Shared Investigation
Post responses to the texts by Augusto Boal that you are reading.
Responses could include:
Preconceptions; what are your first reactions to the text after reading the cover and blurb and contents?
What do you already know about the author? What prior learning or knowledge do you have?
More detailed analysis of the content of the content of the book. Provide quotations and discuss them...offer your thoughts and ideas on the thoughts and ideas in the text.
You could find other people's reviews of the text you are investigating.
GO!
"Boal Theatre of the Oppressed." Focuses on tragedies mainly. Compares & contrasts the theoires of Aristocle & Plato. Considers the purpose of every day topics such as the arts & science. Keyowrds: aim, meaning, purpose. Most clear quote, for me, was the definition of Imitation.
ReplyDeleteThis is a review that I have found. I wanted to look at some of the reviews before I started reading The Rainbow of Desire by Augusto Boal.
ReplyDeleteWhile it is true that some of his work truly needs participation in workshops to understand, the entirety of the late Augusto Boal's vision and practice remains the most revolutionary and transformational of at least the last fifty years, if not many more. His use of Image Theatre brings a profound physicality to psychotherapeutic techniques, one which brings the whole person into a therapy process. Moreover, the approach also asks for extensive collaboraton while at the same time not putting the subject in an overly-vulnerable situation. To the contrary, the group becomes a co-creator and support network while the imaging and dialogue proceed. Boal's final exploration into linking Rainbow to Forum Theatre promises an even broader expansion of TO possibilities. The book will likely become a theatre classic, along with Boal's other texts, equaling the influence of Brecht and Stanislavsky, and perhaps even Aristotle. I urge readers who are genuinely taken by Boal's writings to find workshops led by experienced practitioners.
I have looked at the contents pages of the book and I am intrigued . I don't know or understand what some of the sections are about but I will get a better understanding by reading.
I have found an intriguing quote on page 14 of the book; "The being becomes human when it invents theatre" I am not completly sure what it means but it has intrigued me .
ReplyDeleteHamlet and the baker’s son, is a book which has been translated to English. It tells the story of Augusto Boal, the book begins with an introductory section on Boals family which then follows on to his childhood stories. It discusses his house in Brazil and how the back was crammed with animals and how he felt when his pet was served on the dinner table after gaining an emotional connection to it. It moves on to tell us about how he enjoyed football and carnival in Brazil, the book also discusses Boal’s memories of WWII and how he does not speak German, although, he knows the words ‘danke schon’ and ‘Verfremdungseffekt’. Boal first discovered a feel for theatre when he was 10. Boal discusses how he first picked Chemistry to study and upon arriving at the class, he realised what a mistake he had made with everything being “white” and “everything is just sulphur”. It tells his story of journeying to America and discovering ideas for his own theatre. How he studied in Columbia university. When Boal moved back to Brazil he started experimenting with Stans ideas, and how he put them together as part of a show he was in whilst studying theatre and how it wasn’t successful at the beginning but over the year it did. Boal moves on to tell us about how he wrote his own play “Revolucao” which was his “first important play”. He discusses how Brazil wanted to move away from being a colony of the United States and how revolution started. The book tells harrowing stories which people faced as the country was changing about farmers being killed and their land being taken away from them. Boal also talks about his hatred for censorship and how he wanted people to speak as they wanted to. It discusses how hard it was for theatres in a dictatorship, especially when the army came in and destroyed the set of another production going on in a different part of the theatre. The book tells the graphic and interesting tale of August Boal, how over his life he has become sophisticated, educated and well-travelled. On page 314 there is an interesting quote “Today, theatre is a material art” although I do not fully understand it, I do think it is relevant. Boal ends on a high note discussing that what if he wasn’t born who would of discovered his ideas. I find his story very intriguing, Boal has gone through a lot of pain, loss and sacrifice for his ideas. Boal’s workshops and ideas are very interested and would be very useful for our workshops.
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