Changing places

Abstract

This research focuses on the role of place in Invisible Theatre performances. Invisible Theatre is a subset of Theatre of the Oppressed developed by Augusto Boal in the early 1970s, while he was living in exile in Argentina. Wanting to continue political performances but living under a repressive regime, he and his companions began performing scenes in public places without anyone realizing that a performance was occurring. The scenes address pertinent social issues with the aim of creating dialogue. My research questions how the same Invisible Theatre performance changes when performed in different places. To begin this research I attended the Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference, and reviewed a variety of texts, including Theatre of the Oppressed, Games for Actors and Non-Actors, and Boal’s auto-biography Hamlet and the Baker’s Son. I have continued my research by forming a troupe, who have spent the year developing and performing Invisible Theatre scenes. The culmination of the research is a scene addressing domestic violence. This is performed in a variety of places, such as a large corporate shopping center, a small, locally-owned store, and a college campus. Qualitative data are collected through troupe members’ journals and recordings of the troupe’s post-performance discussions, in which members are asked to address specific questions, such as, “How did you alter your performance to adapt to the environment? What types of technology were present? Did these hinder your attempts to involve audience members?” This research will contribute greatly as there is little research done on this fascinating topic.