ABSTRACT
Theatre is active. While a great deal of knowledge can be transmitted through writing, this writing should never substitute for a connection to active theatre. With realism still being the dominant mode of acting in popular Western theatre, it is difficult to imagine the rich language that can emerge from a series of developed, prescribed gestures. It is easy to imagine these gestures as hollow repetitions rather than as meaningful interpretations. Different types of theatre acts as resistance in different ways. Augusto Boal's theatre of the oppressed is a particularly active, visceral version of theatre as structural resistance. Several of the theorists anthologized in this volume insist on the necessity of collaborative development of a piece. While Western models often have a director working from a preset script, this model of theatre is by no means the only one. The need for collaboration is particularly evident in ritual work like Werewere Liking's early plays.
