Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politics (Augusto Boal)

Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politics (Augusto Boal)

by Augusto Boal (Author), Augusto Boal (Author)

Synopsis

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.

$71.97

Quantity

20+ in stock

More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 272
Edition: 1
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 01 Oct 1998

ISBN 10: 0415182417
ISBN 13: 9780415182416

Media Reviews
You have achieved what Brecht only dreamt of and wrote about: making a useful theatre that is entertaining, fun and instructive. It is a different kind of theatre -- a kind of social therapy... it focuses the mind, relaxes the spirit, and gives people a new handle on their situations..
-Richard Schechner on Boal