Forum Theatre Essay

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Augusto Boal is one of the most prominent theatre practitioners to come out of the 20th century. His contribution to theatre has continued to be practiced to the extent that there are theatre companies today that focus solely on performing his technique of forum theatre. The purpose behind this essay is to look at what the circumstances and influences were behind the construction of forum theatre as a concept and this work by Augusto Boal can still be seen, not just in theatre, but primarily how it is applied to education as well. To begin, Boal’s early years need to be looked to gain a true understanding of the circumstances leading up to forum theatre.
Augusto Boal was born in Brazil in 1931 and seemed to be a fan of the theatre from a very …show more content…

In his book ‘Games for Actors and Non-actors’ (2002), Boal likens forum theatre to invisible theatre, but unlike with invisible theatre where the spectator is unaware they are part of the action, forum theatre makes the spectators conscious of their involvement in the piece. This makes them what Boal refers to as the spec-actor. Forum theatre starts the same way all most theatre “the show is performed as if it were a conventional play. A certain image of the world is presented” (Boal, 2002: 243). Once the first performance is over, it will begin again, but this time the audience or ‘spec-actor’ is allowed to stop the performance at any time, make their way onto the stage and make the chances they think necessary to change the original outcome of the piece. This aspect makes it a good theatre practice to help people tackle issues that may occur in daily life such as abuse or suicide, as well as perhaps more pressing political issues. Its ability to adapt its stories to what is considered relevant to society means that it can continue to work as a means of highlighting issues for an unprecedented amount of time. It was in it’s most basic form an attempt to portray society’s issues through theatre and give people the opportunities to come up with …show more content…

Today though, it is more likely that children will not necessarily be involved with the stories portrayed as part of this scheme. Unfortunately, when it is mentioned today, people recall their theatre and education experience to be people coming to their school and performing a small show about, brushing your teeth or crossing the road with minimal audience participation. Society seems to have come to a standstill regarding whether theatre can be used in education. The mistake here is that theatre and education are being viewed as two separate entities instead of as one powerful educative tool. Theatre in education is not just a drama lesson with the intention of teaching children how to display different emotions on demand or act out characters that they have no emotional ties to. This misconception may be what fuels the argument regarding its importance as part of a school curriculum. Even though Augusto Boal may not have initially intended forum theatre for educating children, it is a clever and exciting way to get them involved in political and societal issues early on in life. It can also be adapted to help with the teaching or other subjects. Boal himself, stressed the importance of using warm-up exercises and games to get people ready to participate in anything especially forum theatre and these games can be adapted to work in a classroom

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