This article examines Forum Theater and critical

literacy with immigrants in an English class

and identifies the revolutionary and pedagogical
possibilities of a theater where there are only
spectactors.

10
Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed and
how to derail real-life tragedies with
imagination

Maria Tereza Schaedler

the meaning of theater in the process of transmitting knowledge

has been extensively debated throughout the history of humanity.
From Aristotle to Boal, theater has been discussed as art for con-
templation and art for transformation. Based on several articles
about drama in education, it sounds as if there is a stereotypical
view that views theater as being only a performance on stage. This
simplistic way to look at theater seems to be one of the reasons for
the resistance in using drama in the classroom. There is an expec-
tation that children have to perform a play for an audience instead
of just benefiting from drama as a process of make-believe.1
Not all educators feel comfortable directing and staging plays,
but it does not have to be like that. As Andersen said, “In a staged
theater production, there is often more of a focus on rehearsal as
a means to a end (that end being the performance). In drama in

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Published online in Wiley InterScience ([Link]) • DOI: 10.1002/yd.344 141
142 CULTURAL AGENTS AND CREATIVE ARTS

education, the process is the end in itself.”2 What educators need

to understand is that it is not about the performance at the end, but
the process of using drama, the techniques and exercises, that can
open up a world of possibilities in the classroom. Of course, it
can have a final product and it can be a performance, but this is not
necessary to develop this work.

Theater of the Oppressed

As an artist and an educator, I always felt comfortable using drama
techniques. After training with Brazilian theater director Augusto
Boal, I decided to study and apply his own techniques known as
Theater of the Oppressed (TO), which focuses on the process.
Every human being is theater, and theater is necessarily political.
This is how Boal conceived TO over thirty years ago. The exten-
sive literature involving TO, authored by Boal and others, shows
how widely practiced it is in many countries. Boal states that the
TO has two fundamental principles: “1) To help the spectator
become a protagonist of the dramatic action so that s/he can
2) apply those actions s/he has practiced in the theater to real life.”3
One of Boal’s most translated books is Theater of the Oppressed,
where he explores the social constructs that lie behind the tradi-
tional theater form while analyzing Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hegel,
and Brecht.4
Boal created the TO in Brazil with the goal of dealing with social
and political problems inside communities. He uses theater as the
language to speak about all kinds of human concerns and social
issues. Some of its major techniques are Image Theater, Forum
Theater, Cops in the Head, and Rainbow of Desire.

The techniques
In Image Theater, participants use the bodies of the other partici-
pants to sculpt their opinions and feelings. Boal believes that this
form has the “extraordinary capacity for making thought visible.”5
Images are a language like any other, with its collective denotations
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 BOAL’S THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED 143

and individual connotations. Boal affirmed that “oppression exists

when a dialogue becomes a monologue.”6 When one side tries to
dominate the other, the dialogue turns into a monologue. “Images
convey ideas”;7 therefore Image Theater can be a powerful tool to
create dialogue.
Forum Theater is identified as a problem-solving technique. A
story of oppression is improvised, and the public is invited to stop
the action, replace the character that is being oppressed, and
improvise a new ending. For Boal, “Often a person is very revolu-
tionary when in a public forum he envisages and advocates re-
volutionary and heroic acts; on the other hand, he often realizes
that things are not so easy when he himself has to practice what he
suggests.”8 Forum Theater can be used to look at past and present
situations, or it can be a rehearsal for the future.
Cops in the Head is an element of a broader concept inside the
structure of TO. This method is concerned with individuals’ inter-
nal voices, fears, and oppressions. “To know and to transform” is
the goal of this technique that helps to bring to light the “cops”
inside one’s head.9 Rainbow of Desire is a more complex technique.
It is a process of exploring the “rainbow” of fears and desires of
each character. This technique uses Image Theater to bring to
life conflicting emotions and deconstructs the character’s story of
conflict.
Boal insists that the spectator must become the spect-actor. He or
she becomes the protagonist of the story, “changes the dramatic
action, tries out solutions, discusses plans for change—in short,
trains him[her]self for the real action. In this case, perhaps the the-
ater is not revolutionary in itself, but it is surely a rehearsal for the
revolution.”10 This is an important concept for TO, and it creates
an opportunity for people to identify commonalities and learn
about the differences between individuals.

