Applied Theatre

PROBLEMATIZING APPLIED THEATRE

 Theatre – Entertainment Value
Or /&
Aesthetic End

Sustainable effect ?
Then Applied Theatre
Transportation
vs
transformation

Theatre for social implication

Theatre of political implication

“Art is not contemplation; it is about action”

“All actions change the world, at least a little”
Background of Applied Theatre’s
 Till 1970’s theatre was either be viewed as occasionally social
phenomena or a politically indifferent entertaining artifact.
 But in 70’s a kind of theatre came in a reaction against the
naturalist proscenium theatre and began to search for an
effective performative methodology involving changing the
sustainable socio-political lives of certain community.
Applied’ is added to bring the sheltered out of their
comfortable buildings - theatres or lecture halls
 Applied theatre is Connected to real people , real problem
 Applied Theatre - by , for , of and with the people
Can theatre solve our real problem ?
Can theatre solve the problem of family
violence ?

Cross – sectional survey

 Can theatre solve our real problem ?
Can theatre solve the problem faced by people with
autism ? – like relate to body parts, aggression, clumsiness
and eye-contact
Mean Pre-Test
Participants Mean Post-Test Score
Score 3.5
A 2.12 2.75
B 1.87 2.37 3
C 1.87 2.25
D 1.62 2
2.5
E 1.62 2.5
F 1.5 2.25
2
G 1.5 2.375
H 1.75 2.625
I 1.62 1.875 1.5
J 1.5 2.12
K 1.5 2.375 1
L 1.87 2.5
M 1.87 2.37 0.5
N 1.62 2.62
O 1.62 2.125 0
P 2 2.62
Q 2.25 2.75 Mean Pre-Test Score Mean Post-Test Score
R 1.75 2
S 2 3.12 Linear (Mean Pre-Test Score) Linear (Mean Post-Test Score)
T 1.87 3
Average 1.766 2.42975 Longitudinal Survey
 Theatre for / of the blind

“The dependency made me forget to even try to function on my own. I had anxiety and panic attacks if
left alone. I had no awareness of myself. Joining SBO was the turning point of my life. Today, I can do my
chores independently and I can also travel alone. The independence and liberty I experienced after
being trained and involved with the theatrical process make me feel alive.”
TYPES OF APPLIED THEATRE
 Theatre in Education (TiE)
 Theatre for Medical Humanities or Health
Education(THE)
 Theatre for Health
 Theatre for Development (TfD)
 Prison theatre
 Disability Theatre
 Community performance
 Playback theatre
 Theatre of the Oppressed
METHODOLOGY
 Progressive Education of Paulo Freire
Some Example of applied theatre
 In 2003, New Zealand’s Executive Department of Child, Youth and Family
Service commissioned Applied Theatre Consultant Ltd (ATCo) to deal
with child abuse and family violence in the remote areas. ATCo
developed ‘Everyday Theatre’ in 2004 to engage the school children and
their family members in several dramatic activities to provide the basics
of the entire project
 GTO-Maputo is a Mozambican organization which performs short and
direct forum sessions in public places for raising awareness on HIV and
AIDS.
 Aditi Bandopadhyaya (Samya Trust, Kolkata),
 Kaustav Bankapur (Theatre Resource - TfD, Pune),
 Alakananda Roy (Prison Theatre, Kolkata),
 Debasis Bhattacharya (DANA, Kolkata)
 Syed Sallauddin Pasha (Ability Unlimited Foundation, New Delhi).
 APPLIED THEATRE – FEATURES

 Beyond conventional Space

 Beyond traditional theatre institution
 NOT reproduction of cultural values
 NOT consumer oriented act

 aims for specific NEED BASED END

 theatre + Social Efficacy + community
building
 Demystify art
 equality b/t actors , audience, directors
 Paulo Freire (1921-1997)

 Educational thinker,
 educational activist
 South American theorist / Brazil
 Marxist tradition / Antonio Gramsci tradition
 Political activist
 Interest in the reproduction of inequalities
 Critical pedagogy aimed at the grass roots
 Importance on Dialogue – Popular and Informal
Education
 Involving respect, working WITH one another,
not acting ON one another “Education is a dialogic
process not a give and take
 Make a difference in the world via dialogue to relation”
enhance the community and society –
Informed Action
Education is a hegemonic apparatus
 Conscientization
Consciousness
Raising
The Process of becoming aware of contradiction
exiting within oneself and in society and of
gradually being able to bring about social
Critical
transformation
Consciousness

