The Oppressed Theatre Series: [Translation] Afterword to the Second Edition of The Game for Actors and Non-Actors

Original source: https://www.douban.com/group/topic/29905776/

Augusto Boal: <Games for Actors and Non-actors>:

If we say "Theatre of the Oppressed" Bois expresses his leftist radical theatrical theories in the 1970s. Then this "Games for Actors and Non-Actors" collects more than 280 theater games that he has created/adapted without revealing his political ideas; it is suitable for professional actors (even the Royal Shakespeare Company), but also for Brazil's landless peasants, prison inmates, all kinds of theater groups - it applies to all "people", they all are people. They are all human - this is humanity - respect for those around us.

Postscript: Pride in Our Hearts

As I wrote the above (referring to this book), I have the authority to witness, in a solemn ceremony in the city of Sao Paulo in honor of Latin America - this ceremony is to commemorate a prisoner in 37 prisons throughout the state, has begun The one-year, now-ending one is called the Staging Human Rights Project. With recognition of the program's content and superior output, conversations between 4,000 inmates, hundreds of prison staff, and an innumerable surrounding population took place. The project was also awarded the Betinho Human Rights Award in 2001 by the Municipality of São Paulo.

In the morning, prison guards performed their productions, showing the plight of their jobs in overcrowded prisons, low wages, and the dangers that have always lingered in their memory. A common object of our theatrical approach, the guards performed all the parts of the stage themselves - even those prisoner characters, wearing prison uniforms and of course taking their position in the body position - with their heads bowed , resting his head on the shoulder of the opposite person.

The scene is immediately followed by male prisoners telling their own life stories. One of them called his ten children to the show, and they were all delighted that their dad had a newfound talent: In one particular ongoing scene, his seven-year-old daughter came on stage to hug him, having to Ask him to leave the stage and carry himself back to his original audience seat, next to her free mother.

The night came to a climax when the female prisoners put on a show: when one of their members, Amanda (who told her true story there), was legally required to have sex with her 6-month-old child, a child she conceived in prison ,separate.

In the theatre of the oppressed, reality not only plays out as it is, but more importantly, it plays out. What we want and can't get in life becomes what we have the potential to get. This important element is entrusted to the creativity of the audience: the audience takes the stage, replaces the protagonist with themselves, and tries to find workable solutions to real problems.

The audience that night was moved to tears by the scene where the mother kissed her child goodbye, and took her (role) position many times, suggesting that the prison should build a kindergarten attached to the prison, run by prisoners; Bedtime visits; or other means of avoiding such premature separation. The protagonist's role as a woman and mother, everyone thinks, should surpass her role as a prisoner. Although these characters are the same person, the latter cannot compensate for the sin of the former (sin, in Western culture, refers to the original sin - Chinese translator).

When all the stories in the theater were over, the representatives of the Sao Paulo authorities, the representatives of the Three Powers, had been saying that it was very necessary to continue this theater program for the oppressed in the prison. The plan aims to humanize these two groups, who are forced to coexist in the same environment every day, despite their vast differences.

Then it's goodbye. We hug these prisoners, both men and women, lovingly, as well as their guards and other support staff. They, made us laugh and made us cry, as they acted out their stories, their hopes, their day...

It's time to say goodbye. In the huge memorial hall, seven armed soldiers took to the stage, each prisoner went up to shake hands with his guard, and then the prisoner got on the bus back to the shift room. As the bus was moving, one of the guards still had time to say, "You know what? When I heard 'human rights', I didn't learn that at all—never heard the word at all. But one thing I understand today that these guys are not our enemies. They are people. He no longer speaks to them (prisoners) the way he talks to an enemy, but a person. When he no longer does When he did, that day, he actually understood the most profound meaning of "human rights": respect for those around you. Let us realize that "the other" is also a man, a woman, and a human being. Like the grieving woman who was legally forced to separate her from her young child, and the dad who was never questioned as an actor who moved his daughter.

Now, pride is in our hearts - but not without sadness - when Betinho's medallion shines on our chests.

× × ×

(Chinese translator: omit a few paragraphs to introduce the most successful social movement organization in Brazil, MST, the Landless Peasants Movement.)

At the beginning of 2011, they approached us with the following question: How can we use the theatre to try and make us known to the wider outside world? They must have encountered difficulties. The police treated them with inhuman violence; when they were arrested, the police abused their wives, children, and children; in court, the judges they encountered were friends of the landlord, not "just" friends, which is very common. In government, they encountered snub bureaucrats.

We still work in the usual way: exercises, games, image theatre and forum theatre. We did dramas, dramas about confrontations with the police; dramas with private armed forces of "crickets" (a nickname for landowners), confrontations unknown to the citizens of the city who don't care what's going on in the countryside, the citizens Also believed the misinformation of the media; and their internal organization...until we started to move closer to more public (domestic) issues. For example, sex, a non-acceptance of different kinds of local folk music, or conflict within a family that has just been allocated a small plot of land. When the family is still living in a harsh environment such as a wooden house, moving around, waiting to occupy a piece of land, there is still democracy - as long as it is on the new farm, the old family structure is relatively easy to retain, and the father is still the head of the family. Lord, the mother is the adjutant, and the child is the employee.

MST is made up of great people, but they are just like us, they have the same qualifications and they have the same shortcomings... That's why, after doing many forum theatre productions, they asked us: "We Why can't it be a 'rainbow of desire'?"

Like those prisoners, like the cast of RSC (Shakespeare Royal Company), like everyone.

× × ×

Theater of the Oppressed is to serve the people, not people to serve the Theater of the Oppressed. In the beginning, yes, we had very clear enemies, people we could call opponents, oppressors: we lived in a country of tycoons (monopolies) of all kinds. It is futile to analyze oppressors to find out if they have some decent qualities, even if they are good grandpas to their grandchildren. Rhetoric was rhetoric, though he said he knelt on stalks in prayer at night. Forum Theater, at this point, is very clear and concise: an oppressed protagonist, knowing what he/she wants to do, facing a cruel enemy, an oppressor who thwarts his/her wishes. Forums are all avenues for finding specific solutions, because everything else is understood and accepted.

Later, we started to find situations where the oppression was not very clear, but both parties claimed to be oppressed: husband and wife, between friends, between parents and children, between teachers and students... It is not a conflict of pure confrontation, but reconciliation/mediation is possible, needed. In these particular cases, neither party's role can be replaced, because both parties say they are the oppressed.

Soon we realized that "forum theater" was not enough to deal with these problems, because the nature of forums is targeted, visible, familiar oppression - which led us to experiment with other forms of theater of the oppressed, other possible Theater structures can help us understand more complex situations, not just the obvious cases that were the objects of the "forum" in the first place.

So, one after another, introspective techniques emerge. This book concentrates on the preparation methods to perform various forms in the forum. Anyone in the forum who wants to use theatre as a language can refer to this book. The methods of this book can also be used to prepare professional plays and performances for "normal" audiences. Even so, this book brews a little more internal technique.

This book is a practical primer for all forms of theatre of the oppressed. All these forms are complementary because humans are complex and not as easy to understand as we think. The best way to use these forms is to use all of them.

× × ×

I love dreams, even though I know very well that my dreams are impossible. Even so, I have a dream: one day I will direct RSC actors, prison inmates, MST farmers, Rio slum workers to play Hamlet. one day……

I know this can never happen. Utopia is not meant to be reached: it is meant to motivate us to work harder and go further. The ability to dream is already a dream come true!

2012.5.25