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Theater audience members aren’t just spectators anymore — they’re “spec-actors” who participate in the outcome of the performance.
UNM senior Jessica Munoz will stage a Theatre of the Oppressed workshop this weekend as part of her application for the Fulbright U.S. Student Grant for creative and performing arts.
Though the Theatre of the Oppressed comes in many formats, the most common one and the one Munoz uses is Forum Theatre. In Forum Theatre, a handful of loosely scripted scenes depicting any instance of oppression are staged. Scenes depicting violence against women, sexism, racism, homophobia and oppression in the workplace will be included in Munoz’s workshop.
After the audience sees the scenes once, they’re performed again — but this time the spectators become “spec-actors,” who are allowed and encouraged to stop a scene at any point, jump in and offer a potential solution to the conflict.
“The goal is to move past oppression; not to end it, but to grow from it, work through it and hopefully prevent it,” Munoz said.
The workshop isn’t just a way to get a grant for Munoz; she said Albuquerque needs to experience this little-known form of theater.
“(Here in Albuquerque) we have a high rate of domestic violence and homophobia, and our liberal community doesn’t always get along … so many different cultures here are struggling,” Munoz said. “I want to expose Albuquerque to what the Theatre of the Oppressed is.”
The Theatre of the Oppressed was started by Brazilian director Augusto Boal in the ‘60s as a means of using theater to generate social change. Since then, it has spread across the world.
Munoz has participated in several workshops and conferences on the method, and saw it in action in a small town outside Guadalajara, Mexico, where she lived for five months. But she first encountered the method at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. There she met Doug Paterson, a theater professor and civil rights activist who founded an annual conference on the Theatre of the Oppressed in 1995.
“At first people want to reach for the impossible and create an ability to stop the oppression that’s unrealistic,” Munoz said.
But she said that once the group moves past the impossible, the focus shifts.
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“(It) opens up a dialogue in the community of ‘How do we stop this oppression day-to-day? If this is happening, what would I do?’” she said. “There are no right or wrong answers. But there are no magic solutions, either.”
Theater major Francesca Tharpe said the technique seems to be a powerful tool.
“It just shows that theater can still be influential, even though our society tends to pay more attention to reality TV and superhero movies.”
Munoz wants to use the Fulbright student grant to bring Theatre of the Oppressed to Colombia to help communities with large populations of internally displaced women. She said the majority of these women are victims of sexual violence and abuse.
Munoz’s odds of getting the grant are slim. Even if she succeeds with her initial application, she says she’ll only have a 6 percent chance of receiving it. But even if she doesn’t get the grant, she plans on starting her own Theatre of the Oppressed troupe, and perhaps working with different schools and organizations in New Mexico.
“The mindset is ‘just do it,’” she said. “It’s a good formula. You can’t learn unless you act.”
Theatre of the Oppressed workshop
Directed by Jessica Munoz
University Honors Forum (under SHAC)
Saturday 1-7 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-6 p.m.
Interested participants should contact jnortham@unm.edu
Performance
Attendance at the workshop not required
Sunday 6 p.m.
