​CHANGING THE LENS

In dreaming up this project, it is incredibly important to us to acknowledge the work and key influence of both Augusto Boal and David Diamond (local Vancouver director, Headlines Theatre).

As mentioned, Forum Theatre was first developed by Augusto Boal as a technique within Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). It is hardly adequate or fair to capture the entire TO canon in a few words, but the key idea behind TO is to empower people to “reassume their protagonistic function in the theatre,” (Boal 119) which in turn would theoretically empower people to take the initiative to transform the society around them. Other techniques developed by Boal include: Rainbow of Desire, Cops in the Head.

This project has also been driven by the influence of David Diamond and Theatre for Living (TfL). Theatre for Living developed from David’s work with Boal and his experience with Theatre of the Oppressed, but is also strongly informed by systems theory. Through the systems theory lens, David Diamond argues that both ‘oppressor’ and ‘oppressed’ are “actually part of the same large organism living in some kind of dysfunction” (38). In other words, he proposes that if we want to get at the roots of a problematic issue and solve it, we need to start looking at the broader situation in a holistic manner.

 

David and Headlines Theatre run annual August trainings (Level I and Level II) to spread the techniques of TfL, of which Forum Theatre is a key component (check it out here), and our Joker this year has undergone both training workshops.
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References
Boal, Augusto. Theatre of the Oppressed. New York, NY: Theatre Communications Group, 1985. Print.
Diamond, David. Theatre for Living. Victoria, BC: Trafford Publishing, 2007. Print.