ABSTRACT
In Latin America, documentary dramaturgy has been an important aspect of the dramatic arts, especially beginning with Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal’s Teatro Jornal (Newspaper theatre) in 1971. The purpose of Teatro Jornal was, in Boal’s words, “to demystify the supposed ‘objectivity’ of journalism: Teatro Jornal demonstrates that a news piece published in a newspaper is a work of fiction. … In this case, the newspaper is fiction, newspaper-theatre is reality.” 1 Boal’s other stated objectives with Teatro Jornal were to popularize theatre as well as to show that theatre can be practiced by non-actors. A later manifestation of Boal’s philosophy, Teatro do Oprimido (Theatre of the oppressed), put actors and audiences into everyday situations, allowed audience members to participate and influence the outcomes of the staged scenes, and had as its intention the effect of real change through the practice of revolutionary art. As we will see, this socially driven vision of reality in the theatre will continue to affect documentary drama and theatre of the real up to the present day.
