Forum Theater: Public Performance/Demonstrations 5/24-29

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The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)

--a member of The Institute for Popular Education at the Brecht Forum--

--founded in 1990--

451 West Street

New York, New York 10014

toplab@...

http://www.toplab.org

2010: The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory

celebrates its twentieth anniversary year!

The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) presents

Four Forum Theater Performance/Demonstrations

Monday, May 24, 2010 at 7:00 pm

Wednesday, May 26 at 7:00 pm

Thursday, May 27 at 7:00 pm

Saturday, May 29 at 7:00 pm

at the Brecht Forum

451 West Street*

New York City

* travel directions below

In conjunction with the Forum Theater workshops being facilitated by

n Boal during the week of May 24-29, 2010 the Theater of the

Oppressed Laboratory will present four performance/demonstrations of Forum

Theater. These events are open to the general public.

Forum Theater is one of the most well-known Theater of the Oppressed

technique. In Forum Theater, each workshop participant (the " actor " ) is

asked to tell a true story about an incident of oppression that happened

to her/him, and where her/his attempt to challenge and correct the

oppressive situation was ineffective. A skit presenting that problem is

then improvised and presented.

When the skit is over, the audience discusses the protagonist's attempt to

resolve the oppressive situation, and then the scene is performed once

more. But this time, audience members are urged to intervene by stopping

the action, coming on stage to replace an original actor, and enacting

their own ideas of how to correct the situation. Thus, instead of

remaining passive, the audience becomes active " spect-actors " who now

create alternative solutions and control the dramatic action. The aim of

the forum is not to find an ideal solution, but to invent new ways of

confronting oppression.

On Monday, May 24 and Thursday, May 27 (at 7:00 pm each evening)

Falconworks, a group based in Red Hook, Brooklyn which partnered with the

Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory to receive facilitation training in

Forum Theater will present a skit--a work in progress--exploring several

themes surrounding domestic abuse. This is a Forum Theater piece, and

audience members will have an opportunity to see how some Theater of the

Oppressed techniques have been applied by a group which has had extensive

training in this kind of work. Attendees at these events will have the

opportunity to be " spect-actors " in an already-developed Forum Theater

piece. More information about Falcolnworks can be found below.

On Wednesday, May 26 and Saturday, May 29 (also at 7:00 pm each evening)

the members of n Boal's workshop, under his direction, will present

performance/demonstrations of Forum Theater. As in integral to any Forum

Theater presentation, audience members will have the opportunity to become

spect-actors and directly intervene in the dramatic action.

Contribution--sliding scale: $6/$10/$15

Free to Brecht Forum subscribers

**

Other upcoming event:

Friday, June 11 through Sunday, June 13: Invisible Theater; facilitated by

Marie- Picher

(info at http://brechtforum.org/civicrm/event/info?id=11614 & reset=1)

==========================================================================

" We must emphasize: What Brecht does not want is that the spectators

continue to leave their brains with their hats upon entering the theater,

as do bourgeois spectators....I believe that all the truly revolutionary

theatrical groups should transfer to the people the means of production in

the theater so that the people themselves may utilize them. The theater is

a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it. " --Augusto Boal

(1931-2009), founder of the Theater of the Oppressed

==========================================================================

About the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB)

The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) was founded in 1990 and

is the oldest organization in the United States dedicated to and offering

ongoing training in the techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. Since

its inception, TOPLAB has presented annual (and sometimes twice yearly)

master workshops led by Augusto Boal, the founder of the Theater of the

Oppressed, as well as monthly TO workshops presented by our core group of

facilitators, all at the Brecht Forum. For the last several years n

Boal has co-facilitated the NYC workshops with his father and we are

honored to have him as a facilitator.

TOPLAB is a multiracial/multiethnic collective of ten women

facilitators/trainers, based mostly in New York, but also from Boston,

Toronto, Maine and Brazil, who are active as cultural workers, educators,

organizers and health care professionals, as well as theater artists, and

who have trained and worked extensively with Augusto Boal. While

recognizing that Theater of the Oppressed has many applications and social

functions the TOPLAB collective chooses to stay close to TO's political

roots and use the techniques and methods as organizing tools to affect

radical social change and help bring about social justice, peace and

empowerment of people who have historically been oppressed and

disempowered, and affected by prejudice and discrimination--people whose

voices have too often been silenced.

