For grass-roots movements, human rights activists, artists, teachers, students, educators,
and community action leaders!

Date: Saturday, September 21, 10-6 PM

Location: The People’s Forum at 320 West 37th Street, NY, NY 10018

Cost: The course fee is offered on a sliding scale from $60 – $180.

In this participatory course, we will use theory and practice to explore Theatre of the Oppressed (T.O.) through an intensive one-day workshop. The TO was created by Augusto Boal in Brazil in 1971, is a humanist theatrical form with its roots in social justice that breaks the boundary between audience and stage and invites people to make Theatre their own. Through audience participation, as “spect-actors” (rather than spectators) It makes use of the Theatre as a tool for the oppressed to move from a condition of passivity to actively resisting their oppressors. Led by jokers (who “difficultate” rather than “facilitate”), T.O. has been used by groups around the world to explore, understand, and fight back against a wide range of oppressions. Oppression of class, race, gender, and culture, among others.

Theatre of the Oppressed is one of the most widely used theater methodologies in the world. Theater of the Oppressed is a ludic and educational methodology, an effective means for searching and communicating practical solutions to real problems through aesthetic and performative interventions. The methodology is based on the interaction between grassroots movements, communities, and participants, who, together, search for effective solutions in the pursuit of social justice and collective transformation. The methodology allows the oppressed an opportunity to take ownership of the means of theatrical production and expand their possibilities for creative expression. It also seeks to break down the barrier between the stage and the audience to establish an active, democratic, and purposeful dialogue with the potential to resolve social conflicts. The theater of the oppressed is the theater of human rights.