Augusto Boal and Theatre of the Oppressed

I think that this method of theatre is beneficial to many people. It’s a smart way to get non-actors to move outside their comfort zone and talk about real issues. Clearly there is some sort of result as it is progressing and expanding across the world.

I did a form of this theatre when I volunteered at Miguel Contreras High School.

It was my job to organize a syllabus and teach the class entirely on my own. We played a bunch of theatre games in this tradition. I asked for suggestions for a scene from the class and a student said gangs. So I said “you are a mother and son and your son tells you he’s dropping out of school to join a gang”. The girl who played the mother looked terrified she kept looking at me for help. The boy who played the son was very adamant about what he was saying. He said that being in a gang is good because he has friends and people to protect him and his family and that if he didn’t know them then they would rape her. This sent a huge stir into the students. Then a girl from the “audience” says to the girl playing the mom, “tell him he could get killed” she ignores her. I then suggest that she steps in as the mom and they create some sort of solution. The son then convinces the mother to meet his gang member friends and at least see what they’re like. This to me is not a good solution. I was shocked that no one wanted to talk about gang situations and the “mother” didn’t even mention staying in school. That’s not on the priority list. I think I am very sheltered. I never had to deal with gang violence or dropping out of school. The biggest scandal at my high school was that a girl got pregnant and had to drop out, I was told that at their school girls get pregnant all the time.

After the class was dismissed, the teacher told me that when they don’t wanna do things, you’ll know. From her stand point and what she knew about them, it was a big success. Then at the very end something happened that really moved me. There was this one girl that throughout the entire class was incredibly shy when she was spoken to had a very defensive attitude. She seemed to just not want to be here. For most of the class I just let her be. She came up to me and asked about how she can get into acting. She said she loved the class and really wanted to become an actress like me. I was so thrown. I gave her a big hug, which she was reluctant about but welcomed, and we exchanged emails. I told her we should email each other and if she ever wanted to talk we could. That one short moment was the best part of my whole day. The one student who I thought I was lost on I ended up having the biggest impact on.

I definitely appreciate this form of theatre and had a great experience with this outlet. The response was amazing and I’m sure it would help in progressing the development of the class in further teachings. However for now, it’s not something that I seek out or have a great deal of interest in.