Augusto Boal

In the 1960s Boal created a process whereby audience members could stop a performance and suggest different actions for the actors, who would then carry out the audience suggestions. Taking it a step further, he began inviting audience members with suggestions for change onto the stage to demonstrate their ideas. In so doing, he discovered that through this participation the audience becomes empowered not only to imagine change but also to practice that change and thereby generate social action. For Boal this was the birth of the “spect-actor” (not spectator) and his theatre was transformed. Because of his work he drew attention as a cultural activist, and military coups in Brazil during the 1960’s looked upon such activity as a threat. Shortly after the publication of his first book, The Theatre of the Oppressed, in 1971, Boal was arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to Argentina, then self-exiled to Europe. While in Paris, he continued for a dozen years to teach his revolutionary approach to theater, finally returning to Rio de Janeiro in 1986 where he continues to reside. 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. Boal works tirelessly to make his processes available to as many people as he can reach. The objective is always to leave behind at least a core of people who can offer Boal-style workshops and analysis.

Katalin Mitchell
Director of Press and Public Relations American Repertory Theatre Links

International Theatre of the Oppressed

Cardboard Citizens

Bibliography

Articles

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"Theatre of the Oppressed: Hector Aristizábal Tells a Story of Torture and Transformation"

Letters and Interviews