Theater Of The Oppressed Announces Training Workshop

In a joint international partnership, Brooklyn Acting Lab will host the Center of the Theatre of the Oppressed from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for a 4-Day intensive training workshop.

The Center of the Theatre of the Oppressed (CTO), created in 1986 in the neighborhood of Lapa in the city of Rio de Janeiro, is the only institution that has had the artistic direction of Augusto Boal, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed. CTO is the only institution in the world for the development and dissemination of the methodology in laboratories, seminars, workshops, national and international exchange and other events, allowing that Jokers (educators of the Theatre of the Oppressed) continue the construction, research and multiplication of this methodology in Brazil and throughout the world.

For artists, activists, students, educators, and community action leaders!

Workshop at Glance

• August 27-30th
• 10am - 6pm
• Gallim Dance 520 Clinton Ave, Brooklyn, NY

• Train with Geo Britto, the most experienced Joker from CTO in Rio de Janeiro and one of the first generation of students who trained with Augusto Boal when he returned to Brazil.

• The workshop will cover TO Exercises, the Theory, and Dramaturgy of Forum Theatre, including culminating in a Forum performance.

Registration Details

• Workshop Tuition Fee is $300
• Fill out registration at www.brooklynactinglab.org
• Deposit of $50 when you register, email rebecca@brooklynactinglab.org for more information
• The remaining $250.00 must be paid by August 8th
• Payments will be made directly to Brooklyn Acting Lab via Paypal.com
• Detailed schedule to be emailed out closer to the date

Note from Geo Britto, Joker and Member of Collegiate of CTO-Rio

The philosophy and actions of the Center of the Theatre of the Oppressed (CTO) seeks to democratize the means of cultural production as a way for intellectual expansion of its participants, and the spread of Theatre of the Oppressed as a means of activating and strengthening of democratic citizenship. CTO implements projects that foster the active participation of protagonists from the oppressed layers of society and aims to transform reality through dialogue and aesthetic means.

The Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) is a ludic and educational methodology and an effective communicative means for seeking practical alternatives to overcome real problems through aesthetic means. The methodology is based on the interaction of communities and participants, resulting in the search for effective solutions for overcoming injustices and social transformation. So, the concept of social technology fits for this practice. The methodology creates the conditions for the oppressed to take ownership of the means of theatrical production and expand their possibilities of expression. It also proposes to beat the barriers between stage and audience, in order to establish an active, democratic and purposeful dialogue in order to seek for alternatives for conflict resolution. In this pedagogical purpose, conflicts must be disclosed aesthetically, so that their implications are clearly understood, and the concrete means to overcome them are found.

The training of Theatre of the Oppressed and its multipliers developed by the institution is unprecedented and revolutionary, which attracts the interest of students and practitioners around the world. And to meet this demand, the CTO has an International Exchange Program that caters to different cultures and languages, training students and practitioners in international method.

Since 1996 CTO has received and made workshops in various countries: (America) Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, United States, Canada, (Africa), Mozambique, Morocco, Egypt, Cameroon, South Africa, (Europe) Germany, France, Spain, Norway, England, Italy, Denmark, Greece, Portugal, Belgium, Switzerland, (Asia) India, Palestine, Afghanistan, Japan and Nepal; (Oceania) Australia.

The training process is based on the Aesthetics of the Oppressed, which is based on the belief that not only are we all better than what we are supposed to be, but also, we are capable of doing more things than what we actually do. For this purpose, we use aesthetic means - that provide the discovery of productive and creative possibilities, stimulating the ability to represent reality producing Word, Sound and Image to promote artistic synesthesia that stimulates all: self-knowledge, self-esteem and self-confidence, and purposeful dialogue for the transformation of social reality.