Pandemic, theatre and performance: Democratizing the subalterns through the Theatre of the Oppressed | Intellect Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Applied Theatre Research
  4. Volume 11, Issue 2
  5. Article
Volume 11, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2049-3010
  • E-ISSN: 2049-3029

Abstract

The presented work analyses Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) methods impacting the pandemic. It follows the WHO timeline, when the COVID-19 pandemic had cast a dark shadow, making sustenance difficult for the marginalized section of Indian society. TO methods, though reflected, adapted and accommodated exhaustively in Indian applied theatre over the last four decades, offered a fresh, collective, democratic space during the pandemic. Forum theatre (FT) and legislative theatre (LT) praxis rendered a platform for activism, awareness and emancipation of the ‘subalterns’ during the pandemic. Thus, TO renewed psycho-social dialogue and critical, creative, experimental space during this time. The applicability of such methods facilitating social change is gauged using Boal’s ‘spect-actorship’ and Freire’s ‘conscientization’. The article looks forward to the TO signposts to serve as nodal points for further scholarly discussion and study on democratizing the disenfranchised population through FT and LT during the pandemic.

© 2023 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/atr_00083_1
2023-12-27
2024-05-03
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bhattacharya, N., Dasgupta, A., Maity, S., Sinha, M., Dey, P., Mistri, P. and Bhattacharya, R. (2022), ‘In search of better life: A pioneer venture to use forum theatre as virtual medium’, Asian Journal of Sociological Research, 7:2, https://globalpresshub.com/index.php/AJSR/article/view/1729/1490. Accessed 2 November 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Boal, A. (2005), Legislative Theatre: Using Performance to Make Politics, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Boal, A. (2006), Aesthetics of the Oppressed, London: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Boal, A. (2019), Theatre of the Oppressed, New York: Pluto Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Centre for Community Dialogue and Change (2023), ‘Online Theatre of the Oppressed: Centre for Community Dialogue and Change’, http://www.ccdc.in/online-theatre-of-the-oppressed. Accessed 15 March 2023.
  6. Dumont, L. (1981), Homo Hierarchicus: Caste System and Its Implications, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Erel, U., Reynolds, T. and Kaptani, E. (2017), ‘Participatory theatre for transformative social research’, Qualitative Research, 17:3, pp. 302–12, 10.1177/1468794117696029.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Freire, P. (2017), Pedagogy of the Oppressed, Harmondsworth: Penguin.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Ganguly, S. (2010), Jana Sanskriti: Forum Theatre and Democracy in India, New York: Routledge.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Gramsci, A. (2018), Selections from the Prison Notebooks, n.l.: Independently published.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Hamel, S. (2013), ‘When Theatre of the Oppressed becomes theatre of the oppressor’, Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 18:4, pp. 403–16, 10.1080/13569783.2013.836918.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Howe, K.B. (2010), ‘Adapting Boal’s legislative theatre: Producing democracies, casting citizens as policy experts’, Ph.D. thesis, Austin, TX: University of Texas at Austin, http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2010-05-1186. Accessed 2 October 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Jana Sanskriti: Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed (2023), ‘Home page’, https://janasanskriti.org. Accessed 7 March 2023.
  14. Kantamneni, N. (2020), ‘The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on marginalised populations in the United States: A research agenda’, Journal of Vocational Behavior, 119, 10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103439.
     [Google Scholar]
  15. Lee, Y. (2015), ‘Theatre for the less oppressed than I: Reconsidering Augusto Boal’s concept of spect-actor’, Theatre Research International, 40:2, pp. 156–69, 10.1017/s0307883315000036.
     [Google Scholar]
  16. Malloy, A. (2015), ‘Scripting resistance: Governance through Theatre of the Oppressed’, Ph.D. thesis, Waterloo: University of Waterloo, http://hdl.handle.net/10012/10176. Accessed 7 March 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  17. McGrath, D., Gormley, G. J., Reid, H. and Murphy, P. (2022), ‘From “spectating” to “spect-acting”: Medical students’ lived experiences of online Forum Theatre training in consulting with domestic abuse victims’, Advances in Simulation, 7:1, 10.1186/s41077-022-00208-1.
     [Google Scholar]
  18. Mehrotra, C., Amin, S., Karkera, R. and Champaneri, V. (2020), ‘Application of applied theatre online with children and its effects in the Indian perspective during COVID age’, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal, 5:1, p. 15, https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ptoj/vol5/iss1/15. Accessed 2 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  19. Mishra, A. (2021), ‘Participatory theatre helps frontline workers cope with burnout’, Village Square: Stories and Insights from Rural India, 17 May, https://www.villagesquare.in/participatory-theatre-helps-frontline-workers-cope-with-burn-out. Accessed 2 June 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  20. Nordentoft, H. M. and Olesen, B. R. (2021), ‘Should I intervene or not? Reflexive learning in Forum Theatre: A peer dialogue on a facilitator’s dilemma’, Teaching in Higher Education, 28:6, pp. 1412–27, 10.1080/13562517.2021.1900812.
     [Google Scholar]
  21. O’Neill, M., Woods, P. A. and Webster, M. (2005), ‘New arrivals: Participatory action research, imagined communities, and “visions” of social justice’, Social Justice, 32:1, pp. 75–88, https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/29768292.pdf. Accessed 2 October 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  22. Paterson, D. (2011), ‘Putting the “pro” in protagonist: Paulo Freire’s contribution to our understanding of forum theatre’, in T. Emert and E. Friedland (eds), ‘Come Closer’: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed, New York: Peter Lang, pp. 9–20.
     [Google Scholar]
  23. Pratt, G. and Johnston, C. (2007), ‘Turning theatre into law, and other spaces of politics’, Cultural Geographies, 14:1, pp. 92–113, 10.1177/1474474007072821.
     [Google Scholar]
  24. Pufahl, J., Crider, E. and Walker, K. (2021), ‘Exploring online participatory theatre during COVID-19: Reflections on adapting, delivering, and evaluating student-led theatre for health workshops’, Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed Journal, 6:8, https://scholarworks.uni.edu/ptoj/vol6/iss1/8. Accessed 2 October 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  25. Roffé, L. (2021), What Now for the Theatre of the Oppressed?, Cardboard Citizens, YouTube, 2 June, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWUrYSmatlM. Accessed 7 March 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  26. Silva, J. E. and Menezes, I. (2016), ‘Art education for citizenship: Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed as a method for democratic empowerment’, Journal of Social Science Education, 15:4, pp. 40–49, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1123820.pdf. Accessed 2 October 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  27. Spivak, G. C. (2007), Can the Subaltern Speak?, Vienna: Turia & Kant.
     [Google Scholar]
  28. Thambu, N., Othman, M. K. H. and Naidu, N. B. M. (2020), ‘Using forum theatre to develop various levels of thinking skills among moral education students in secondary school’, Malaysian Journal of Learning and Instruction, 17:2, pp. 167–94, https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1271829.pdf. Accessed 2 October 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
  29. Tudu, S. and Hansda, P. (2022), ‘Effect of pandemic COVID-19 on theatre arts’, Journal of Positive School Psychology, 6:4, pp. 888–900, https://journalppw.com/index.php/jpsp/article/view/2884/1861. Accessed 2 October 2023.
     [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/atr_00083_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): COVID-19 pandemic; democratization; forum theatre; legislative theatre; marginalization; Theatre of the Oppressed

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error