ALâ  in conjunction with NUI Galway and City of Galway VEC are running a 6 weekend course Theatre of the Oppressed starting in October.

Julian Boal, Andrew Jackson and Gavin Crichton are Facilitating a weekend each during the course. It will be FETAC level 5 accredited.

The Course Director is Sarah O’Toole, Actor, Director and Lecturer in NUIG, who trained in Moscow in the Stanislavski and Michael Chekhov techniques, worked in Dublin, Glasgow and London

Final arrangements are presently being made but if interested in receiving further info please contact Alâ at 086 8461270 / e-mail alagalway@gmail.com

Theatre of the Oppressed
The Theatre of the Oppressed was developed by Brazilian theatre director Augusto Boal during the 1950′s and 1960′s. In an effort to transform theatre from the “monologue” of traditional performance into a “dialogue” between audience and stage, Boal experimented with many kinds of interactive theatre. His explorations were based on the assumption that dialogue is the common, healthy dynamic between all humans, that all human beings desire and are capable of dialogue, and, I would argue, that dialogue with sounds, gestures, and words was the central activity whereby pre-humans became human.  In turn, we create ourselves and others help create us through dialogue.  Given this one essential feature of human nature, all other natures being derived from dialogue, Boal asserted that when a dialogue becomes a monologue, that is oppression. Theatre, in which dialogue with sound, gesture, and words are essential, then becomes an extraordinary tool for transforming monologue into dialogue. While some people make theatre, says Boal, “we all are theatre.”

From his work Boal evolved various forms of theatre workshops and performances which aimed to meet the needs of all people for interaction, dialogue, action, critical thinking, and fun. The performance modes of the Theatre of the Oppressed include Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, Cop-In-The-Head, Invisible Theatre, the vast array of the Rainbow of Desire, and the astonishing new form, Legislative Theatre.  All are designed to bring the audience into active relationship with the performance.  In turn, the workshops are virtually a training ground for action not only in these performance forms, but for action in life.