Active Inquiry

Pula theatre of the Oppressed Festival 2013

2nd July, 2013 - Posted by Gavin - 1 Comment

Below is a blog entry from Pinar about the experience of the group performing at this European Theatre of the Oppressed Festival in Croatia:

Introducing Ourselves!

We are sitting in Stansted on our way back from Pula thinking about what a wonderful time we had at the Theatre of the Oppressed Festival. We are very thankful to everyone for their hospitality and generosity in putting us up, and feeding us during the Theatre of the Oppressed Festival in Pula, Croatia. It was inspiring and moving to see the film about Augusto Boal and how his work started social change in many countries. Performing Divided We Fall? in Istrian National Theatre was an honour and privilege to share the space with other Theatre of the Oppressed groups/practitioners from many different countries in Europe. There were some imaginative and constructive interventions of our play during the performance. The following day Barbara Santos led a laboratory workshop in which the participants of the festival provided feedback on Divided We Fall?

Performing Divided We Fall?

Barbara asked everyone who saw the play to discuss in small groups what they felt and saw in the play and what they thought was missing. Images created from these questions were then shown to the whole group. This gave us new insights which was a fresh and wonderful way of receiving feedback. Ideas from the images will influence how we can create and develop future work. We attended a talk by Birgit Fritz. Birgit has been a Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner based in Austria working all over the world. In her book InExActArt: The Autopoietic Theatre of Augusto Boal, available direct from publisher Ibidem, Birgit gives a practical guide for Theatre of the Oppressed practitioners based on many years of experience.

Warming-up the Audience

On our final evening, we attended a performance given by a group from Bologna, The Educator in times of Crisis. It was the first  Newspaper Theatre some of the company members had seen. The play was created by a group of educators who work with disadvantaged people in their community. The play combined striking visual images and factual material from the newspaper. Afterwards we had the opportunity to talk with the cast about their experience in creating the play. We had a brilliant and stimulating time in beautiful Croatia. We are thankful to Marijana and Aleksander for their hospitality and every member of the Theatre of the Oppressed festival.

1 Comment

Bárbara Santos

July 4th, 2013 at 10:48 am    

Thanks my dear friends… it’s an amazing experience… wish all the best!

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