Theatre of the Oppressed NYC






Following an inspiring and thought provoking couple of weeks in South Florida, I travelled back north and arrived in New York City to spend three days learning about Forum Theatre with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC. Owing to dramatic and stormy weather my flight was delayed and I ended up arriving in NYC at 3am, allowing a very few hours sleep. Luckily the time I spent with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC was stimulating and engaging and I felt remarkably unaffected by my sleep deprivation.

Forum Theatre is one of the techniques that falls under Theatre of the Oppressed, developed by Augusto Boal who drew on the ideas of Paulo Friere. Forum Theatre aims to enable groups of people who are experiencing oppression to use theatre to enact their lived experiences. The audience are invited to discuss and comment on the problems facing the oppressed person(s) and suggest alternate courses of action that the protagonist (or their allies) could take. Rather than verbally explain their ideas, the audience are invited to come on stage and take the place of one or more of the actors so that they can act out alternative courses of action. In Forum Theatre, audience members are not considered to be passive spectators and are referred to as spect-actors.

Forum Theatre enables stories of oppression and marginalisation to be told directly by the people experiencing the issue, and also serves as a tool to create action. Spect-actors may be galvanised to take action by Forum Theatre, and Forum Theatre can be performed as Legislative Theatre, where the audience includes people in positions of authority who have the power to directly effect change in the system, institutions, laws or legislation affecting the oppressed people. I learned that it is important to identify moments of oppression where there at least some alternative courses of action that the oppressed person(s) could take. For example, in the case of domestic abuse it may be more appropriate to develop a Forum Theatre scene based on interactions with some of the systems that compound and exacerbate experiences of gender-based violence (such as difficulties in accessing safe and secure housing for survivors of abuse), rather than focusing on a moment of actual violence or abuse. It is important to be clear that Forum Theatre is not about victim-blaming or scrutinising whether an oppressed person took the 'right' course of action. Rather, it is a rehearsal for real life, enabling an alternative to be played out whilst hopefully inspiring others to want to effect change.

My time with Theatre of the Oppressed NYC was very stimulating and provided a useful contrast to the clinical projects I can been visiting up until this point. As interpersonal trauma typically involves an individual being controlled and denied their rights, finding ways to reclaim control can be a very important part of the healing process. 











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