2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

3. Conventions & Techniques of Theatre of the Oppressed and Methodological Approach of Jana Sanskriti To understand, the impact of Boal’s theory and Jana Sanskriti’s work, an explanation of the main

techniques and conventions of Theatre of the oppressed (TO) must be provided. To synthesize his Ideas and Techniques, Boal created a diagram of a tree to represent the theatrical systems and branches of Theatre of the Oppressed. See Figure 1.1 (Dosse, J. (1994). Forum and Image Theatre are two politically expressive theatre forms. Forum Theatre as the tree demonstrates is composed of three elements – Direct

actions, Invisible Theatre, and Legislative Theatre. Image Theatre is comprised of two theatre exercises – Newspaper Theatre and Rainbow of Desire.

Figure 1.1

Forum Theatre is when the oppressor character within the play problematises, acting with their ideology, and the spectators have the opportunity to replace other characters within the play - to resolve the major conflicts, contradict the oppressor, address the questions that evolve in the argument and discuss amongst themselves different solutions. (Babbage, F. 2004.) A term coined by Boal describes those engaged in Forum theatre is Spect-actor. It refers to the dual role of those involved in the process as both spectator and actor, as they both observe and

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