When was forum theatre created

When the play has been performed members of the audience can take to the stage and suggest alternative options for how the protagonist could have acted. In this way, the event can be used to rehearse for an imminent occasion, or to uncover and analyse alternatives in any situation, past, present or future.

The actors explore the results of these choices with the audience creating a kind of theatrical debate, in which experiences and ideas are rehearsed and shared, generating both solidarity and a sense of empowerment.

Photo CC0 License Pexels. At a glance Policy stage:. Level of involvement:. Length of process:. Number of participants:. Participant selection:. It enables participants to try out courses of action which could be applicable to their everyday lives. Originally the technique was developed by Boal as a political tool for change part of the Theatre of the Oppressed , but has been widely adapted for use in educational contexts.

Three full-length practical sessions introducing the work of the Brazilian theatre maker who revolutionised theatre. Originally published in Teaching Drama magazine. You must be logged in to post a comment. Introducing Augusto Boal 12 years to adult. Augusto Boal mostly used Forum theatre to work with social issues which were very often related to politics, persecutions, oppression in the work place, etc. It has mostly to do with the political situation in Latin America at that time, as persecution and exploitation of people was the reality of everyday life.

Now the method of Forum theatre is widely used all over the world and adapted. Every Forum theatre group chooses the most appropriate and attractive ways to apply the method. Some of them have a group of Forum theatre actors.

This group rehearses for performances and presents them to different communities, invites them to discuss and to participate in the performances. Others organize workshops for various groups. In that case the group is divided into small groups and people share their stories about difficult social situations in small groups and create a Forum theatre play.

This play is shown to other participants of the group and all together they look for the solutions of the problem. The main characters in the performance of Forum theatre: Protagonist the main character, who suffers oppression ; Oppressor the one who oppresses the Protagonist ; Allies of the protagonist and Allies of the oppressor the ones who actively or passively are on one side or another , Neutral persons passive observers of the situation, passers-by and Joker mediator between audience and actors, moderator of discussion.

All other participants are Spect-actors. So the group of 6 people can create a full Forum theatre performance. If there are less people some of the roles might be declined but there always remains Protagonist, Oppressor and one additional person in the play. Performance of Forum play is usually short — only few minutes. There can be only one scene which shows how some events lead to the oppression or several scenes reflecting this process might be shown.

Performance should start as a simple, neutral situation, where characters are introduced to the audience. Later it is shown how the oppression develops how bullying in school starts, how the person is discriminated in the work place, etc.

Forum theatre play doesn't provide solutions. It stops and the moment of crisis and allows audience to share their ideas. It is important that the ending of the performance was really strong and dramatic. Only when events on stage will provoke feelings for spectators, they will be motivated to look for ways to change something in this situation.

Augusto Boal emphasized that the role of the Protagonist should be taken over and that spect-actors should be looking for what the Protagonist could do differently in particular situation to change it to the better direction. Now different techniques are used. Some Forum theatre groups recommend to take the place of the Protagonist, others allow to take over the roles of Allies of both sides and of Neutral persons.

But almost everyone holds on the same rule — the Oppressor should not be replaced. It would be the easiest way out, but it's not very realistic.

In this way we would just eliminate the source of the problem and there would be no one left to fight against. But the aim of Forum theatre is not to find magical solutions but to prepare for the real life situations, where our endurance, creativity and courage are needed. A little bit of history, analysis and remarks of Augusto Boal about Forum theatre:. Frances Babbage: Augusto Boal. Routlege Performance Practitioners.