First Latin-American Theatre of the Oppressed Gathering

From January 15th to 25th will take place the…

First Latin-American Theatre of the Oppressed Gathering
In more than 25 localities in the region of Jujuy!
More than 30 groups from10 countries of Latin-America!
Workshops for the Community and Deepening in TO!
Forum Theatre Plays!
Documentaries and Open Debates!
Called by the Latin-American Web of Theatre of the Oppressed South- ReLATOSur
Host Group: Movement of Theatre of the Oppressed Jujuy- MTOJujuy

For more information, contact us at: MTOJujuy@yahoo.com.ar
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Description of the Gathering

In the year 2007, after several meetings where training and exchanges took place between groups who work the methodology of the Theatre of Oppressed, the proposition came up to create the Latin-American Theatre of Oppressed Gathering.

The initiative required a few preliminary steps such as the creation and strengthening of the Latin-American Web of Theatre of the Oppressed South (ReLATOSur), the growth of the groups that integrate and the incorporation of other new ones, the training and exchange within groups of the web and with international pioneer organizations and worldwide referents of this discipline.

Thanks to the huge work that was accomplished and to the growing demand from part of the communities where we are inserted, today we are concretizing the dream of realizing the FIRST LATIN-AMERICAN MEETING OF THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED in the Province of Jujuy.

This meeting converts itself as a creative and defiant initiative in front of the expressed necessity for the communities and the groups to extend and strengthen the spaces of development and multiplication of theatre, and in particular of Theatre of the Oppressed.

The training, the exchange of experiences of local work, workshops, performances and open talks to the community, the deepening of the links between the groups, the strengthening of the Latin-American Web and the multiplication for the creation of new groups in the province are the principal strategies promoted for this Meeting.

To concretize those goals, we will develop performances of Forum Theatre Plays for all ages, workshops open to the community and specific workshops for the TO groups.
Documentaries and debates are planned in order to spread the methodology of TO, its different tools, thoughts and successive transformations. Those ones are also for organizations, educational institutions (formal and non-formal), governmental organizations and all persons who believe in Art as a tool for learning and social transformation.

The decision to host this meeting in the Province of Jujuy comes from the desire to have the participation of all the groups with who we are in touch in Argentina and in the rest of the continent, this desire being facilitated by the central position of the province in the scale of the continent.

Fundamentally, the project reflects the will to spread the language of theatre in the localities of the interior of the province through the promotion of activities encouraging the creation of theatre groups in general, TO groups in particular, strengthening the communitarian web and allowing the development and strengthening of the Movement of Theatre of the Oppressed of Jujuy (MTO Jujuy) created since the end of 2008.

In reaching for this concrete objective, we will try to give priority to the localities that least have access to artistic activities, even though this implies more strength and budget.
We are willing to reach different localities of the Province of Jujuy to spread the theatre as an artistic language and to encourage debates about problems raised by the forum theatre plays of the participants.

We will also take advantage of the synergy taking place by the realization of other meetings in the province (the Latin-American festival of popular theatre ENTEPOLA, “El septimo”, for example.) coordinating ourselves with the participants in order to be able to share spaces, techniques, experiences with the goal of taking better advantage of the effort realised by the different groups to come from their region.

WHAT IS THE THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED:

The Theatre of the Oppressed, through the systematisation of games, exercises and techniques claim to make theatre, as a convergence of various artistic disciplines, an efficient tool for the comprehension and the research of solutions for social problems. Workshops and scenes are meant to create thoughts leading to actions outside of the theatre. Inspired by Paulo Freire, Bertolt Brecht and principally Agusto Boal, the theatre of the oppressed tries to approach the mise-en-scene of conflicts through dynamics that invite to play/make play possibilities of changes on stage. Generating debate, the theatre of the oppressed claim to be a rehearsal for reality.

The theatre of the oppressed tries to break with the passive model of the spectator, model in which some observe the product that others produce. On the contrary, it is proposed to the subjects to assume the active role in the thoughts and action during the workshops and scenes.

The Forum Theatre, one technique of TO, is a tool that allow to show a short scene of a real conflict that is comprehensible and identifiable from the spectators. When the initial presentation ends, the joker invites the public to identify the important points of the situation, the conflict and the perceived roles of the scene look for, collectively, possibilities for resolution, transforming the initial representation. Each spect-actor (the spectator becomes an actor) will have the possibility to propose alternatives taking the place of the actor and improvising the change of the scene. It is also possible to ask the actor to play in a determined way.

From the difficulties or other confirmations from the new played scene, a continuation of the debate opens.

To put body in the presented conflict to be able to think and debate collectively from experiences lived on stage, this doesn’t mean to start from preconceived and abstract ideas of the conflict but this means “to dialogue in action”.

The Forum Theatre tends to the democratisation of the thoughts, to the exchange and dialogues of ideas in order to reach concrete actions. The final objective resides in the idea that the action of transformation on stage could be a rehearsal for actions of transformation once outside of stage.