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Augusto Boal
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==Biography== ===Early life=== Augusto Boal studied at Columbia University in New York with the critic John Gassner. Gassner introduced Boal to the techniques of both [[Bertolt Brecht]] and [[Konstantin Stanislavski]], and encouraged Boal to form links with theatre groups like the Black Experimental Theatre. In 1955 Boal staged productions of two of his own plays, ''The Horse and the Saint'' and ''The House Across the Street''.<ref name=Eckersley>Eckersley, M. (1995). "A Matter of Style – The Theatre of Augusto Boal". ''Mask Magazine''. Vol. 18 No. 3. Drama Victoria. Melbourne.</ref> In 1956, shortly after graduating, Boal was asked to work with the Arena Theatre in [[São Paulo]], southeast Brazil.<ref name=Babbage>{{cite book|author=Babbage, Frances |title=Augusto Boal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xs-V2rjZZOgC|year=2004|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-27325-1}}</ref> Boal was in charge of directing plays along with other [[dramaturg]]s such as José Renato, who was also the founder of the Arena Theatre. It was here that he began to experiment with new forms of theatre never before seen in Brazil, such as [[Stanislavski's 'system']] for actors, with which he became familiar during his time at Columbia and when involved with the [[Actors Studio]] in New York. Boal adapted these methods to social conditions in Brazil, taking a leftist approach on issues concerning nationalism, which were very much in vogue at that time period since the country had just undergone a long period of military dictatorship.<ref name="itaucultural.org.br">[http://www.itaucultural.org.br/aplicExternas/enciclopedia_teatro/index.cfm?fuseaction=personalidades_biografia&cd_verbete=703 Enciclopedia Itau Cultural- Teatro- Augusto Boal's Biography (In Portuguese)]</ref><ref>[http://www.opalco.com.br/foco.cfm?persona=autores&controle=131 O Palco. Biographical info Augusto Boal (In Portuguese).] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141120031737/http://www.opalco.com.br/foco.cfm?persona=autores&controle=131 |date=November 20, 2014 }}</ref> ===Work at the Arena Theatre of São Paulo=== While working at the [[Teatro de Arena|Arena Theatre]] in São Paulo, Boal directed a number of classical dramas, which he transformed to make them more pertinent to Brazilian society and its economy. Among these plays was [[John Steinbeck]]'s ''[[Of Mice and Men (play)|Of Mice and Men]]'', known in Brazil as ''Ratos e Homens.'' This was Boal's first performance as a director at the Arena Theatre of São Paulo. Critics acclaimed this piece and Boal won the ''Prêmio de Revelação de Direção'' (Direction Revelation Award) from the Association of Art Critics of São Paulo, in 1956. In the early sixties, the ratings at the Arena Theatre of São Paulo started to drop, almost causing the theatre to go bankrupt. Consequently, the company decided to start investing in national theatre (pieces written by Brazilian dramaturgs) as a move that could possibly save it from bankruptcy. The new investment proved to be a success, opening up the path for a national theatre scene. Boal then suggested the creation of a Seminar in Dramaturgy at the Arena Theatre, which was quickly implemented and soon became a national platform for many young playwrights. Many successful productions were born from this Seminar and now form part of the Arena Theatre of São Paulo's nationalist phase repertoire. One of these productions was ''Chapetuba Futebol Clube'', written by [[Oduvaldo Vianna Filho]] in 1959 and directed by Augusto Boal.<ref>[[:pt:Augusto Boal#Teatro de Arena|Directly translated from the Augusto Boal Wiki page in Portuguese.]]</ref> ===Exile=== A new military regime started in Brazil in 1964 with a [[1964 Brazilian coup d'état|coup d'état]] supported by the Brazilian elite, the industrialists, the military, as well as by the United States,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Skidmore|first1=Thomas|title=Brazil: Five Centuries of Change|url=https://archive.org/details/brazilfivecentur00skid|url-access=registration|date=1999|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=New York|isbn=0-19-505810-0|page=[https://archive.org/details/brazilfivecentur00skid/page/155 155]}}</ref> Boal's teachings were controversial, and as a cultural activist he was seen as a threat by the Brazilian military regime. In 1971, Boal was kidnapped off the street, arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to [[Argentina]],<ref name=PTO/> where he stayed for five years. During those five years, Boal published two books: ''Torquemada'' (1971) and his much acclaimed ''[[Theatre of the Oppressed]]'' (1973). ''Torquemada'' is about the Brazilian military regime's systematic use of torture in prison.<ref name="cafemoiru.blogspot.com">[http://cafemoiru.blogspot.com/2009/05/murio-augusto-boal-creador-del-teatro.html "murio augusto boal, creador del teatro del oprimido"]. Cafemoiru.blogspot.com (May 2009). Retrieved on 2019-09-06.</ref> Boal takes the name of the leading figure of the [[Spanish Inquisition]], [[Tomas de Torquemada]], as an example of historical forms of systematic torture. In ''Theatre of the Oppressed'' Boal develops a theatrical method based on ''[[Pedagogy of the Oppressed]]'', a book by the Brazilian educator and writer [[Paulo Freire]] (who was also a good friend of Boal).<ref>[http://www.spunk.org/texts/art/sp000338.html "Theater of the oppressed"]. Spunk.org. Retrieved on 2019-09-06.</ref> Boal's method (which has been implemented in various communities around the world) seeks to transform audiences into active participants in the theatrical experience. Boal argues that traditional theatre is oppressive since spectators usually do not get a chance to express themselves and that a collaboration between both parties, in contrast, allows spectators to perform actions that are socially liberating. The method, as Boal liked to explain, seeks to transform spectators into "spect-actors."<ref>[[:es:Teatro del Oprimido]]</ref> When the political climate in Brazil forced Boal into exile in 1971, he initially went to [[Peru]] and then Argentina, where he completed and published his seminal theoretical work ''The Theatre of the Oppressed'' and consolidated his conscientização (consciousness-raising) theatre work based on the idea of Brazilian educationalist Paulo Freire.