ABSTRACT
Augusto Boal's reputation is now moving beyond the realms of theatre and drama therapy, bringing him to the attention of a wider public. Legislative Theatre is the latest and most remarkable stage in his work. 'Legislative Theatre' is an attempt to use Boal's method of 'Forum Theatre' within a political system to create a truer form of democracy. It is an extraordinary experiment in the potential of theatre to affect social change.
At the heart of his method of Forum Theatre is the dual meaning of the verb 'to act': to perform and to take action. Forum Theatre invites members of the audience to take the stage and decide the outcome, becoming an integral part of the performance. As a politician in his native Rio de Janeiro, Boal used Forum Theatre to motivate the local populace in generating relevant legislation. In Legislative Theatre Boal creates new, theatrical, and truly revolutionary ways of involving everyone in the democratic process.
This book includes:
* a full explanation of the genesis and principles of Legislative Theatre
* a description of the process in operation in Rio
* Boal's essays, speeches and lectures on popular theatre, Paolo Freire, cultural activism, the point of playwrighting, and much else besides.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |122 pages
The Legislative Theatre Book
chapter |3 pages
Prologue: Monologue and dialogue
chapter |14 pages
4 The structure
chapter |33 pages
5 A compact course on playwriting and theatre arts
chapter |16 pages
6 The show and the community
part |85 pages
The ‘No-one Here is an Ass!' Book
chapter |1 pages
Prologue ‘No-one here is an ass!'
chapter |4 pages
1 Paulo Freire, my last father
chapter |3 pages
2 Clementina's turn
chapter |3 pages
3 Saudades 1 for the chicken thieves of yesteryear
chapter |4 pages
5 The Devil as muse of inspiration
chapter |4 pages
7 Memory and the torture chamber
chapter |2 pages
8 One hideous crime hides the hideousness of another
chapter |4 pages
9 The Devil and the canny man
chapter |5 pages
10 ‘Human rights' are human
chapter |4 pages
12 The suicide of the wind
chapter |6 pages
13 The laws of the market, the law of the lion
chapter |8 pages
14 The show of the dream and the dream as show
part |38 pages
Categories of Popular Theatre
chapter |2 pages
Prologue
chapter |9 pages
1 The first category of popular theatre By the people and for the people
chapter |5 pages
2 The second category of popular theatre
chapter |7 pages
3 The third category of popular theatre
part |8 pages
Afterword: The Metamorphoses of the Devil