The study
For two months I conducted a pilot study involving Brazilian immi-
grants in a class for English for speakers of other languages
(ESOL). The study consisted of using Forum Theater techniques
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as a pedagogical tool to help these students develop critical liter-

acy skills in English. Some of the findings of this study are that this
technique improves participants’ social awareness, transforms peo-
ple into protagonists of their own lives, and helps develop language
skills.
The setting of the study was an ESOL class for immigrants held
in Everett, Massachusetts, a working-class suburb of Boston. This
study was conducted with adults, but the same techniques can and
have been applied with a group of young immigrants. This class
was an academic year-long program for local residents, and it was
considered at an intermediate/advanced level. Research was con-
ducted over a two-month period, with seven class sessions, each
extending over two and a half hours. Data were gathered and ana-
lyzed while exploring participants’ reactions through interviews,
group discussions, and observations.
The research intervention for this study was the application of
Forum Theater to the curriculum. The Forum Theater process
started by creating a safe environment with warm-ups and impro-
visational theater games for people to share personal stories. In the
next step, participants chose one of the stories (the one that they
related most with) to intervene. One of the stories was about two
people disguised as police officers who threatened and robbed
immigrants. The improvisation of the story followed, and spect-
actors started imagining what they could do to change the outcome
of the story. The spect-actor took on the role of the protagonist
and improvised a new ending to the story instead of just sharing
verbally what the protagonist should or could do. While advocat-
ing for themselves and for each other in the story, they all became
emotional and angry.
In this study, I found that no matter why the participants were
studying English, the reasons were all rooted in becoming
autonomous in society. Speaking English can give immigrants con-
fidence to communicate and interact in any social context, and it
can play an important role for the adaptation process of immigrant
youth. Data from this study indicate that the participants’ experi-

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 BOAL’S THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED 145

ences speaking English are often embedded in fear. They often

noted that they are afraid of making mistakes and being laughed at.
Improving their language skills gave the participants confidence
and self-esteem, as well as better chances of advocating for them-
selves. In interviews, they said that the use of theater techniques
helped them feel more relaxed, and that contributed to the devel-
opment of their self-esteem in their adaptation process. To speak
English is more than a survival skill for immigrant families; it helps
both adults and children act as protagonists of their lives. Theater
of the Oppressed empowers immigrants who are learning a new
language by giving them the opportunity to rehearse their language
skills in situations that are going to be relevant for them.
An interesting phenomenon reported by immigrants in this
study is the new relationship established between adults and youth
in the new culture. Parents reported that they became much more
dependent on their children, who were able to conquer the lan-
guage barrier much more quickly. As children developed a new
sense of responsibility in the family as communicators and transla-
tors, parents had to give up some control, reversing the role of par-
ents and children, which can be very stressful for the family.
Adults in this study reported that among the reasons they needed
to improve their English skills was to help their children with
homework. Practicing English through theater was more than a
possible avenue to develop this goal. It was also a way of develop-
ing confidence and self-esteem.

The connection with critical literacy

Paulo Freire, the Brazilian educator who became known worldwide
for Pedagogy of the Oppressed, believed that language is culture; by
learning how to use language, people recognize themselves as the
subject of the history process and therefore can change their reali-
ties.11 Because immigrant children learn how to use the new lan-
guage faster than adults, their adaptation in the new culture is
smoother than that of their parents, which does not mean that it
is an easy process.

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146 CULTURAL AGENTS AND CREATIVE ARTS

