Join Julian Boal for an exciting Pre-Conference Workshop!

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Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed is excited to invite you to attend Julian Boal’s pre-conference workshop

The Dramaturgy of Forum Theatre: Exploring New Possibilities!

June 9, 10, 11, 2015
11 am to 7 pm (with food breaks)
Goodman Theatre (near the conference site)
170 N. Dearborn Street, Chicago, IL 60601

Cost: $200 USD

This dynamic, practical theatre workshop welcomes everyone from beginners to longtime facilitators. The workshop asks: How do you frame a question in Forum Theatre? In other words, participants will try out ways to approach Forum Theatre dramaturgy. Forum Theatre plays are questions addressed to audiences. We–the facilitators or jokers–don’t have the right to answer those questions, but we have a responsibility to help frame them. Not all questions are equally useful, ethical, or responsible in Forum Theatre. For example, to ask what a specific woman can do at the very moment she is under the threat of being beaten up by her husband reinforces the dangerous idea that she is personally responsible for that violence–or for stopping it herself. For a play to ask that question puts the burden on the individual without examining larger systems, and often without attention to the complexity of a situation: “She should leave her husband.” “She should cool him down.” “She should fight back.” A woman has the right to make any choice to stop the violence, but for a play to stress the possibility of choosing without questioning the concrete options we do (or don’t) have in a situation is to fall under the Nike ideology: “Just do it!” Participants will gain practical experience with a variety of Theatre of the Oppressed techniques and will share Forum Theatre scenes at the opening of the 21st Annual PTO Conference on the night of Thursday, June 11, 2015.

Julian Boal  is a founding member of Ambata, GTO-Paris (Theatre of the Oppressed Group–Paris), and Féminisme Enjeux. He has realized workshops and projects in more than 20 countries, and he helped in the realization of TO festivals in India with Jana Sanskriti, in Europe with Pa’tothom, and in South America with CTO-Rio. Julian is the author of Images of a Popular Theatre (Imagens de um Teatro Popular, Hucitec, 2000), co-editor of Theatre of the Oppressed in Actions (Routledge, 2015), and is working for a PhD in Brazil.

Registration is now open! Space is limited, so register soon!

In addition, a small amount of housing is available for pre-conference participants. Be sure to register as soon as possible to guarantee your space!

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