LIBERATING OUR POTENTIAL THROUGH

THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED

MARCOS ARRUDA PACS – Institute of Alternative Policies

UNIPAZ – International University for Peace

CIT – International College of Therapists

PLENITUDE FARM, Integral Ecovillage

Pierce College

Lakewood, Washington

January 25, 2017

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AUGUSTO BOAL: THEATER OF THE

OPPRESSED

PAULO FREIRE: EDUCATION OF THE

OPPRESSED

AUGUSTO BOAL PAULO FREIRE

What they have in common

“The Way” does not exist, it is one’s challenge to open one’s own way – individual-community-people TRUST people’s propensity for goodness/happiness FREEDOM – SELF-DEVELOPMENT - SOLIDARITY

THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED

•WHO: Augusto Boal and his team

•WHEN: 1960s -- present

•WHERE: Brazil And beyond!

•WHAT FOR:

To overcome OPPRESSION

- in Brazil

- in people’s lives anywhere

OPPRESSION =

LACK OF FREEDOM: - TO BE a person, community, people - TO HAVE ENOUGH for a decent life - TO DEVELOP ONE’S OWN POTENTIALS

WORLD VIEW BEHIND T.O. & E.O.: SEEING LIFE AS A WHOLE

CHIEF SEATTLE, in a letter to

President Franklin Pierce: “This we know: the Earth does not belong to man, man belongs to the Earth. ALL THINGS ARE CONNECTED like the blood that unites us all. Man did not weave the WEB OF LIFE, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself.”

*COOPERATE instead of SEPARATE COMPETE

*HARMONY WITH MOTHER

EARTH

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WHO AM I: THE ECO-SOCIAL INDIVIDUAL

HUMANS ARE:

– RELATIONSHIP

– NATURAL AND TRANSCENDENTAL

– COMPLEX – EVOLUTIONARY – LOVING

“WE, humans, are animals that depend on LOVE. This becomes evident in the fact that we get ill when deprived of love, at any age.”

Humberto Maturana, biólogo chileno

Reading: “THE ORIGIN OF HUMANNESS IN THE BIOLOGY OF LOVE”, By Humberto Maturana Romesin and Gerda Verden-Zoller, Munchen/Basel 1996.

• TO ONESELF

• TO NATURE

• TO SOCIETY-HUMANKIND

• TO EACH OTHER

WHO ARE WE?

• LOVE = welcoming the other as authentic Other in

communication/communion/empathy

• LIFE AS THE GREATEST GOOD

- DEVELOPMENT OF OUR POTENTIALS = moving ends of our evolution

- GOOD LIVING and HAPPINESS = enabling environment for social and human development

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UNITY OF DIVERSITY

INDIVIDUAL COLLECTIVE

OVERCOMING OPPRESSION:

• OVERCOMING OPPRESSION:

FULFILLING RIGHTS AS MEANS TO DEVELOP:

– “I” (INDIVIDUALS) – life, work, community, free time, freedom, respect, dignity, beauty, peace, friendship, LOVE

– “WE” (SOCIAL BEINGS) – water and food, health, dwelling, healthy environment, ownership of the means to produce and reproduce life

– NATURE – also a subject of rights (Constitutions of Bolivia and Ecuador – United Nations)

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UNITY OF DIVERSITY

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BOAL: THEATER AS A WEAPON FREIRE: EDUCATION AS A TOOL

1. OF OPPRESSION: do not think, do not act, depend, submit

2. OF LIBERATION: think critically, develop attitudes: self-reliance, solidarity

3. POWER TO SELF-MANAGE OUR LIVES: – THE BODY: self-knowledge, self-expression, self-

esteem, integral health

– FAMILY, COMMUNITY: self- and co-manage integral development

– NATION, THE PLANET: national and planetary citizenship

DEVELOPMENT AS

REALIZATION OF OUR POTENTIAL POLITICS

= Not only to contemplate the world and oneself, but to transform by means of action

. Daily life, city, country < SELF-RELIANCE

. Social animals: individual and collective responsibilities and rights > freedoms, good living, happiness, love

. POWER, vigor, force to act

DEMOCRACY

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• FREEDOM • COMMON GOOD

• REPRESENTATIVE • DIRECT

DEVELOPMENT AS REALIZATION OF OUR

POTENCIALS

SPECIFIC GOODS:

Esthetic pleasure, ethics, food, drink, friendship

SUPREME GOOD:

•BOAL: POLITICS – HAPPINESS = TO BE FREE

•MATURANA, CHARDIN: LOVE

ACT OF LOVING = WELCOMING the other

as authentic Other in communication/communion/empathy

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FROM NEEDS &DEBTS

TO DEVELOP MY/OUR

POTENTIALS

LEGISLATIVE THEATER

IMAGE THEATER

INVISIBLE THEATER

NEWSPAPER THEATER

FORUM THEATER Prisoners talk about oppression “I was nobody. Now I feel I’m someone!”