The Forum Theatre of Augusto Boal: A Dramatic Model for Dialogue and Community-Based Environmental Science

This article discusses psychosocial aspects of a short drama module, drawing on observational research into the adaptation of ‘forum theatre’ by Odd Arts theatre company for people in educational, care and custodial settings. The course facilitated the enactment of life experiences and choices, enhancing self-awareness and reflective capacity. The drama space is considered as ‘third space’, and a transitional space, where participants play with creative illusion in what Augusto Boal called a ‘rehearsal for reality’. We argue that the use of third-space and third-position thinking is key to understanding forum theatre as a restorative practice both through rehearsal and in ‘playing for real’ before an audience ‐ a symbolic community that offers the opportunity for recognition. Problems attendant on the performance of ‘false self’ arise where there is collusive avoidance of difficult issues because the value of forum theatre lies in the achievement of authorship and authenticity ‐ or ‘true self’ ‐ publicly performed and owned. It is this that allows individuals to imagine the possibility of creative living in the future.

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Intergenerational dialogue: Connecting youth and older adults in urban spaces through community-based forum theatre

Applied Theatre Research ◽

10.1386/atr.6.1.37_1 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 6 (1) ◽

pp. 37-52

Author(s):

Christina Parker

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Urban Spaces ◽

Community Based ◽

Forum Theatre ◽

Intergenerational Dialogue

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BRATISLAVSKÁ THEATRE - PERFORMANCE "YOU NEVER KNOW": FORUM THEATRE ON THE TOPIC OF HOMELESSNESS - ACCORDING TO AUGUSTO BOAL AND HIS THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED

Social Pathology and Prevention ◽

10.25142/spp.2016.014 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 93-98

Author(s):

Markéta Zelená

Keyword(s):

Theatre Of The Oppressed ◽

Augusto Boal ◽

Forum Theatre

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Where is My Sweet Potato? Creating Change through Forum Theatre with Street Children in Burundi

Studies on Home and Community Science ◽

10.31901/24566780.2020/14.1-2.348 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 14 (1-2) ◽

Author(s):

Karin Cooper

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Lived Experience ◽

Street Children ◽

Theatre Of The Oppressed ◽

Collective Consciousness ◽

Community Based ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Forum Theatre ◽

Interactive Theatre ◽

Opening Up

ABSTRACT This paper examines the innovative use of Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed (Forum Theatre) with a group of 30 street children and young people in East Africa. Drawing upon a project in Burundi, this paper reveals how participants utilized the process of performance making through Forum Theatre as a platform to make visible problems in their lives, and a vehicle to challenge inequalities, abuse and violence. The authors demonstrate how the adoption of this methodology raised questions about interactive theatre as creative activism and a tool for opening up possibilities for dialogue with a community-based audience. This paper illuminates ways in which street children, explored, examined and problematized their lived experience, through the creative lens of Forum Theatre. It argues that this methodology generated a sense of collective consciousness, through which the children and young people created personal and social change, which extended beyond the life of the project.

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From spectator to spect-actor: The proactive involvement of chinese parents in their conflicts with adolescents through a forum theatre format

Journal of Psychologists and Counsellors in Schools ◽

10.1017/jgc.2019.21 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 30 (1) ◽

pp. 73-81

Author(s):

Grace S.M. Leung ◽

Anna Y. Zhang ◽

Eddie H.K. Yu ◽

Johnson C.S. Cheung

Keyword(s):

Parent Education ◽

Community Based ◽

Forum Theatre ◽

Chinese Parents ◽

Adolescent Conflict ◽

The Impact

AbstractParent-adolescent conflict seems to be common when adolescents negotiate power with their parents. Forum theatre (FT), an interactive and participatory theatre form, is recommended as a community-based intervention to assist Chinese parents in managing the challenges of parent-adolescent interaction. FT proposes that solutions to daily struggles can be reached through concerted efforts of the participants. This article documents the impact of FT on parents who took on the role of ‘spect-actor’. The spect-actor is an active spectator who acts on stage to test solutions to a problem. The results indicate that parents gained more awareness of their children’s needs, which helped them to relax their control over their children. FT is recommended as a means of parent education in schools.

