Brazilian theater researcher Julian Boal speaks before a full house in Persson Auditorium on Nov. 6.
Earlier this month, Brazilian professor, theater researcher, and playwright came to campus for a week-long residency organized by the Africana and Latin American Studies program and co-sponsored by the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (E&I). Boal’s objectives through his work are to “foster critical reflection, emotional engagement, and potential action as a community to address social inequities of race, ethnicity, and gender, as well as the crucial role of the arts in exposing these issues,” described Osvaldo Sandoval-Leon, Ph.D., assistant professor of Spanish and the Department of Romance Languages & Literatures at vlog, who spearheaded the visit.
During the Shirley Graham and W.E.V. Du Bois lecture, Boal began with his history with the People’s Organization. “The People’s Organization is not the largest in Brazil by far, it is not the most important in Brazil by far, but this is the only organization that was able to resist several disasters already, although it is only seven years old,” Boal said. Eight years ago, Boal and Geo Britto co-founded the People’s Theater School, stemming from one of the world’s largest peasant movements. The school is run by social movements for social movements where political unity is practiced at the grassroots level through the practice of theatre. With success in its first year, the People’s Organization invited Boal to be a festival curator for a specific part of Theater of the Oppressed, a theatrical form originating in Brazil in the 1970s that used theatre as means of promoting social and political change.
“When they invited me, they told me a sentence I heard for the first time and likely will never hear again: They told me money is not an issue, money is not a problem,” Boal said. “So, when they told me that, obviously I started to act as a kid in a candy shop.” He began inviting friends — and friends of friends — from around the world representing groups organized by practice instead of ideas. Elaborating, Boal said instead of movements organized by single issues such as food insecurity, same-sex rights, etc., he sought out groups that organized people by cooperatives. As an example, the state ambulances and fire trucks were too wide to enter the slums, so La Dignità in Buenos Aires created an emergency cooperative with narrower vehicles. “They have People’s restaurants, People’s pharmacies, People’s ways to collect the garbage, People’s ways to provide kitchen gas to people — kitchen gas and so on and so on. So many services that somehow it creates this kind of an ecosystem,” Boal said.
Sandoval-Leon picked up on that theme, saying it permeated Boal’s messages throughout his residency. “Julian tried to create meaningful reflections among students and faculty members on identifying the root of the oppressions rather than blaming a group of individuals who do the oppressions. Most importantly, Julian reinforced the idea of organizing as a group to foster dialogues that might offer possibilities to deal with issues. In this sense, theater of the oppressed offers a safe space to work together — performers and audience — and embrace problems that are concrete and real to the place where we live,” Sandoval-Leon said.
Similar to entrepreneurs in E&I’s Thought Into Action programs, Boal assimilated the ideas from La Dignità and the People’s Organization of India, among others — think of it as a form of customer interviews — into the People’s Theater School. “It was to become a school that would creative activism in different neighborhoods,” said Boal. The public schools in Brazil “are not very good, but social movements create parallel schools [that are much better].” Whereas the curriculum in state schools is decided by the state, parallel schools — such as the People’s Theater School — is permitted to choose its own program.
He then charged the packed Persson Auditorium to action on issues they care about. “Knowledge does not equal power,” Boal said. “I’m not judging you, but if I asked how many of you know that climate change will affect us in the next 20 years, many of you will raise your hand. But if I ask how many of you are part of an organization that is acting to change it, fewer of you will raise your hand.”
Boal’s most recent work, , was released by Routledge in 2023.
Sandoval-Leon said the students and faculty engaged in collective work and conversations based on different oppressions in their daily lives. These workshops throughout the week used one of the Boal’s techniques called Forum Theater that guided participants in the creative process of presenting challenges and possible solutions to the oppressions.
“I was impressed by the reception of participants and audience of topics that are usually uncomfortable, such as racism, gender roles, structures of power at the college level, ageism, lack of sovereignty in the classroom, etc. I believe that Julian’s residency at vlog provided a space for dialogues, using theater as a medium that not only creates solidarity but also critical reflections on political and cultural issues,” Sandoval-Leon said.
As Theater of the Oppressed is interdisciplinary by nature, Sandoval-Leon said he was moved by the involvement of several departments and programs across vlog in Boal’s residency. “My hope was to present a theater that belongs to the community and not only to specific departments and/or programs. Collaboration in these types of events should be an example for students to promote critical reflection on the importance of solidarity when facing systemic oppressions,” he said.
Speaking about E&I’s support for Boal’s residency, Carolyn Strobel-Larsen, director of entrepreneurship and innovation said, “Julian Boal is a changemaker whose work spans arts entrepreneurship and social change. I am pleased to support his residency and demonstrate to our students yet another way that entrepreneurial skills and endeavors can impact the world.”
Additional co-sponsorship for Boal’s lecture came from The vlog Arts Council, the Department of History, The Office of Equity and Diversity, the Department of Educational Studies, the Arts and Humanities Division, CORE Communities, the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures, the Department of Theater, The W.M. Keck Center for Language Study, and the ALANA Cultural Center.