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***CHANGE OF LOCATION***

The 16th Annual Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Conference

"Flex and Flexibility:
When to bend? When to stretch? When to engage?"

Austin, Texas, June 3-6, 2010
(with pre and post-conference workshops TBA)

Hosted by:

University of Texas at Austin Department of Theatre and Dance and the PTO Austin 2010 Organizing Committee

As many of you know, the 2010 PTO conference was originally to be held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Due to recent events, the PTO Board has decided not to proceed with a conference in Toronto. Several factors shaped that decision, and we hope that you will feel free to ask board members about this development-over email or in person at this year's conference, which will now be held in Austin, Texas (see the Call for Proposals). We especially invite you to email PTO President Alexander Santiago-Jirau with any questions you might have about this year's change of plan.

In summary, despite much hard work by many members of the Toronto group and the PTO Board, the PTO board believes that a collaboration between the Toronto Steering Committee and PTO is not possible at this time. The local planners and the PTO Board hold contradictory opinions on many issues, including (but not limited to): timetables for conference planning, logistics for conference registration, how to define fiscal responsibility, and the degree to which PTO should preserve some of its core conference features. Though we all definitely share the desire to promote critical thinking and social justice, several members of the Toronto group and the PTO Board disagree about how to go about realizing that mission in the form of a conference. We feared that we would not be able to reconcile enough of those disagreements in time for us to offer a conference that honors our responsibility as stewards of the PTO membership's resources.

We wish the Toronto group well, thank them for the labor many of the Steering Committee members contributed, and will update you on this website if we receive information about any conferences they might hold in the near future. We hope you will continue to be interested in the dynamic work in interactive arts and education in Toronto.

Many of us-and many of you-had been excited about 2010 because of its status as the first year for a PTO conference outside the United States. We continue to be hopeful about the possibility of holding PTO outside the U.S. in the future.

We hope you will plan to join us for the Austin conference, and that you will embrace Austin's exciting potential, just as so many of you embraced Toronto's potential as a conference location. We are grateful that the University of Texas at Austin and the PTO Austin 2010 Organizing Committee have the capacity to welcome us this year-and on somewhat short notice. Come join us in a town known for live music, sunshine, and an eclectic assembly of artists, educators, organizers, and activists!

The Power of Showing Up
Summer 2009
Voices-A Publication of the Commission for Social Justice Educators

"Mad as hell": International Theater of the Oppressed conference in Minneapolis
May 31, 2009
Twin Cities Daily Planet

Education for Liberation
May 25, 2009
Need Magazine

Augusto Boal Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
November 29, 2007
International Theatre of the Oppressed Organisation

Augusto Boal Prince Claus Award Laureate
October 11, 2007
International Theatre of the Oppressed Organisation