really touched the spectators as it brought them to

tears and life-long confessions. With this experience as a means of inspiration I decided to

create my independent project portfolio on the basis of some sort of socio-beneficial theatre

form.

Preparation

In brainstorming ideas about social theatre forms to base my portfolio on, I considered

Brecht’s Epic Theatre or Stella Adler’s view points. I had a set idea; I envisioned a workshop that

could teach people through action. In our show Love Shouldn’t Hurt we had taught people

about domestic violence with elements isolation and regret; I wanted to teach people about a

social action, and so through my extensive research I discovered Teatro do Oprimido, or Theatre

of the Oppressed. After further investigation, I discovered Agusto Boal’s social intentions in

having created this extraordinary theatre form in 1971 and it influenced me even more.

Boal’s ideas were greatly validated in his book “Theatre of the Oppressed.” In here he

made connections between the social oppression faced by all humans and the progression of

theatre history. During the time of Greek Theatre’s success, for example, Boal correlated

Aristotle’s coercive system of tragedy to the fact that “the aristocracy established [a] division:

some actors will be the protagonists [or aristocrats] and the rest will be the chorus” (Boal ix);

this was oppression. Throughout the medieval times when Commedia dell’Arte was barely

commencing in Europe, Boal associated Machiavelli’s poetics of virtù, or virtue, to the fact that

a new bourgeoisie was rising. At that time, “protagonists ceased to be objects embodying moral

values, super structural, multidimensional subjects, exceptional individuals equally separated

from the people, as new aristocrats” (x), hence another act of oppression. In this more modern

time period, on the other hand, Bertolt Brecht initiated an action against this sort of oppression

with his creation of Epic Theatre. He developed “the conversion of characters from absolute

subjects back to objects” (x) and developed the idea that” the social being must determine the

thought and not vice versa” (x). Over all, what most impacted me from Boal’s interpretations of

social oppression in relation to theatre was that “the barrier between actors and spectators

[must be] destroyed: all must act [and] all must be protagonists in the necessary

transformations of society” (x). Boal mentioned the fact that as humans we have the need for

“dialogue” since it’s very natural and dynamic for human development but when “dialogue”

becomes “monologue” that’s when oppression rises in form of a dictator, for instance. In

general, Boal saw theatre as a weapon against oppression and so did I. His public quote “while

some people make theatre, we all are theatre” serves to define all he stood for and so my plan

to teach this form took initiation in form of inspiration.

Before I could initiate any sort of action, I had to plan my workshop thoroughly. Through

my research within the official international theatre of oppressed website, I discovered that

Theatre of the Oppressed wasn’t a solid theatrical practice itself, instead it was actually the core

foundation for several other theatrical types including Forum Theatre, Rainbow of Desire, and

Image Theatre, just to name a few. As I thought of a way to present Theatre of the Oppressed I

also found myself stuck between so many choices but the only one of these several practices

that actually fit my intentions towards fighting social oppression was Forum Theatre.

And so, with a decision set down a new task needed to be accomplished; I had to further

investigate not only what Forum Theatre was but also how Theatre of the Oppressed influenced

Forum Theatre. I discovered that Forum Theatre was influenced greatly on Boal’s ideas about an

“equal theatre.” It searched to make the actors and the audience one solid and equal person,

not in a literal, biological way but in a socio-psychological manner instead. It established

SPECTACTORS (people equal as actors and as spectators) to brake that barrier between the

entertainer and the entertained. Even though Forum Theatre still kept the idea of having a

performance what made it essentially different was that it relies on the spectators to end the

performance successfully and in an oppression-free scenario. The spectactors are given a plot

to act; this plot has to have an extensive amount of oppression. Once they’ve acted it, their

fellow spectactors, who have been observing, have a chance to discuss ways to resolve the plot.

The spectactors will perform once more with the opportunity of having the observing

spectactors call out freeze and taking action into their own hands. There are rules involved

though, for instance, solutions for the plot cannot be violent or magical in any way but new

characters can be added. There is a “joker” who is also the workshop conductor (this would

most likely be me) whose job is to remain idea-free but also cheer on spectactors’ ideas or shut

them down if they don’t fit the requirements or break the rules. Essentially, “the aim is to

understand social reality, to then be able to change it” (MacDonald 1).

Before I could start such an impacting workshop, I had to plan how to inform my

students about Theatre of the Oppressed and, to give them a taste of this theatrical practice, I

wanted to have some sort of game or exercise to warm them up. Also, I had a limited 50

minutes per day of workshop; I would need more than a day. Therefore, I decided that I could

possibly inform my students and warm them up with two exercises or games the first day of 5o

minutes. The second day, I would have just enough time for Forum Theatre and a conclusive

viva voce amongst all the spectactors.

