Playing Boal examines the techniques in application of Augusto Boal, creator of Theatre of the Oppressed, Brazilian theatre maker and political activist.

    This text looks at the use of the Theatre of the Oppressed exercises by a variety of practitioners and scholars working in Europe, North America and Canada. It explores the possibilities of these tools for "active learning and personal empowerment; co-operative education and healing; participatory theatre and community action."

    This collection is designed to illuminate and invigorate discussion about Augusto Boal's work and the transformative potential of theatre. It includes two interviews with Boal, and two pieces of his own writing.

    INTRODUCTION BOAL IN BRAZIL, FRANCE, THE USA An interview with Augusto Boal Part I Specifying: Case studies OUT OF THE SILENCE Headlines Theatre and Power Plays RE-INVENTING THE WHEEL Breakout Theatre-in-Education MANY HAPPY RETIREMENTS An interactive theatre project with older people SHE MADE HER BROTHER SMILE A three-minute forum theatre experience Part II Crossing: Conjunctions and collisions AUGUSTO BOAL AND JACOB L.MORENO Theatre and therapy MAINSTREAM OR MARGIN? US activist performance and Theatre of the Oppressed BOAL, BLAU, BRECHT:THE BODY Philip Auslander THE POLITICAL MASTER SWIMMER Augusto Boal Part III Contesting: Configurations of power BRECHTIAN SHAMANISM The political therapy of Augusto Boal THE MASK OF SOLIDARITY, STRUCTURES OF POWER Toward a theatre of liberation FEMINIST ACTS Women, pedagogy, and Theatre of the Oppressed CANADIAN ROUNDTABLE An interview THEATRICALIZING POLITICS An interview with Augusto Boal

    Biography

    Mady Schutzman teaches at the California Institute of the Arts and Jan Cohen-Cruz is Assistant Professor of Undergraduate Drama at New York University.