Giroux notes in the introduction of Freire and Macedo’s book

Literacy: Reading the Word and the World that teachers need to intro-
duce a language of empowerment to students.12 This language is
critical literacy, and it allows students to think and reflect about
their lives before they can take actions. This language of empow-
erment reconstructs people’s social understanding, helping them to
take risks to transform themselves and envision a new world.
Developing critical literacy and finding a voice in another lan-
guage had an impact on the participants’ cultural identities. The
participants were transformed into what Freire called “conscious
beings.”13 The majority of immigrants in the United States repre-
sent what Freire would call a dependent, silent society: “Its voice
is not an authentic voice, but merely an echo of the voice of the
metropolis—in every way, the metropolis speaks, the dependent
society listens.”14 What is needed in this case is a “revolutionary
project . . . a process in which the people assume the role of sub-
ject in the precarious adventure of transforming and recreating the
world.”15 Conscious beings question their cultural identities and
decide what they should keep, what needs to be transformed,
and what they want to acquire. They become subjects in every
context.
The process of becoming a conscious being is not easy and has
some costs. I realized how much I was asking of the participants in
this study. I wanted them to run over their fears, take risks, and
engage in improvisational theater techniques. I asked them not only
to use the new language they were learning, but their bodies as well.
I put them in a very vulnerable position. Even so, during a particu-
lar Forum Theater session, everybody in the class participated. One
by one, they were assuming the role of protagonist and changing the
outcome of the story. Some of them demonstrated a certain ease and
confidence. Others were timid at the start, but they were encouraged
by the rest of the group, and by the end, they were not only more
self-assured but also had smiles on their faces.
In this situation, I found an important connection between
improving language skills and empowerment. The connection was
made when the spect-actors forgot they were in an English class
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and eventually even forgot they were speaking English. They were
actively engaged in their roles, and that was because the story was
relevant to them.

Results
I could not measure the efficacy of this technique outside the class-
room. However, I discovered how the simple action of engaging in
a dialogue could be empowering. Being able to communicate, share
ideas, and agree or disagree is not a simple task when people do not
share the same language and culture. Theater of the Oppressed can
stimulate dialogue and is useful to develop critical literacy in the
classroom because it has reflective and transformative possibilities.
TO helps develop spoken and nonverbal dialogue through a per-
sonalization of the learning process. New ideas are constructed
through students’ stories. TO can also be a powerful tool to ana-
lyze the relationship between immigrant parents and children.
Having both groups represented at a Forum Theater session could
potentially illuminate the complexity of this relationship and help
to transform it.
As a pedagogical strategy, Forum Theater demonstrated itself
to be useful in developing communication skills in an ESOL envi-
ronment. Participants in this course placed great value on devel-
oping their oral language skills. The fact that students became
subjects and challenged the power structure in the classroom using
this technique helped them develop critical literacy. Theater of
the Oppressed is not a magical tool and will not solve all prob-
lems. It is a process that helps people become aware of the
problems so they can analyze them and try to identify possible
solutions.
As Freire stated, “There is no way to transformation, transfor-
mation is the way.”16 If what we are looking for is transformation,
then we have to start transforming the world around us. In order
to transform their realities, immigrants have to shift from being an
object to becoming a subject. Although I could not measure how
the participants were using their skills outside the classroom, I still
believe that this work gave them the awareness of possibilities for
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148 CULTURAL AGENTS AND CREATIVE ARTS

action. In these experiences with Forum Theater, I discovered they

can become their own advocates. Participants learned that
they could rely on themselves. In this study, some participants were
nervous about standing up and speaking English in the Forum
Theater sessions, but they did it nevertheless, and they became
agents in the classroom.
During this study, I also realized that although Theater of the
Oppressed is an excellent tool to develop critical consciousness, this
theater in ESOL classes needs to recognize the goals of this set-
ting—in this case, language acquisition. In the study, by becoming
conscious beings, participants were also able to learn English.
I never had the audacity to think that I could empower the stu-
dents myself. I could only offer them a tool and hope that they
would choose to use it. And they did. Some of the participants are
now becoming facilitators of Forum Theater activities in lower-
level English classes in the same program, and three of them are
now officially teaching English. Forum Theater helped them to fig-
ure out what to do with this new voice in this new culture. It is a
new identity they created, which added to the other identities they
already had.17 By disseminating this technique and helping other
immigrants develop their language skills, subjects from this study
are now developing their own powers to transform and become
agents of change.

Learning and final considerations regarding youth

This work can be applied in any context. It is a powerful tool to be
used with children and parents. By using drama in education, we
are giving young people and adults the opportunity to diversify
their knowledge and create an atmosphere where they can free their
potentialities and express feelings, emotions, and anxieties. When
a student interprets a character or dramatizes a situation, he or she
is revealing a part of himself or herself. By using drama, they show
how they see, feel, and think in the world. Boal believed that “if the