Conscientization is the ability to critically perceive

the causes of social, political and economic
oppression and to take action against the
 Ability to critically perceive the causes of social, oppressive elements of society. The ultimate aim
political and economic oppression and to take action of conscientization must forever be humanization.
against the oppressive elements of society. The meaning, dignity and worthiness of being-in-
and-with-the-world as human beings are all
 A state of in-depth understanding about the world and inscribed in a loving, critical and creative spirit and
resulting freedom from oppression endless cycles of transformative praxis

 It is diffused in many countries, mainly in South

America, based on the trust in oppressed “knowledge”
and questioning role of leader who educates and learn
by dialoguing
Pedagogy of the Oppressed
• influenced by ideals of Karl Marx
• “Oppressor” vs. “Oppressed”
• In order, however, to undertake this process, the oppressed must
challenge their own internalization of the oppressor. The oppressed
are accustomed to thinking of themselves as "less than.“
• Freedom is a result of informed action
• Traditional pedagogy is a “Banking System”, but learners should
be treated as co-creators of knowledge
• Banking System results in dehumanization
The Pillars of Applied Theatre

Armand Gatti (1924-2017),

John O’Toole (b 1944)
Augusto Boal (1931-2009)
Augusto Boal (1931-2009)
 Born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
 Studied chemical engineering in Columbia University in the late
1940’s and early 1950’s.
 Returned to Rio de Janeiro and Started working in Arena
Theatre Group
 The age of Military Dictatorship, Brazil saw suffocating political,
economic oppression and violent conflicts
 Boal believed monologue to be the root cause of all
oppression, thus dialogue as a liberation
 Started Political plays
 kidnapped off the street, arrested, tortured, and eventually
exiled to Argentina.
 Devised his Theatre of the oppressed
 After the fall of the military dictatorship, Boal returned to Brazil
after 14 years of exile in 1986
“I believe in democracy, but in real
democracy, not a phony democracy in
 Established Theatre of the oppressed in Brazil and other
which just powerful people can speak. countries
For me, in a democracy, everyone
speaks” – Boal
 Used theatre to make laws when he was the city councilor
 Died in 2009
Strategies

 Encourage critical thought about social conditions

 Acting for social change
 Spectacle to engagement
 Blurs reality and fiction
 Key Concept

 Invisible theatre
 Forum Theatre
 Jocker
 Spect-actor
 Image Theatre
 Rainbow of Desire

“The objective of the whole tree is to bring forth

fruits, seeds and flowers . . . in order that the Theatre
of the Oppressed may seek not only to understand
reality, but to transform it to our liking” – Boal
Invisible Theatre
Rehearse Invisible Theatre is a technique of involving
the audience in performance without them knowing
that it is a performance. It is intended to let the
audience choose whether or not to engage with the
event play which occurs in public
 Audience does not know it is acting
 Takes place on public place
 Honest Response of the mass
 Brings dialogue to public spaces
 Generally disrupts a social norm
 Theatre graffiti and product placement
 Example: Men in women's clothing
Invisible theatre – Boal’s Restaurant episode

 Went to Restaurant
 Ordered a very expensive meal
 After the meal, he said – he does not have money to
pay
 Argued – “Everybody should have the right to enjoy the
good meal for free”
 So a discussion starts – for and against
 He washed dishes for paying the price. (instead of
paying it not lying)
 Do not say “it is theatre and end up annoying all”
 Impromptu is the basic dialogue
 Flash mob vs. Invisible theatre
Image Theatre
Forum Theatre
 Creation of the play
 Role of the Joker
 First run-through
 Audience participation
 The play revolves around
the story of:
The Protagonist:
One who is
oppressed.

The Antagonist: Joker

The one who In a form like forum theatre, where
oppresses him. there is so much interaction
between different sets of people,
don’t you surely see the need for a
facilitator? A person who breaks
the ice between the actors and
the spectactors.
Once the forum begins, the joker
The Bystanders: encourages, invites, regulates,
Who witness this oppression and appreciates, explains, concludes
are at a position to prevent it from and at times even translates the
happening. interventions of a spectator.
Sequence of Events
• The Joker welcomes and warms up the audience.
• He introduces the context and the members of the play to the
audience.
• As the play begins, it takes us through the life of the protagonist.
• The cast build the scenes to portray the act of oppression and its
consequences.
• The spectators are given a few minutes to absorb the gravity of the act
and reflect upon it.
• The Joker asks them if this kind of a social set up that is acceptable.
Questions like, “Do you feel any empathy after watching this play?”
• “Are you prepared to fight it if it were a real life situation?” provoke
thought and finally the joker poses the question that urges them to act
out any possible solution, “Would you like to try out any solutions?”

