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Date of Birth & Death
Dr. Augusto Boal, Born in Rio De Janeiro on March 16, 1931, and died in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil on May 2, 2009 -
Family Members (+ marriages)
Parents: Jose Augusto Boal & Albertina Pinto Boal, Wife: Cecilia Boal,
Children: Julian Boal & Fabian Silbert
Marriages: He was married to Cecilia Thummim Boal and he had divorced Albertina Gordo de Olivera Costa -
Education
Boal received his education at Columbia University in New York City, where he received a degree in chemical engineering in 1952 but studied theatre in addition to chemical engineering. -
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First Theatrical Theatre
He was the first theatrical director of the Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 1955 where he directed an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel, "Of Mice and Men." He remained there until 1971. -
Important Productions
Gassner (Boals Critic in University) introduced Boal to the techniques of both Bertolt Brecht and Konstantin Stanislavski (This is funny, jiji), and encouraged Boal to form links with theatre groups like the Black Experimental Theatre. In 1955 Boal staged productions of two of his own plays, The Horse and the Saint and The House Across the Street. -
Boal's influence
Paulo Freire was a major influence on Boal's teachings. He and Freire became close in later years. When Freire died, Boal said: "I am very sad. I have lost my last father. Now all I have are brothers and sisters". Boal was influenced by the work of the educator and theorist Paulo Freire and his book Pedagogy of the Oppressed. Boal's techniques use theatre as means of promoting social and political change in alignment originally with radical-left politics and later with centre-left ideology. -
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Boal's Exile
Because of Boal’s work, he drew attention as a cultural activist. However, the military coups in Brazil during the 1960s looked upon all such activity as a threat. Walking home from an Arena performance of Brecht’s The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Boal directed in 1971, Boal was kidnapped off the street, arrested, tortured, and eventually exiled to Argentina, then self-exiled to Europe. -
Historical events that impacted his writing
After the first military coup in Brazil in 1964, he began developing a radical popular' form of theatre to publicly discuss and address increasingly oppressive social conditions.(The Theatre of the Oppressed) -
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Boal's Plays
In exile, he wrote Theater of the Oppressed and Torquemada (Tomas de Torquemada?). Some of his other plays include Arena Conta Zumbi, Arena Conta Bolivar, Arena Conta Tiradentes, and Revolution in South America. -
Boal's Exile Writing
In Argentina, in 1973 he published his first major theater text, The Theatre of the Oppressed. While in Paris, Boal continued for a dozen years to teach his revolutionary approach to theater, establishing several Centers for the Theatre of the Oppressed. In 1981 he organized the first International Festival of the Theatre of the Oppressed in Paris. -
What is Theatre of the Oppressed?
Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is an aesthetic method created by Brazilian playwright Augusto Boal that stimulates critical observation and representation of reality, envisioning the production of consciousness and concrete actions.
a form of interactive theater intended to transform lives as spectators become performers, acting out solutions to social problems -
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Place he lived
He was born and lived all his life in Rio De Janeiro he only lived out of Rio when he went to University in New York and he lived in Argentina during his exile. -
Any Awards?
Augusto Boal received numerous prizes and honours, among which: Prize SAVY, São Paolo, Brazil (1963, 1965), Prize MOLIERE, France (1965, 1967), OBIE Award, US (1971), Pablo Picasso Medal, UNESCO (1994), João Ribeiro Medal, Academy of Brazil (2003), Tiradentes Medal – Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (2005). -
Boal's health Issue
In the year 2009 Augusto Boal passed away from respiratory failure after he had a long fight with leukemia -
Hamlet
Boal was also known to quote William Shakespeare's Hamlet, in which Hamlet argues that theatre is like a mirror that reflects our virtues and defects equally. Although Boal found this quote beautiful, he liked to think of theatre as a mirror in which one can reach to change reality and transform it. -
Augusto Boal Contradicts Konstantin Stanislavski
While both Stanislavski and Boal made significant contributions to theater, their philosophies and goals were quite distinct. Stanislavski focused on the craft of acting and emotional realism, while Boal's work centered on using theater as a means of social and political transformation, with an emphasis on audience participation. -
Boals Different Theatre Work Techniques
Forum Theater: It's interactive theater that explores solutions to problems with the audience.
Image Theater: People act like statues, and someone molds them without words.
Invisible Theater: Actors create scenes in public to get real reactions from unsuspecting people.
Legislative Theater: Communities and policymakers collaborate to develop new laws.
Newspaper Theater: News articles turned into plays.
Rainbow of Desire: Techniques for addressing internalized oppression. -
Boals Inspirational Quote
The way that I interpreted his is that he is expressing the idea that theater, in and of itself, does not bring about societal revolution or radical change. Instead, he sees theater as a space for exploration, reflection, and rehearsal of ideas and actions that could potentially lead to broader social and political transformation.