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 BOAL’S THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED 149

person has changed, something has changed around. If you acquire

knowledge of something, this knowledge changes you and you
change people around you.”18
Theater of the Oppressed techniques can be used to show young
people that they can be agents of their own lives. Through scenes
and dialogues, they realize that they have their own voice and are
able to change their surroundings. For immigrant youth specifi-
cally, it can help them understand their new role in the family.
When working with youth, improvised role play, and conflicts, it
is important to emphasize that they should not try to find a magi-
cal solution or use violence to solve the problem. Theater of the
Oppressed is based on nonviolent efforts to change a situation and
can be helpful with groups of youth challenged by violence in their
lives.
Theater stimulates dialogue and creates critical consciousness.
It is a nonviolent approach to problem solving, shows people that
there is not only one frame of reference in the world, challenges
traditional power roles in the classroom, stimulates imagination and
creativity, and strikes people in a unique way that a lecture will
likely not.
This is a powerful tool to develop critical literacy. Theater of the
Oppressed and critical literacy have the same goal. So the question
is, “How many classes are doing TO?” Not many. Why? What do
we need to do to use more TO in this context? And how are we
going to do this? My guess is that many classes do not use TO
because they are not familiar with this approach or are afraid to use
it. Teachers are also products of banking education and are afraid
of giving up power; it is too risky for them. They often do not want
to lose control and allow the unexpected to happen.
For those seeking to develop this work, I recommend flexibility
and full commitment during the entire process. The teacher-
facilitator must determine his or her own training. I advise becom-
ing very familiar with TO techniques before applying them in the
classroom. The more the facilitator is knowledgeable about all TO
procedures, the better he or she will be at adapting the techniques

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150 CULTURAL AGENTS AND CREATIVE ARTS

to the needs of students. I encourage teachers, facilitators,

researchers, and instructors to take risks, and I invite students to
take risks as well. I recommend everybody to honestly engage in a
learning process with other people and be open to learning from
failures and mistakes. And again, keep in mind Freire’s message:
“There is no way to transformation, transformation is the way.”19
As a theater practitioner, I am a witness of the power of arts and
the positive changes it can bring. “If you have a strong desire, if you
have not given up and you still believe, things can be changed.”20
Even if you change only yourself, I believe this work is worth it,
because when we change, people around us change as well. The
awareness that drama can build up new knowledge for children is
where all educators should start.

Notes
1. Blatner, A. (Ed.), with Wiener, D. J. (2007). Applications in education.
In Interactive and improvisational drama: Varieties of applied theater and perfor-
mance. New York: iUniverse.
2. Andersen, C. (2004). Learning in “as if” worlds: Cognition in drama in
education. Theory into Practice, 43(4), 281–286. P. 282.
3. Boal, A. (1990). The cop in the head. Three hypotheses. Drama Review,
34(3), 35–42. P. 36.
4. Boal, A. (1985). Theater of the oppressed. New York: Theater Communi-
cation Group.
5. Boal. (1985). P. 137.
6. Boal. (1990). P. 47.
7. Boal. (1990). P. 48.
8. Boal. (1985). P. 139.
9. Boal, A. (2004). Games for actors and non-actors. New York: Routledge.
P. 207.
10. Boal. (1990). P. 122.
11. Freire, P. (2007). Pedagogy of the oppressed. New York: Continuum.
12. Giroux, H. (1987). Literacy and the pedagogy of political empowerment.
In P. Freire & D. Macedo (Eds.), Literacy: Reading the word and the world.
Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey.
13. Freire, P. (2000). Cultural action for freedom. Harvard Educational
Review. Monograph Series, No. 1. P. 39.
14. Freire. (2000). P. 46.
15. Freire. (2000). P. 56.
16. Freire, P., & Macedo, D. (1987). Literacy: Reading the word and the world.
Westport, CT: Bergin & Garvey. P. 7.

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 BOAL’S THEATER OF THE OPPRESSED 151

17. Schaedler, M. (2008). “Transformation is the way”: A study about Forum

Theater and critical literacy with Brazilian immigrants in an ESOL class in New
England. Unpublished master’s thesis, Lesley University.
18. Boal, A. (1996). Politics, education and change. Drama, culture and empow-
erment. Brisbane, Australia: IDEA Publications. P. 50.
19. Freire & Macedo. (1987). P. 7.
20. Paterson, D., & Weinberg, M. (1996). We are all theater: An interview
with Augusto Boal. High Performance Magazine. Retrieved September 19, 2007,
from [Link]
all_are_thea.php.

maria tereza schaedler is a Brazilian artist and educator.

new directions for youth development • DOI: 10.1002/yd