<ref name=Babbage/> Freire's methods were a revolt against the elitist "top-down" approach to education and he advocated critical-awareness-based education models. Boal's work in Peru with the ALFIN project, a movement which sought to use a range of languages including "artistic languages" to eradicate illiteracy, developed his ideas and methodology away from the agit-prop of his Brazilian Arena Theatre days and sought to engage theatre as a pedagogical tool. Crucial to this time was Boal's attempts to break down the divisions between spectator and actor. It is around this time that invented the term "spect-actor", a term that he saw as establishing the frameworks within which he wished to work.<ref name=Eckersley/> He saw that the passivity of the spectator could be broken down by the following steps by which the spectator becomes the spect-actor: * Knowing the body (by body he means both the individual "body" and the collective "body" in a Marxist sense) * Making the body expressive * Using theatre as a language * Using theatre as discourse After living in Argentina, Boal travelled to other countries in South America such as [[Peru]] and [[Ecuador]], where he worked with people in small and usually poor communities that dealt with conflicts such as civil wars and lack of government attention. Boal was of the opinion that only the oppressed are able to free the oppressed. In Peru, Boal practiced his [[Forum theatre]] method, in which spectator replaces actor to determine the solution to a given problem presented by the actor, which can also be a real problem someone in the community is facing. Boal also lived in Paris, France, for a number of years, where he created several Centers for the Theatre of the Oppressed, directed plays, and also taught classes at the [[Sorbonne University]]. Boal created the first International Festival for the Theatre of the Oppressed in 1981.<ref name="cafemoiru.blogspot.com"/> While Boal was in exile, his very close friend and Brazilian musician [[Chico Buarque]] wrote him a letter that would later result in the [[Chorinho]] hit called "Meu Caro Amigo" or "My Dear Friend" (1976). In this song, Buarque tells his friend about the situation in Brazil at the time, addressing the military dictatorship in a very subtle but clever way (due to censorship issues, many artists could not express themselves freely).<ref>[http://mandioca.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/augusto-boal/ Augusto Boal: candidato a Premio Nobel de la Paz, mandioca.lelê]. Mandioca.wordpress.com (2008-02-14). Retrieved on 2019-09-06.</ref> The melody of the song is very happy and upbeat while the lyrics explain: <blockquote>My dear friend, please forgive me, if I can’t pay you a visit, but since I found someone to carry a message, I’m sending you news on this tape. Here we play football, there’s lots of samba, lots of choro and rock’n'roll. Some days it rains, some days it’s sunny but I want to tell you that things here are pretty dark. Here, we’re wheeling and dealing for survival, and we’re only surviving because we’re stubborn. And everyone’s drinking because without cachaça, nobody survives this squeeze.<ref>[http://www.lidous.net/2008/09/24/my-dear-friends/ My dear friends]. lidous.net (2008-09-24)</ref></blockquote> ===Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed-CTO-Brazil=== After the fall of the military dictatorship, Boal returned to Brazil after 14 years of exile in 1986. He established a major Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed in [[Rio de Janeiro]] (CTO), whose objective was to study, discuss and express issues concerning citizenship, culture and various forms of oppression using theatrical language. Boal's work in the CTO made way for the approval of a new law that protects crime victims and witnesses in Brazil.<ref>{{cite book|author= da Silveira, José Braz|title=A proteção à testemunha & o crime organizado no Brasil|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=51N0YNg5D6IC&pg=PA65|year=2005|publisher=Jurua Editora|isbn=978-85-362-0763-6|pages=65–}}</ref> Boal's group has worked next to numerous organizations that fight for human rights. In 1992, Boal ran for city councillor in Rio de Janeiro as a theatrical act, and he was elected. Boal's support staff was his theatre group, with whom he quickly developed various legislative proposals. His objective was to work out issues citizens might be facing in their communities through theatre and also to discuss the laws of the city of Rio with people on the streets. After having worked to transform spectator into author in Theatre of the Oppressed, Boal initiates the legislative theatre movement process, in which voter becomes legislator. Boal is known to say that he did not create laws arbitrarily while he was city councillor. Instead, he asked people what they wanted. Other politicians were not very fond of this. Out of 40 of Boal's proposed laws, only 13 got approved during his term as councillor of Rio de Janeiro. His term ended in 1996, but he continued performing legislative theatre acts with different groups in Brasília, where four more laws got approved even after Boal had left. Boal also worked with prisoners in Rio and São Paulo. Boal argued that people in prison are not free in space, but that they are in time, and that the Theatre of the Oppressed strives to create different types of freedom so that people are able to imagine and think about the past, the present, and invent the future instead of having to wait for it. All this was in order for prisoners to have "a healthier and more creative lifestyle." People in the Movimento sem Terra or [[Landless Workers Movement]] of Brazil also experienced working with Boal's theatre methods. Boal's son Julián worked along with his father and now continues to take the Theatre of the Oppressed to various communities in Brazil and around the world. In March 2009, he received the title of "World Theatre Ambassador" from [[UNESCO]].<ref>[http://www.panuelosenrebeldia.com.ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=248&Itemid=253 Entrevista al brasileño Augusto Boal] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706082030/http://www.panuelosenrebeldia.com.ar/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=248&Itemid=253 |date=July 6, 2011 }}</ref> ===Death=== Augusto Boal died on 2 May 2009 at the age of 78 in Rio de Janeiro. Critic Yan Michalski argues that Augusto Boal is the best-known and most respected Brazilian [[theatre practitioner]] abroad.<ref name="itaucultural.org.br"/>
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