Augusto Boal (Routledge Performance Practitioners)

168 Pages·2004·2.8 MB·english

by  Frances Babbage

º1111
2 AUGUSTO BOAL
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4
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6 Routledge Performance Practitioners is a series of introductory
7 guides to the key theatre-makers of the last century. Each volume
8111 explains the background to and the work of one of the major influences
9 on twentieth- and twenty-first-century performance.
20111 These compact, well-illustrated and clearly written books will
1 unravel the contribution of modern theatre’s most charismatic innova-
2 tors. This useful study combines:
3
• a biographical and historical overview of Boal’s career as playwright
4
and director
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• in-depth analysis of Boal’s classic text on radical theatre, Theatre of
6
the Oppressed
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• exploration of training and production techniques
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• practical guidance to the Theatre of the Oppressed workshop
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methods.
30111
1 As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial ex-
2 ploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge
3 Performance Practitioners are unbeatable value for today’s
4 student.
5
6 Frances Babbageis Lecturer in Theatre Studies at Leeds University.
7 She has taught and practised Boal’s methods in a range of contexts, and
8 is the editor of Working Without Boal: Digressions and Developments in the
3911 Theatre of the Oppressed (1995).
ROUTLEDGE PERFORMANCE
PRACTITIONERS
Series editor: Franc Chamberlain, University College Northampton
Routledge Performance Practitioners is an innovative series of intro-
ductory handbooks on key figures in twentieth-century performance
practice. Each volume focuses on a theatre-maker whose practical and
theoretical work has in some way transformed the way we understand
theatre and performance. The books are carefully structured to enable
the reader to gain a good grasp of the fundamental elements under-
pinning each practitioner’s work. They will provide an inspiring spring-
board for future study, unpacking and explaining what can initially
seem daunting.
The main sections of each book cover:
• personal biography
• explanation of key writings
• description of significant productions
• reproduction of practical exercises.
Volumes currently available in the series are:
Eugenio Barbaby Jane Turner
Augusto Boalby Frances Babbage
Michael Chekhovby Franc Chamberlain
Anna Halprinby Libby Worth and Helen Poynor
Jacques Lecoqby Simon Murray
Vsevolod Meyerholdby Jonathan Pitches
Konstantin Stanislavskyby Bella Merlin
Future volumes will include:
Pina Bausch
Bertolt Brecht
Peter Brook
Etienne Decroux
Jerzy Grotowski
Joan Littlewood
Ariane Mnouchkine
Lee Strasberg
Robert Wilson
AUGUSTO
BOAL
Frances Babbage
First published 2004
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
“To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s
collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.”
© 2004 Frances Babbage
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this b ook is available from
the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Babbage, Frances.
Augusto Boal/Frances Helen Babbage.
p. cm. – (Routledge performance practitioners)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Boal, Augusto. 2. Centre du théâtre de l’opprimé –
History. I. Title. II. Series.
PN2474.B63B33 2004
792.02′33′092–dc22 2004004757
ISBN 0-203-30900-6 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0–415–27325–0 (hbk)
ISBN 0–415–27326–9 (pbk)
CONTENTS
List of figures vii
Acknowledgements ix
1 BIOGRAPHY AND CONTEXT 1
Context for a Theatre of the Oppressed 2
Augusto Boal: early years 4
In New York 5
At the Arena Theatre of São Paulo, 1956–71 9
In exile, 1971–86 16
The 1990s: developments in Rio 25
Theatre of the Oppressed in the twenty-first century 30
2 THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED 35
Overview 37
Key concepts 39
The thesis in detail 45
3 FORUM THEATRE IN PRODUCTION 67
Cardboard Citizens: Going ... Going ... Gone... 70
Mind the Gap and SFX Theatre Company: Never Again! 88
Conclusions 102
vi CONTENTS
4 WORKSHOP PROCESS 107
Fundamentals 108
Workshop structure 110
Preparation and games 111
Images and experience 117
Closure 138
Glossary 141
Bibliography 145
Index 151
FIGURES
3.1 Teacher comments on Jennifer’s progress, in
Cardboard Citizens’ Going ... Going ... Gone ... 78
3.2 Jennifer confronts her mother 79
3.3 Jennifer tells her father she is in trouble at school 86
3.4 Augusto Boal, with Mind the Gap 90
3.5 Augusto Boal 91
3.6 The Box Office scene in Never Again!by Mind the Gap
and SFX 94
3.7 Anna-Marie Heslop in Never Again! 95

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to thank Routledge for their support in the preparation
of this book, particularly Talia Rodgers, Diane Parker and Franc
Chamberlain for all their help and thoughtful editorial advice. I am
grateful to Cardboard Citizens and Mind the Gap for generously giving
me access to their work and resources; particular thanks to Adrian
Jackson and Tim Wheeler for invaluable comments on early drafts.
More about these companies’ work can be found on their websites,
http://www.cardboardcitizens.co.uk and http://www.mind-the-gap.
org.uk. Thanks to Bridget Escolme and Jane Plastow, and especially
to Marcus Nevitt for encouragement and perceptive feedback on the
work in progress. F inally, of course, I want to acknowledge my
deep gratitude to Augusto Boal, who has been a constant source of
inspiration.
NOTE
In many cases I refer to theatrical exercises or practices within which
the gender of the participants is irrelevant to the context. Where plural-
isation has not been possible, I have referred to Boal’s ‘spect-actor’ as
‘she’; elsewhere I have tried to use ‘he’ and ‘she’ in roughly equal
quantities.