Since its founding, both TOPLAB as a unit and its members individually

have presented over a thousand workshops in New York and throughout North

America, as well as around the world, for community organizers, labor,

solidarity and human rights activists, health and human services

professionals, educators, and theater and cultural workers, among many

others. Working closely with the Brecht Forum, " a place and institution

for people who are working for social justice, equality and a new culture

that puts human needs first " the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory and

the Brecht Forum bring people together across social and cultural

boundaries and artistic and academic disciplines to promote critical

analysis, creative thinking, collaborative projects and networking in an

independent community-level environment.

In addition to facilitating training workshops, TOPLAB members have worked

in various street theater projects around the themes of globalization,

neoliberalism and international solidarity, and to protest United States

aggression in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, and its members and

associates are involved in a wide range of progressive and radical

political and cultural groups and movements.

TOPLAB can be contacted at toplab@... or .

**

About Falconworks:

Falconworks Artists Group's mission is to empower individuals and

communities through theater in order to effect social change. Founded in

1997 and incorporated in 2004, Falconworks achieves its aims through

theater workshops that cultivate participants' ability to tell their and

their communities' stories directly to diverse local audiences.

Falconworks focuses its activities in South Brooklyn, especially in Red

Hook, with programs based on the principles of popular education. These

principles include using a dialogical approach, participant driven

content, a cycle of action and reflection and the goal of transformation.

Falconworks is at http://www.falconworks.com/home.asp

*****

Travel Directions to the Brecht Forum and TOPLAB

We are at:

451 West Street *

(between Bank and Bethune Streets in the far West Village,

1-1/2 blocks north of West 11 Street)

New York City

* Note: West Street is the same as the West Side Highway

Subway

IND Eighth Avenue A, C, or E to 14 Street or BMT Canarsie L to Eighth

Avenue (take a few minutes to look at " Life Underground " , Tom Otterness'

series of whimsical bronze sculptures scattered throughout both sections

of the station). Walk down Eighth Avenue (against the traffic) to

Bank Street (at Abingdon Square). Turn right on Bank and walk west to

West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.

IRT Seventh Avenue 1, 2, or 3 trains to 14 Street. Exit at the south (12

Street) end of the station. Walk a short block west, across 12 Street,

to Greenwich Avenue. Turn left and walk one block to Bank

Street. Turn right, walk west on Bank Street to Abingdon Square. Bank

Street continues on the other side of the park; keep walking on Bank

Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.

New Jersey PATH train to Street. Walk north (with the

traffic) on Greenwich Street to Bank Street. Turn left, walk west on

Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.

(From Penn Station or Port Authority Bus Terminal: take the IND Eighth

Avenue A, C or E trains downtown to 14 Street and follow the directions

above. From Grand Central Station: take the IRT Lexington Avenue 4, 5 or

6 trains downtown to 14 Street/Union Square and then change to the BMT

Canarsie L train heading toward Eighth Avenue. Follow the directions

above.)

Bus

#8 (Ninth/ Streets crosstown) to and West

Streets, walk up West Street to 451.

#11 (Ninth and Tenth Avenues): From uptown--to Abingdon Square (at

Bethune Street). Walk one short block to Bank Street, go west (right) on

Bank to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451. No service

from downtown--Abingdon Square is the terminal stop.

#14A (Grand/Essex Streets/Avenue A/Fourteenth Street crosstown) to

Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street). Walk one short block to Bank

Street, go west (right) on Bank to West Street. Turn right, walk a

quarter-block to 451.

#20 (Seventh Avenue and Hudson Street/Eighth Avenue): From downtown--to

Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street) Walk one short block to Bank Street,

go west (right) on Bank to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block

to 451. From uptown--to 12 Street (near St. Hospital). Walk a

short block west, across 12 Street, to Greenwich Avenue. Turn left and

walk one block to Bank Street. Turn right, walk west on Bank Street to

Abingdon Square. Bank Street continues on the other side of the park;

keep walking on Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a

quarter-block to 451.

Car

Drive west on 11 Street all the way to West Street (West Side Highway).

Turn right for one block, to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets.

Along the West Side Highway: From downtown--stay to the right and follow

the Highway to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets. From uptown: Take

the Highway to son Street (exit left), make a U-turn at son

and proceed back up the Highway to 451, between Bank and Bethune

Streets.

Note that there is no legal parking on many parts of West Street before

6:00 pm, and parking on the surrounding streets is scarce. Fines for

illegal parking are a minimum of $115, and your car could be towed.

Retrieval can cost you as much as $300. Fees at parking lots and garages

can run as high as $40 a day. WE URGE YOU TO USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.