Now, I needed to search for exercises or games to teach my students. In searching, I

found several but they were all in other branches of oppressed theatre forms such as Image

Theatre. Then I knew that in order to teach Theatre of the Oppressed properly, I had to branch

out into other of its form, no pun intended. I had to teach my students about power and about

structural oppression before they could take on Forum Theatre. Therefore, I decided to teach

the exercise “Chairs and Power” to teach them the abundance of power found in setting up

four chairs in different respective ways. I also decided to use the exercise “Statue Sculpting” as

a means of opening my students’ minds to the reality of the oppressive world we live in today.

The initiative that this exercise takes is that it makes people realize an oppressor they’ve had to

thereon sculpt him or her and then release their feelings to this sculpted oppressor. With that

game and this exercise I had concluded in formulating an ideal plan for teaching Theatre of the

Oppressed properly. My plan:

1. Teach what Theatre of the Oppressed is and why Agusto Boal created it.

2. Play the “Chairs and Power” game to physically demonstrate power.

3. Do the “Statue Sculpting” exercise to open up my students to oppression.

4. Finally, accomplish Forum Theatre and thus ending oppression within the

workshop module.

Action

First day had come and I had to teach my students about Theatre of the Oppressed. I had

created a PowerPoint which consisted of the following:

A short Agusto Boal biography

Boal’s ideas behind Theatre of the Oppressed:

o Correlation to Greek Theatre’s social oppression

o Association to Machiavelli and the bourgeoisie’s oppression

o Link with Brecht’s creation of Epic Theatre and the character development

o The “dialogue” and “monologue” example of oppression

The overall intentions for Theatre of the Oppressed

I had refused to incorporate Forum Theatre in this specific presentation because I

wanted to explain it tête à tête with my students; explaining it face to face would also allow

me to act more as a “joker” in the process.

After educating my students, I moved on to the “Chairs and Power” game. In this, I chose

one of my students to come up to rearrange four chairs to make one of them seem like it has

more power. She could’ve done it in many ways, such as, putting them in a straight line to make

the leader the power-holder but, instead, she placed them as so:

She said the one chair that was upside up

hade the most power because the other

three chairs were upside down almost

praising that chair. When I asked every one’s opinion, one person stated that that chair

had no power because there was nothing occupying the other chairs. It made sense and

it let for further discussion.

I then asked another person to do the same. Here is her placement:

She said that the chair stacked at the top had the most power because

the other chairs were literally “under” it. The same discussion rose as in

the prior “round” because nothing was occupying the bottom chairs thus

leaving the top chair power-less.

After that round, I decided to move along to the “Statue Sculpting” exercise. Here, I decided

to read this procedure which was influenced by Image Theatre:

1. Make two lines facing each other but at an arm’s length distance between each pair.

2. Someone in each pair needs to think of someone who is oppressing or has oppressed

them in their life. You are the sculptor.

3. The person who has no oppressor, currently, must act as the statue.

4. In silence, the sculptor will sculpt his/her oppressor with the statue presented before

them. Remember that facial expressions should also be sculpted.

5. Once done, every sculptor will walk around to see every other sculpture. Sculptures, stay

in position. Notice the similarities between oppressors’ physical structure.

6. Return to your statue and make movements and mannerisms in silence for the

“sculpture” to follow.

7. After the sculpture has mastered his/her movements, the sculptors may walk around to

see everyone else’s oppressors.

8. Come back to your statue and whisper in his/her ear a phrase or statement.

9. At the count of three, the statues will say their statement and the sculptor will have an

opportunity to react against oppression by telling their sculpture what they never told

their actual oppressor.

10. Finish and discuss.

11. After a few minutes of resting, which you will need, come back to your two straight lines.

12. Now, the statue will become the sculptor and vice versa.

13. Follow the same procedure.

With that read, the exercise went into action. People’s statues started to have the same

characteristics a physical shape. Everyone would find it shocking that their statue would

resemble someone else’s. After the first half of the exercise had finished, I could tell some of

my students had been seriously oppressed in the past and this exercise had brought back

memories they probably never wanted to remember but their reaction to the statues was all

that I wanted. As they stood before the mimicked image of their oppressor, my students had

the opportunity to exclaim their feelings as a way to end that specific oppression that haunted

them personally. Now with their minds exposed to the reality of this oppressive world, I could

finally move along to day 2.

In this day, I decided it was time for my students to be exposed to Forum Theatre but before

I could do anything else I had to obtain a plot for my spectactors to perform. I created one

based on our play Love Shouldn’t Hurt because it was easier for these students to memorize it

since it was fresh in their minds but it was also full of oppression. I came up with this scene,

which I gave to some of my spectactors the day before for them to memorize:

Characters:

Pal- Girl’s good friend

Girl- Guy’s girlfriend

Guy- Girl’s Boyfriend

(Pal and Girl are conversing in the park about usual subjects such as movies, plans for the

weekend, etc. Enter Guy.)

