Ramantics 08.

Circle of Life.

• cultural integration-- Baba Yetu was an African song performed in honor of the children in Ghana. A large portion of proceeds of Ramantics was sent to the YouthAlive: Ghana project to aid underprivileged children


• decades/generations-- not sure if this was intentional, but there definitely seemed to be a generational themes.

--Officer Krupke-- 1920s and 30s
--Radio-- 1980s
--Money Makes the World.../Sub Sub-- Victorian Era?

(This relates to the circle of life because it refers to the passing of time/ circles of history.)

Technical notes:

• lighting on Duel of Passions-- lights should have stayed off, just showing silhouettes, no gobos, liked the dark red gel


• griots descending from balcony-- beautiful/creative effect, should have been more graceful/ thinner ropes if possible (blocked view of stage)

Tree of the Theatre of the Oppressed

Original goals of the Theatre of the Oppressed:

• Newspaper theatre-- dealing with local problems


• Forum theatre-- part of a literacy program


• Invisible theatre-- political activity


• Image theatre-- establishing dialogue


• Rainbow of Desire-- understanding psychological problems


• Legislative theatre-- transforming Desire into Law

Boal discovered that these forms can be used around the world because theatre is simply "human language." Theatre of the Oppressed is a balance between Discipline and Freedom in the Game of Dialogue.

"Without discipline, there is no social life; without freedom, there is no life."

Boal Games

Feeling What We Touch

-general exercises
-walks
-massages
-integration games (violence)
-gravity


Listening to What We Hear

-rhythm
-melody
-sounds&noises
-rhythm of respiration
-internal rhythm

Rainbow of Desire

The Rainbow of Desire-- The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy, by Augusto Boal (1995)


Thatre is an observation of human life. We see what we are, what we are not, and what we could be-- and because of this, theatre is the thing from which all other inventions and ideas and realities stem.


"Therein resides the essence of tehatre: in the human being OBSERVING ITSELF."

• The observing- I, I-in-situ, and the not-I through an imaginary mirror
• See yourself seeing, feel yourself feeling, think your thinking (capacity for this self-knowledge is "theatricality")
• As an actor, you learn to guide yourself, see yourself, ACT on yourself.
• Part of "seeing yourself" is discovering varieties, discovering alternatives, imitating other people/actions/animals. Only with acute self-awarness can you do that.
• DICHOTOMY-- seeing itself seeing.

~the being becomes human when it invents theatre~

• fill the space between "I am" to "I can be", the space between what is, but does not exist
• theatre is the true nature of humanity
• at first, actor and spectactor were originally the same beings, they are now separated.

Introduction to Boal

"We are all theatre, even if we don't make theatre."

We practice things, we learn things in theatre that teach us about real life. Shouldnt we all have that opportunity?

"Create first in theatre, in fiction, so we may be better prepared to create it outside afterwards."




As actors, we learn how to act, we demonstrate it, we teach others. Just as magicians teach people their tricks.
This is the philosophy of Augusto Boal. Everyone is an actor. Everyone can learn. Everyone can create theatre.

Be theatre.

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