Augusto Boal

Criteria A: Research Project Improvisation and Creation

During the history of theatre, a lot of practitioners have used the term of improvisation in the creation of acting. This term is used everywhere, in our daily life, at school, with our friends, teachers and obviously at theatre. Some practitioners of that were Jaques Copeau, Viola Spolin, Keith Johnstone and the one we are going totalk about, Augusto Boal.

Figure 1. Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto Boal 10/10/12

Figure 1. Source: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto Boal 10/10/12

Augusto Boal (1931-2009) was a theatre director, writer and politician born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. As a theatre director he was the founder of Theatre of the Oppressed. As a politician, he served as a city councilor in Riode Janeiro from 1993 to 1997; there he developed as well the legislative theatre. Finally, as a writer, he wrote some books such as “Torquemada” and “Theatre of the Oppressed” where he developed a method based on the pedagogy of the Oppressed.

Improvisation, in some way, can be a very useful tool for actors when there are at the stage. A very clear example is that imagine that you are on thestage and you forget one sentence, then you can use improvisation to keep the scene going without any problem, but not only the person that forgets the sentence has to know the technique of improvisation, as well the other actors participating in the scene have to know and not stay there and say, hey you are wrong, no, they have to keep going with the scene. But obviously this actor can't startsaying a stupid thing, when he improvises it has to attempt to act according the goal that his character represents and the scene.
Obviously this actor can't start saying a stupid thing, when he improvises; it has to attempt to act according the goal that his character represents and the scene.
In South America in 1970 Augusto Boal create a new kind of improvisational theatre called “ForumTheatre” as a part of what he calls “Theatre of the Oppressed” (always influenced by Paulo Freire and from poor areas from Brazil), its propose is to encourage people from the audience to participate directly and spontaneously (improvise) in problematic scene (we practice that in class). This new method is used only by actors, so the director doesn’t do anything, in the example of the forgotten sentencethe director can’t do anything, so always by the actor and the audience which can interact.
Figure 2. Source: http://rangamancha.blogspot.com.es/2009/01/theatre-of-oppressed-augusto-boal.html 10/10/12

Figure 2. Source: http://rangamancha.blogspot.com.es/2009/01/theatre-of-oppressed-augusto-boal.html 10/10/12

So, basically actors or audience could stop performance in a scene where theactor is being oppressed and the audience would suggest a situation with a problem which the actors have to carry out. The purpose of that is to bring the audience into the performance. In 2006 it has been recorded as the most used way to help new people in the theatre. But this method is not used only as a part of the performance, it can be as well used as a rehearsal setting, while you arepracticing the director of the play can stop and create a situation with a problem, then the actors have to find a solution. Forum theatre is also used in TV Programs, they take people from the audience or professional actors and they have to play a variety of roles without preparing their characters. Improviser may be called for improvise a situation or to play a famous person and so on. An example is aTV show in 1990 called Whose line is it anyway?
Forum theatre is a very interesting tool to learn about improvisation, as everything, it has its benefits and its outcomes:
* Changes a problem to a solution (example of when you forget a sentence).
* You can give a lot of approaches to a problem or situation and take it wherever you want.
* Facilitates behavioral change.
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