Theatre of The Oppressed: P1

Have you ever had a thought that just turned your concept of something completely upside down. I do lean towards a Brechtian purpose, when it comes to theatre, but this ideology shakes the very foundation that theatre is based on. He starts at the beginning, with Aristotle’s thoughts on theatre, and clobbers their entire rationale for implementing the medium of theatre in their society.

Of course it was there to maintain the ideals of the age, keeping the peace by letting them get their negative emotions out in the house of the theatre.  but i never thought that this could be oppressive.

Maybe it’s because i have yet to experience true oppression. I mean the closest thing I have ever felt to that is being a girl at a Church of Christ High School, but that is nothing compared to the Latin American countries who live every day in wastelands of filth, danger, and uncertainty. 

He invites the audience to take part, have their say in what happens on stage, it is ” a rehearsal for revolution and change”. Up until two days ago, i never even considered asking for other options with a script, and of course, TOTO scripts are largely written by the participants themselves. But our western ideas creates such a hierarchy, stratified to allow individual ownership in every aspect of theatre. As collaborative as we claim to be, we still want our personal pat on the back. that’s beside the point, this book has been so enlightening, because it is one of the rare point of view that is out of mainstream western thought, therefore, it sees us in a completely different lens. 

They see our way of life in comparison to theirs, and it is a very different reality.

even though i love Brecht, it is still a “safe” theatre. when i read one of his plays, my mind is startled with his Marxist ideas, comments on the social condition, but i never go out and do anything about it. Do you? TOTO takes the theatre’s purpose to teach and transform to something nearly tangible. I think the next step for them would be actually signing laws as a theatre troupe (and then that would turn the produciton into a real ritual). It’s almost too close to reality, is it art? It is expression, but it’s something different than European -Rococo- put me to sleep – Debussy feelings that come from a great portrait of kittens. 

I know I will use his games in rehearsals, I’m a big fan of games to allow the opening of creativity and play with a cast. I’ll finish the book tomorrow… or later today…. 21 days…

-the sleepy dashibbs

 

P.S. – Coke Zero…. oh excuse me, “CocaCola” Zero… very interesting, but i will stay with my diet coke, it has been good to me.