Sarah+and+Max

Augusto Boal __ Time period of person __
 * Augusto Boal was born on the 16th of March 1931 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil,
 * He was formally trained in chemical engineering and attended Columbia University in the late 1940's and early 1950's
 * In the 1960's** Dr. Boal Augusto ** developed a process where audience members could stop a performance and suggest different actions for the actors
 * In 1971, after the publication of his first book, The Theatre of the// Oppressed //, Boal was arrested, tortured, exiled to Argentina and self exiled to Europe
 * In 1981 Boal organized the first International Festival of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Paris.
 * Boal returned to Rio de Janeiro in 1986 where he continues to reside.
 * In 1992, Boal was invited to be the keynote speaker for the National Conference of the Association for Theatre in Higher Education (ATHE) in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1992 Boal ran and successfully won the position of Vereador of Rio
 * Because of the increased visibility brought about by his winning a seat, he was able to obtain funding to hold an international festival for the first time in Brazil in July, 1993
 * Second Annual Pedagogy of the Oppressed Conference in Omaha in March 1996
 * In 1997, Boal was awarded the Career Achievement Award by the Association for Theatre in Higher Education during their national conference. The summer of 1997 found Boal in England where he worked with the world-renowned Royal Shakespeare Company
 * died on the 2nd of May, 2009 of Leukaemia

**__ Influences __** Augusto Boal was influenced by the poor area where he worked where he was inspired for most of his techniques which were limitations of didactic and politically-motivated theatre. Seeing how the poor people lived influenced his ideas and his plays were aimed to rise up against racial and class inequality. He was influenced during his early work and teaching which was inspired by Marxist philosophy. His philosophy is mainly covering materialism and its involvement in political practice. This is his end goal of all this thoughts and ideas. In later years Paulo Freire was a huge influence on boals teachings. Paulo Freire was an educator/author. His education methods were considered new and modern and anti-conal. He thought that education was a political act and had to be involved in teaching throughout the students and teachers. Boal influenced his audience and inspired them and make an impact and inspired the politics. Also once he became better known influenced a wider amount of people through his performances and teachings.

**__ Directing __** The Theatre of the Oppressed involves four stages of action. The first stage, “Knowing the Body,” involves exercises designed to get to know the //spect-actor// with their body and undo what their job has taught their body. The second stage, “Making the Body Expressive,” involves games designed to get the //spect-actor// to use their body to express something. The third stage, “The Theatre as Language,” gets the //spect-actor// involved in the performance. Boal divides this stage into three substages: Simultaneous Dramaturgy – spectators tell actors how to resolve a conflict, and the actors act it out on stage Image Theatre – a //spect-actor// sculpts actors on stage into images from their life and then interacts with them, constructing first actual and then ideal images Forum Theatre – //jokers// perform a short play showing an unresolved oppression, and then perform the same play again, but this time //spect-actors// can intervene, taking the place of actors and trying to bring the play to a better end Finally, the fourth stage of TO, “Theatre as Discourse,” involves teaching spectators how to become actors (and even //jokers//) and generate their own performances – not just jump in to someone else’s improvisation.

**__ Performance __**

The performance of Augusto Boal is unlike ordinary plays. Instead of the usual performance when there are the actors who are acting on stage and the audience listening and accepting what they are told. There is an imaginary barrier between these two groups of people. However in the Theatre of the oppressed Boal breaks down this barrier and allowing the spectators to become “spec-actors” where they can interfere with the play and suggest alternative directions for the play for where it is going and can also get up there and act aswell. He actors become jokers who encourage the audience to become spect-actors and act out roles that the audience ask them to do. His performances are based around politics

By Sarah Shipton and Max Clothier.