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Forum theatre – assessing openness to temporary participatory use practices of the Someșul Mic river area in Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Dela ◽

10.4312/dela.53.111-129 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 111-129

Author(s):

Béla Kobulniczky ◽

Oana-Ramona Ilovan

Keyword(s):

Urban Renewal ◽

Questionnaire Survey ◽

Community Based ◽

Research Results ◽

Forum Theatre

We present the research results after administering a questionnaire survey about perceptions of the forum theatre as a participatory temporary use practice of the Someșul Mic River area in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. The study aim was assessing inhabitants’ willingness to get involved into the forum theatre activity, putting it into practice and proposing solutions for riverside development. We concluded that the forum theatre could be used to promote ideas and community-based solutions for urban renewal.

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Driving Social Change Through Forum Theatre: A Study of Jana Sanskriti in West Bengal, India

Asia Pacific Media Educator ◽

10.1177/1326365x19864477 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 29 (2) ◽

pp. 164-177

Author(s):

Jharna Brahma ◽

Vinod Pavarala ◽

Vasuki Belavadi

Keyword(s):

Social Change ◽

West Bengal ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Augusto Boal ◽

Participatory Communication ◽

Forum Theatre ◽

Indian State ◽

Health Related ◽

Communication For Social Change ◽

The Spectator

This article examines Forum Theatre as a form of participatory communication for social change. Based on an ethnographic study of Jana Sanskriti ( JS), a Forum Theatre group working for over three decades in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, this article seeks to show how this form of theatre, developed by the Brazilian activist Augusto Boal, subverts the passivity inherent in the communicator–receiver model of the dominant paradigm by activating the critical consciousness of the spectator and triggering a process of social change through dialogue and discussion. JS has been using Forum Theatre to address some of the deeply entrenched social norms in rural West Bengal, including those related to patriarchy, child marriage, domestic violence, and maternal and child health related issues, by extending Boal’s notion of the ‘spect-actor’ to encourage the spectators to become ‘spect-activists’, who then are engaged in community-level work on social change. We suggest that this form of communication is clearly bottom-up, radically participatory, community-based and led by the oppressed, as has been advocated by several scholars working on communication for social change.

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The Forum Theatre in the prevention of exclusion from a peer group in the school space

Journal of Education Culture and Society ◽

10.15503/jecs2020.2.335.342 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 335-342

Author(s):

Barbara Forysiewicz

Keyword(s):

Young People ◽

Communication Skills ◽

Peer Group ◽

Source Material ◽

Interpersonal Competence ◽

Augusto Boal ◽

Students At Risk ◽

Value System ◽

Forum Theatre ◽

School Space

Aim. The article is a report from the research conducted in 2017 during the Forum Theatre performance, and it demonstrates the possibilities of using the Forum Theatre of Augusto Boal in activities to prevent exclusion from the peer group of teenage students. The purpose of this article is to signal the possibility of using the idea of Boal in preventing exclusions in the school space. Methods. In order to discuss the problems, the analysis of source material and participant observations were used. Results. At Forum Theatre, young people reveal their worldview and value system by interacting with actors and performing stage activities. The teacher, observing the students actions in the performance, can assess their empathy, sensitivity and interpersonal competence. The teacher gets to know the qualities that affect the student’s mental state at the time of exclusion from the peer group. In the theatrical activity, the personality of the student with his or her predisposition to being a victim or torturer is revealed. Using the example of the analysed spectacle The Cage directed by Jarosław Rebeliński in 2017, it is clearly seen that the Forum Theatre makes it possible to get to know the student, and thus his or her problems in relation with peers. Forum Theatre shows the effects and causes of exclusion while simultaneously signalling to the teacher the symptoms of the problem manifesting themselves in the behaviour of young people. Conclusion. Forum Theatre can be a diagnostic method for teachers in activities preventing the exclusion of a student from a peer group at school. Forum Theatre can be used as a method of working with students at risk of exclusion due to intolerance, lack of acceptance or lack of developed communication skills.

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