Agusto Boal & the Legislative Theater

Combining performance and politics is really a no-brainer to me considering about 60% of politics is performance based anyway. I do think though that officially bringing the theater into politics is a great idea, my problem with government is that it is always so serious. Life is too serious as it is so why we chose to impose even more seriousness and aggravation is beyond my understanding. "Some of us 'make' theatre - all of us 'are' theatre." Bringing creativity and this sort of lighter attitude to the government stimulates interest in politics in general, I remember a couple of years ago when writer/comedian Al Franken announced that he was going to run for legislative office the media made it into a kind of circus, but as anyone can clearly see Mr. Franken has been a great and even though satirical and comedic one a great representative for our people. Really when it comes down to it, theater-makers are philosophers, as all artists are, having theater people in government positions brings a more open minded approach to legislation and social constructs.

-Sam