Theatre Practitioners: Augusto Boal

Theatre Practitioner 4:
Augusto Boal
Born: 16 March 1931, Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Died: 2 May 2009, Rio de Janiero, Brazil
Influenced By: Brecht, Exploitation & Change

He was raised in Brazil, but actually attended Columbia University in the late 1940's for a chemical engineering degree which he completed right before he was asked to return to Brazil to work with he Arena Theatre in Sao Paulo.
His works at the Arena Theatre led to his experimentation with new forms of theatre that he was introduced to (such as Brecht and Stanislavski) and these practices became the Theatre of the Oppressed (1971).

The reason he was exiled was because his works drew attention as a cultural activist as the military coups in Brazil during the 1960's looked upon all such activity as a threat. Therefore the Theatre of the Oppressed was birthed to use theatre as a tool for social change. This explorative technique was a strategy for the audience to be more than just spectators and stop the performance in order to share ideas for an improvised practical way to provide a fresh insight into the performance. This, in the modern days, is now known as Marking the Moment, as this a way of highlighting the most important moment in a scene in order to draw the audience's attention to its significance. The many ways of marking the moment are:

• Still Image 
• Freezing the action at a particular moment that fixes it in the minds of the audience and ensures its significance is not lost
• Key Moment 
• May be repeated or played 'on a loop'
• Slow Motion
• Used to highlight a key moment, so that it is not lost on an audience & draws attention to the moment
• Narration or Thought-Track 
• Could be added as a commentary on what has just occurred
• Lighting and Sound 
• A spotlight can be used to direct the audience's focus towards the key moment and a sound effect can also draw attention to it 

Application
This script wouldn't involve the improvisation and the opportunities for spect-actors to influence the action, however it would be an example of a possible base script, where the real actors learn this and this is somewhat of an issue in society. It would depict something ethical and show oppression within a system.