Theatre of the Oppressed

A silent revolution: 'Image Theatre' as a system of decolonisation

by J. Adam Perry

Published in Reserach in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance

This article summarises the ways in which Image Theatre, a practice originally developed by Augusto Boal which... more This article summarises the ways in which Image Theatre, a practice originally developed by Augusto Boal which continues to be developed in the hands of applied theatre practitioners and critical arts educators worldwide, can be used as a pedagogical and dramaturgical system of decolonisation at the level of communities and individuals. Through reference to two examples from my own work, I argue in this article that Image Theatre is a unique cultural practice that can be used to facilitate counter-discursive stories that are shaped by participants’ invitation to play in the space between aesthetic representation and social reality. In this way, Image Theatre may invoke an in-between space similar to the postcolonial concept of hybridity which offers educators a way of transforming and reinventing meaning as well as creating new strategies for decolonising practice.

The Bridge: Toward Relational Aesthetic Inquiry in the Montreal Life Stories Project

by Alan Wong

Sajnani, Nisha, Warren Linds, Lisa Ndejuru, Alan Wong, and members of the Living Histories Theatre Ensemble. “The Bridge: Towards Relational Aesthetic Inquiry in the Montreal Life Stories Project” in Canadian Theatre Review. 148.18 (2011): 18-24. Print.

This is the story of the Bridge, an original interactive theatre form that brings audiences and actors into a... more This is the story of the Bridge, an original interactive theatre form that brings audiences and actors into a dialogical relationship marked by the principle of ‘‘shared authority’’ (Frisch xx) and relational aesthetic inquiry (Springgay, Irwin, and Kind). This form emerged from the reflective practice of our troupe, the Living Histories Ensemble (LHE), a socially-engaged improvisational theatre collective exploring the intersections of oral history, performance, trauma, and emergent inquiry within a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded project titled Life Stories of Montrealers Displaced by War, Genocide, and Human Rights Violations.

Brecht’ten Bourdıeu’ya Otonom Tiyatroya Doğru: Habıtus/Gestus

by Hakan Altun

Encompassing structures with breaking them into pieces and
reconstructing as pseudo-structures in the center is... more Encompassing structures with breaking them into pieces and
reconstructing as pseudo-structures in the center is one of the most popular methods to absorb the power of radical structures. However centrifugal counter-cultural processes, which are produced at the edges, can allow re-radicalizing of pseudo-structures in a new form. Feminobrechtien dramaturgy that formed in England in 1970 is one of the examples; example of re-radicalization of brechtien dramaturgy which were harmless in the center. On the other hand, new formed dramaturgy is not identical with the original brechtien dramaturgy. The new agency that acquired can clarify with a new paradigm. This paradigmatic shift needs new concepts because brechtien concepts are not enough to explain femino-brechtien structure. Conceptualization of habitus from Pierre Bourdieu can be more suitable. And reading femino-brechtien dramaturgy with habitus could offer new expansions in theater.

Theatre of the Oppressed: Drama Therapy as Cultural Dialogue

by Nisha Sajnani

Published in Current Approaches to Drama Therapy (Johnson and Emunah, Eds.). 2009

Creating Safer Spaces for Immigrant Women of Colour: Performing the Politics of Possibility

by Nisha Sajnani

Published in Canadian Women's Studies. 2006