Members of the UT community took part in a three-day acting workshop on the Theatre of the Oppressed, a form of interactive theatre that addresses social problems. Augusto Boal, a Brazilian actor and activist, invented the techniques in the 1960s and 70s.
The lessons consisted of acting techniques and games previously created by Augusto Boal as well as newer games created by Geo Britto and Augusto Boal’s son, Julian Boal. Britto worked with Augusto Boal for many years and founded the School of Popular Theatre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with Julian Boal.
Britto led the UT workshops. He said the games organized different ways to interpret new realities and cited a riot this past January where right-wing Brazilians broke into government offices. The school partners with many grassroots social justice groups to come up with different ways to create change.
In the basement of the HPER building, the students followed Britto’s direction, becoming samurai in a last battle, putting their own take on a scene from the movie “Moonlight” and jumping into others’ imaginary vacations. After several rounds, the group would talk about their approaches and changes in perspective.
In some exercises the group split into three parts. The first section would act out a scenario with no sound, the second would add their own sound and interpretation, and the third would discuss the effect. In another, people had to say one idea while displaying the opposite with their body language. One participant said her brain felt like oatmeal, and Britto replied that the objective of the activities is that people think hard.
Britto also had them form a group machine of hate, a machine of love and a machine of what they felt the United States was to them. Most agreed that the machine of hate was the easiest to make — more physical and less vulnerable. Britto said that in the street it is easier to fight than to say “I love you.”
One person also noticed how everyone’s part of the U.S. machine was negative. Britto told them to think about that.
Earlier this year, the visit was set in motion by Devon Thompson, a senior philosophy major with a minor in leadership studies. He was working on starting a troupe at UT and researching interactive theatre, including Theatre of the Oppressed.
“And I fell down a rabbit hole,” Thompson said.
He told family and friends he wanted to go to Brazil, to the origins of the movement, to research it and bring it back to UT. He found funding, connected with a New York University study abroad program and reached out to Britto. They met in Rio de Janeiro this summer.
“I had only read Augusto Boal’s book … but theatre, you have to experience a lot,” Thompson said. “And when you’re there within the experiences, you learn so much.”
Britto extended the experiences even further. He said the workshops were for all human beings, actors or not, because there was no gap.
“You don’t do theatre. We are theatre,” Britto said.
He compared it to choosing different clothes for different places: school versus the beach versus a party.
“When you talk with someone, you do it (in) your own words, no?” Britto said. “Nobody say, say this or say that. You are acting all the time, all your life. The moment we wake up, the moment we go to sleep, you are improvisation, different situation all life. Then we believe everybody’s actor, everybody’s making theatre in some way.”
That idea was the center of the story Britto relayed about the origins of the Theatre of the Oppressed. Augusto Boal was directing a domestic play and taking suggestions from the audience. A woman was not happy with any of the choices. She thought they were unrealistic and got up to leave but Augusto Boal stopped her and invited her up on the stage to play the woman. She explained that he — a man — would still be the director. So Augusto Boal let her direct.
Britto said there should be dialogue with groups instead of outside views imposed on them.
“Nobody’s better than you to show your idea,” Britto said.
Augusto Boal started out with newspaper theatre, which juxtaposed headlines with reality then added other forms. In Forum Theatre, the audience suggests changes to the play, usually about some kind of oppression. In Image Theatre, the actors arrange themselves or others into a scene that has to work without dialogue. Britto said in this day and age people are arguing over what words mean.
“The words sometimes define what you want to say,” Britto said. ”I think the mind could be open more to another means.”
Invisible Theatre takes place in public to get a reaction from others in the space. Britto emphasized that Invisible Theatre was not a flash mob or a prank show. In his example, people stared at a man walking around with a woman on a leash but accepted her explanation. When the man was on the leash, the woman was arrested.
“If it’s good invisible theatre, the police always come,” Britto said.
Thompson said the university hopes to bring Britto back in other semesters, as well as create a study abroad program for theatre or humanities students to travel to Brazil. Meanwhile, Thompson wants to create a traveling creative studio after graduation.
“This week here with Geo, it’s great to … get a better understanding of it,” Thompson said. “To be able to go, come back to UT and teach it myself, maybe.”
