AtticRep Travels to Sister City in India

AtticRep is travelling to India on June 30th to collaborate with our sister city in Chennai, India on a Forum Theatre Project based on the work of Brazilian theatre artist Augusto Boal, founder of Theatre of the Oppressed. Chennai is one of eight sister cities established through San Antonio's Economic Development Foundation that bridge cultural gaps and ignite international economic development in the arts, education, business development, sports, leadership, research, technology, etc.

AtticRep's journey, chronicled through an article or series of stories, is an exciting story for San Antonio audiences. Your readers (and listeners) are invited to join us on our journey this July.

Part of our mission to inspire dialogue that informs and provokes change, AtticRep has presented the Forum Theatre Project, based on the work of Augusto Boal and his "theatre of the oppressed." Boal believed that theatre had a powerful effect on social change. He structured forum theatre to break down the wall between actors on stage and the audience, who he called "spect-actors". Using a loose structure in which a character is being oppressed, the audience is invited to stop the action and take over the role of the actor. Each "spect-actor" has the power to stop the oppression and change the outcome. The more "spect-actors" who get involved; the greater their ability to effect the outcome. Forum theatre is a powerful theatrical tool to encourage the average citizen to get involved in eliciting social change. AtticRep has presented Forum Theatre projects on homelessness, marriage equality, immigration, and (with an altered formula in 2012), Breast Cancer.

Roberto Prestigiacomo (Producing Artistic Director) and Rick Frederick (Managing Director) leave San Antonio for Chennai, India on June 30th. Fourteen theatre artists from the Chennai theatre company Crea Shakthi will begin attending workshops with AtticRep to prepare for the forum theatre piece. These artists will then conduct interviews in their community on the topic they have selected: Skin Tone. In India, fair skin is considered more attractive; people with fair skin are revered while people with darker skin often feel discriminated against. This topic will be explored by AtticRep and the theatre artists of Crea-Shakthai over several weeks. A storyline will be developed based on the interviews and workshops. Finally, the piece will be performed at Spaces for an audience from the local community.

"Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it." -Augusto Boal

AtticRep was founded in September 2005 by theatre artists with ties to Trinity University. Using the University's Attic Theater as their artistic home, Roberto Prestigiacomo, Bethany Prestigiacomo, Kristin Crouch, and Andrew Hansen laid the groundwork for a theatre company which would explore thought provoking issues, present plays of artistic and intellectual note, and demonstrate a high level of artistry.

The first production, "One for the Road," was presented in May 2006 for three sold-out performances. The first full season was launched in the Fall of 2006. After a season of sell-out performances, and a grant from the Ford Foundation's Difficult Dialogue Initiative, AtticRep received the honor of Critic's Choice for "Best Theater Event of 2007" from the San Antonio Current.

The second season (2007-2008) presented the San Antonio premieres of four recent works as well as the first presentation of AtticRep's Forum Theater Project 2008: "Facing San Antonio's Homeless."

In 2008, AtticRep was selected to present its premiere production of "One for the Road" at the Capital Fringe Festival in Washington DC July 24-28, 2008. In the seasons that followed, AtticRep continued its commitment to provoke dialogue in its community with plays such as The Goat or Who is Sylvia, Blackbird, True West, Lincolnesque, Lydia, and Forum Theatre Projects on Immigration, Gay Rights, and Breast Cancer issues respectively.

Now, in 2014, AtticRep has been invited to be the resident theatre company at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts, with a season that revisits some of our most popular productions including THE GOD OF CARNAGE by Jasmina Reza, WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF? Written by Edward Albee, TRUE WEST Written by Sam Shepard, THE IRISH CURSE, A Comedy about guys with a tiny problem by Martin Casella, and FROM THE MAHABHARATA composed by the Maharishi Vyasan. The Inaugural production of the InternationalTheatre Festival of San Antonio produced by AtticRep.

Please don't hesitate to contact us for more information or visit the website at www.atticrep.org.

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