2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

Augusto Boal saw Theatre as a language; its potential as a uniting agent between people. Developing TO, he sought to connect with those on the outskirts of civilised society, with the communities facing socio-economic oppression and with individuals and families who suffered silently. Boal established TO with the intention of making theatre accessible. In its early stages of development, during Boal’s literacy campaign in Peru, he recognised the challenges of introducing Theatre to those unexposed to its concepts. To avoid alienation, he noted theatrical experience should begin not with a foreign agent but with the bodies of those who participate in the experiment. Boal was acutely aware of the transformative power of kinesthetics. “In theatre, we use what is essential, what’s essential is our bodies.” (Boal, Augusto 1980) Recognising the human body as theatrical vocabulary and making it expressive, was an essential stage towards transforming the spectator into the actor, the witness into a protagonist. To harness one’s physical self, Boal developed a series of exercises to explore one’s body: It’s limitations and possibilities, social distortions and deformations caused by work/routine. Making the body expressive (the second stage of a systemised plan to develop the ‘spectactor’): was a collection of games aimed to activate the body and mind and break the usual routines of the body. “To do is the best way of saying.” (Boal, Augusto 1993) Clearly evident in the practices of TO, is the power of symbols and visual storytelling. Image theatre was a method for physical expression and symbolism, which involved one individual acting as a sculptor to mould one or multiple people into statues. Using only touch, they resist the use of words or mirror-image modelling. Actors must use their hands to create an image out of another actor’s body to communicate an event, idea or emotion without using words or signs. (Boal, Augusto, Theatre of the Oppressed. 1985)

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