Theatre of the Oppressed!

I think that the next step in creating new dialogue that creates change would be do to continue to produce theatre that reaches new audiences. Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed does a good of this, but workshop-type performances such as image theatre seems to only be successful on a micro level. Similarly, invisible theatre seems to be more of a social experiment. In an example from our reading entitled Sexual Harassment, a group of performers engage in a “scene” (if you would call it that) that calls out gender discrimination as it relates to sexual harassment. Because of the way it is structured there is no moment where the actors say “ok that was a performance, how does that make you feel?” While this may be useful in starting a dialogue amongst theatre scholars and those who were a part of the performance, Im not sure that much conversation would be taking place from the bystanders/audience members, except maybe “wow, that was a crazy thing that happened on the subway today!” Anyway...all that to say I feel like we need to take the building blocks that are provided by Theatre of the Oppressed and expand upon them so that they reach a wider audience.

Im not sure I agree that theatre was ever necessarily the answer to any social problem such as genocide or war, but rather a reaction to them. Personally I feel that we can (and have in the past) used theatre as a tool for creating change by telling the stories of those who are oppressed and suggesting to our audiences that they become more openminded about certain issues. I think that theatre, or art in general, will always have a place in voicing concerns and bringing up problems in our society no matter the circumstance.

Protest Theatre

I grew up in central Texas and was fortunate enough to attend a high
school that had a wide array of art, theatre, choir, band etc.
programs. When I moved to Baton Rouge in 2011, I came to realize just
how fortunate I was to have these. I have learned that such programs,
in public schools especially, are not nearly as common as I had
expected. With the focus being placed on improving state standardized
test scores, there is usually very little money left in a school’s
budget to be used for the salaries of teachers in artistic
disciplines. Art programs are among the first to be put on the
chopping block when it comes it comes to allocating funding. The
consensus being that we just don’t need these programs.

I would organize a protest in front of the capitol building in
downtown Baton Rouge. I would ideally have a group of one hundred or
so people including teachers, school administrators, and students all
spreading the message of emphasizing the importance of arts education
in public schools. By citing statistics such as how utilizing the arts
in education have been proven to increase standardized test scores, we
would be raising awareness of this issue with the hopes of changing
legislation.

I think that having media coverage could only improve the cause. This
would facilitate in the spreading the message of our cause and would
get more people listening and thinking about how this issue affects
them