Replay the
Play the anti Joker invites
scene or part Seek solution
model / audience to
again for or model
oppression intervene
intervention
 Impromptu starts
with other

STOP!!
characters

Spect-actor
replaces the the antagonist party will Resist
• The anti-model is repeated the spect-actor
a second time / ‘n’ times character
• the Joker shouts “stop!” at a The spect-actor can do
point where a spectactor many things. He can:
Impromptu
stops the play at a point a) come in as a new character
play
where they see a potential b) replace a bystander
for change. c) replace the protagonist and continues
offer a solution from the
• He encourages the spect- character’s perspective
actors to replace a
character who holds the Till :
power to liberate the Joker stops the play A. How powerful the offered
protagonist from (2nd) and audience solution is
oppression.
step in as spect- B. the antagonist party will
actor give in

Once we witness the consequence of the solution,

A. the Joker stops the act,
B. recapitulates and appreciates the intervention,
C. thanks the spect-actor for his/her contribution
D. invites MORE alternative solutions again.
 Spectator To Spect-actor
 This is a simple audience-actor interaction where the audience members propose
solutions to the problem that the protagonist faces.
 The solutions are played out by the actors one by one until all the solutions have been
exhausted.
 This technique opened up interactive dialogue on stage for the first time. But what was
lacking in this model was a certain sense of empathy which is ‘personal, unique and non-
transferable’that no other actor can imitate. For this, Boal introduced the world of Theatre to
Forum Theatre, a play format in which there’s no distinction between an actor or a spectator
but is witnessed by ‘spect-actors’ who can interrupt an unjust act being portrayed in the
play and replace an actor to give it an alternative ending.

a) the actors present a vision of the world as it is and the spectactor intervenes to change it to
as it could be.

b) But, if no spectactor wishes to intervene and prevent injustice, it can be considered as an

acceptance of the situation in real life.
 Forum theatre is a form of theatre and just like any other form, it requires a
Step by step guide clever script and supporting design that makes it both pleasurable to
watch in form and thought-provoking in content.

Now, how do you strike this magical balance between

form and content and make the experience for a
spectactor really valuable?
The Anti-Model
• A model situation is one where there is ideal
distribution of power and no construct of oppression.

• So surely, the anti-model means the opposite- an act in

Forum Theatre that portrays the oppression.

• A Forum play can include one or more anti-models

that narrate an undesirable but prevalent view of the
world.
> The spectactors are the members of the audience
> who are invited on stage to replace the protagonist or a bystander
to intervene at the event of an injustice
> has offer solutions to dissolve the conflict and give the play an
optimistic ending.
 Impromptu starts
with other
characters

Spect-actor
• The anti-model is repeated
a second time / ‘n’ times STOP!! replaces the
character
the antagonist party will Resist
the spect-actor

• the Joker shouts “stop!” at a The spect-actor can do

point where a spectactor many things. He can:
Impromptu
stops the play at a point a) come in as a new character
play
where they see a potential b) replace a bystander
for change. c) replace the protagonist and continues
offer a solution from the
• He encourages the spect- character’s perspective
actors to replace a
character who holds the Till :
power to liberate the Joker stops the play A. How powerful the offered
protagonist from (2nd) and audience solution is
oppression.
step in as spect- B. the antagonist party will
actor give in

Once we witness the consequence of the solution,

A. the Joker stops the act,
B. recapitulates and appreciates the intervention,
C. thanks the spect-actor for his/her contribution
D. invites MORE alternative solutions again.
 Is it a magic effect
.

.
..

.
Magic Interventions that use magic seem
too good to be true and look at
super-human or ideal circumstances.
It often happens when we assume that
the forces of oppression can be
neglected. When Magic as a solution
is offered, it is important for the Joker
In Forum Theatre,‘Magic’ refers to a solution offered by a spectactor to identify Magic, explain it to the
that frees, deletes or makes the oppression of the anti-model vanish audience and suggest an alternative
by unrealistic means. For example, if a spectactor tries to replace point of intervention.
the rapist in a sexual abuse scene, it is unrealistic or magical to think
of this approach as a possible solution!In real life, is it possible to
dissolve matters by wishing a problem away?
Then how forum theatre is made?