Guy: Where have you been? Who is this?

Girl: This is my friend. We were just talking about… about…

Pal: Hey, I have to go. I’ll see you later. (Pal forgets book.)

Guy: What did I tell you about talking to people?

Girl: We were just…

Guy: I don’t care why. I love you and I don’t want anyone to interfere with us.

Girl: I love you too.

(Phone rings and Guy answers. Hangs up the phone. Guy returns.)

Guy: Get over here now.

Girl: What’s wrong?

Guy: Don’t act stupid!

Girl: I really don’t know.

Guy: I got news that my friend was arrested. Did you have anything to do with this?

Girl: No.

Guy: (Slaps her.) I know when you’re lying!

Girl: I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry…

Guy: Shut up! (Shakes her to the ground) I think they’re gonna come after me!

(Pal Enters.)

Pal: Is this a bad time? (Pal picks up book immediately. Pal Exits.)

Girl: I’m so sorry…

Guy: Shut up! (Punches her and leaves her unconscious.)

This scene was obviously replete with oppression and after it was performed in front of my

students, I had to establish positions. Here’s where the face to face came along. I read to them:

If you think you’re in front performing as an actor or an audience member simply

watching another performance, you’re not. There is no room for a passive audience nor

for an entertaining performance, there is a time to observe but another to act. You are

therefore a SPECTACTOR.

I then moved on to explain the procedure and rules of Forum Theatre as I did before and

let the spectactors discuss. A few ideas were spoken about on how to end the oppression in the

scene, but once the performance began once more it ended where it had done before; no one

took action. As the “joker” I was bound to do nothing to intervene, all I could do was ask the

obvious questions as a means of influencing some sort of ideas. After the scene ended the same

way, the spectactors had learned a lesson; you have to take action. Through yet another

discussion, new ideas resulted but I had to intervene in determining whether they were rule

breakers or not. The performance started once again and this time someone actually called out

“freeze.” Being shy, she only stated her idea for someone else to consider and act it; this was

valid. Unfortunately, a character cannot simply change his or her way of being because of

someone else idea told them to do so; that’s just not a real-life occurrence. Therefore the

performance continued but, as a way to inspire the observing spectactors, I kept reminding

them that new characters could be incorporated. And so someone finally called out “freeze”

just before the girl was knocked out. Here the observing spectactor took matters into her own

hands and became a police officer to arrest the abusing boyfriend in the scene. This was valid

considering that police officers do indeed roam parks. With the scene almost resolved the

spectactor acting as the abused victim did something interesting as she improvised; she called

the Crisis Center, this is the center where domestic violence victims call to for help. I did

nothing to intervene because even though it seemed like a magical resolution, it wasn’t; both

the police and the Crisis Center are in fact the best answers for a situation of this sort. After the

scenario had finally been solved, we all discussed how Forum Theatre is very powerful in

teaching about oppression and how Theatre of the Oppressed can be used as a weapon to fight

our oppressed society.

Reflection

After having gone through that extensive time of workshop preparation and the

workshop itself, I was confidently standing before my students, who were also my peers, proud

with the fact that I had reached my objective of teaching them the right way to fight against

oppression and teaching them the much larger power found in every ounce of theatre. I saw

that I had done almost no mistakes because the reactions I was looking for I found. I saw the

epiphanies, I saw the tears, I saw the fear, I saw it rage, and I saw the learning. Every step I took

helped my students learn the essential foundations set upon Theatre of the Oppressed for them

to therefore realize, little by little, the fact that oppression rises even when a dialogue becomes

a monologue. They learned that in order to end oppression one mustn’t fight it with more

oppression; rather, they can help it diminish by converting every monologue back to free

dialogue.

Conclusion

Throughout this experience I’ve discovered the great amounts of people theatre can

possibly benefit. In further pondering, I’ve come to the conclusion that Theatre of the

Oppressed might possibly be a part of another of our domestic violence plays but this time we

won’t have another “conclusive viva voce;” instead, we’ll possibly develop a Forum Theatre that

can teach our community on the stage through their own mistaken choices. After all, if my

students managed to find the perfect solution to domestic violence on their own, why wouldn’t

other members of the community be able to?

Works Cited

Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group, 1985.

Print.

Works Consulted

"Theatre of the Oppressed." Web. 17 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?nodeID=3>. Web.

"Chair Power: Three Types of Power." Web. 18 Mar. 2011.

<http://www.trainingforchange.org/chair_power>.

"How to Work through Theatre Vs. Oppression with Children Training Module." Web. 17 Mar.

2011.<http://volens.be/IMG/pdf/Training_Module_Volens_how_to_use_Theatre_Vs_O

ppresion.pdf>