[Xmca-l] Re: Boal and Brecht

[Shirin Vossoughi]

Hi Haydi,

In my experience (one among many versions of Boalian theater) - Image
theater is mostly non-verbal - though there is often a narrator, and the
human statues sometimes speak anyway! Whereas forum theatre often involves
both scripted and unscripted elements. It is scripted in the sense that
actors develop a scene with a central problem or conflict. But it becomes
unscripted at the point at which the central protagonist "fails"
dramatically (in confrontation with the central antagonist) and audience
members are invited to rewind the scene, replace the protagonist and try
out alternative outcomes. This improvisation includes discussion with
everyone of the ethico-political issues as you described. Perhaps what
distinguishes forum theatre in a more classic boalian sense from role play
and discussion is the organization of the scene as a "game" between the
actors and the audience, mediated usually by a "joker" character who
disregards the "4th wall," helps to complicate/deepen the discussion and
the possibilities for action within the scene.

With regards to invisible theater - I have seen it done in two ways. In our
own work with migrant youth in a summer program, when we did in invisible
theatre, we always eventually "broke" the scene (making it recognizable as
a theatrical scene) and engaged students in a discussion of what had just
transpired. On a recent trip to Iran, I had the chance to work with some
folks doing Boalian theatre in Tehran whose practice is to sustain the
invisibility of the scene (never letting on that they are actors).

I'm curious to know more about the notion that Boal was "hostile to
language" as I'm not sure what you mean here?

Thanks for the discussion!
Shirin


On Mon, Jan 27, 2014 at 8:47 AM, Haydi Zulfei <haydizulfei@rocketmail.com>wrote:

> Oh ! David ! So happy to see you here again ! Welcome really ! I have many
> unread mails but I tried yours in the hope I might come across some old
> friend of ours which I now see got realized .
> Best
> Haydi
>
>
> ________________________________
>  From: kellogg <kellogg59@hanmail.net>
> To: Haydi Zulfei <haydizulfei@rocketmail.com>; "eXtended Mind,
> Culture,Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> Sent: Monday, 27 January 2014, 14:21:29
> Subject: RE: [Xmca-l] Re: Boal and Brecht
>
>
>
> It's not a spam, Haydi! I just resubscribed after being mysteriously
> desubscribed. Apparently a few bugs in the works, still....
>
> (If you get this, and the list doesn't, can you repost?)
>
> A few years ago, there was some discussion on this list of Augusto Boal
> and the "Theatre of the Oppressed". I've been reading some of his work and
> trying to make sense of some interesting data I've collected from children
> doing classroom role plays (in one case, the kids use their mother tongue
> first and then try the role play in English and in the second case they
> enact a scene in English and discuss some of the moral issues in Korean).
>
> Within the Theatre of the Oppressed, Boal distinguishes an "Image
> Theatre", a "Forum Theatre", and an "Invisible Theatre". Am I right in
> thinking that "Image Theatre" is mostly NON-verbal, while "Forum Theatre"
> is more or less what we have been doing in class (that is, a scripted
> performance and some discussion of ethico-political issues), while
> "Invisible Theatre" is a kind of public performance, along the lines of a
> Michael Moore documentary, or the old show "Candid Camera"?
>
> I recently returned from a conference in New Zealand (Hi, Eugene and Ana!)
> where I met a woman who had actually worked with Boal. She told me that
> Boal had essentially no following in Brazil or in the other countries where
> he worked, because people often found it impossible to deal with the
> government backlash that his work provoked. Boal himself talks about this
> problem in a youtube interview:
>
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOgv91qQyJc
>
> (see around 6:50)
>
>
> The other question I have is the relationship between Boal and Brecht. On
> the one hand, Boal seems very interested in Brechtian ideas about a theatre
> which teaches alternative possibilities. But on the other much of what he
> writes seems quite hostile to language, and of course the idea of deceiving
> the audience into thinking that they are not observing a performance but an
> unmediated social reality is quite un-Brechtian. Can anybody comment on
> this?
>
> David Kellogg
> Hankuk University of Foreign Studies
>
>  --------- 원본 메일 ---------
>
> 보낸사람: Haydi Zulfei <haydizulfei@rocketmail.com>
> >받는사람 : "eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity" <xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu>
> >날짜: 2014년 1월 27일 월요일, 16시 48분 11초 +0900
> >제목: [Xmca-l] Re: Boal and Brecht
> >
> >Hi
> >Blank ! May you resend it ! Or is this a spam ?  H
> >
> >
> >________________________________
> >From: kellogg <kellogg59@hanmail.net>
> >To: xmca-l@mailman.ucsd.edu
> >Sent: Monday, 27 January 2014, 7:43:16
> >Subject: [Xmca-l] Boal and Brecht
> >
> >
> >
>