Augusto Boal at the 1992 ATHE Conference

In this Lecture from 1992, part of the ATHE Conference, Augusto Boal talks about his journey as a director and the trajectory of the Theatre of the Oppressed. Boal discusses the different kind of oppression he encountered in Europe and how he came to develop the Rainbow of Desire technique - exercises based on the internalization of oppression, 'the cop in the head.' During this lecture Augusto Boal presents and discusses three drawings - 'What is Theatre?'; 'What is a Human Being?'; and 'What is an Actor?' - as a way to emphasize the Theatre of the Oppressed as a methodology of exercises, games, images, and techniques that restore human capacity to do, to be theatre.

Augusto Boal was a theatre director, scholar, teacher; political representative and statesman in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; international speaker and the creator of the Theatre of the Oppressed. Born in 1931 in Rio de Janeiro, Augusto Boal was formally trained in chemical engineering and attended Columbia University in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In 1962 he was invited to work with Arena Theatre in Sao Paulo, Brazil where he stayed until 1971 when he was arrested, tortured, and exiled. His years directing and writing plays for Arena Theatre helped him to start slowly developing his own methodology, which continued in Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Portugal, and Paris, following his exile from Brazil. That methodology would later culminate in the Theatre of the Oppressed.

The Theatre of the Oppressed is a participatory theatre that fosters democratic and cooperative forms of interaction among participants. It is a 'rehearsal theatre' practiced by 'spect-actors' (not spectators) who have the opportunity to both act and observe empowering processes of dialogue and critical thinking. In the Theatre of the Oppressed, the theatrical act is experienced as a conscious intervention, as a rehearsal for social action rooted in a collective analysis of shared problems. The methodology can be divided into several techniques used by Augusto Boal: Image Theatre, Newspaper Theatre, Invisible Theatre, Forum Theatre, Rainbow of Desire, and Legislative Theatre.