The theater forum is a technique developped at the point in the Années 1960 by the man of Théâtre Brésil IEN Augusto Boal, in the favelas of São Paulo.

The principle is that the actors improvise then fix a Fable from 15 to 20 minutes on topics illustrating of the situations of oppression or the problematic subjects of social reality, economic, medical of a community. They then will exploit it the spot of life of the community for which is intended the message. At the end of the scene, - whose conclusion is in general catastrophic - the leader of play proposes rejouer the whole and invites the members of the public to intervene at key times where he thinks of being able to say or do something which would inflect the course of the events.

It is about a participative technique of theater which aims to the conscientisation and the information of the oppressed populations in a way or of another. The theater forum is used thus much near the populations not taught reading and writing in the development projects in country of the South (for example in India, with the the Rajasthan, the Bengal and the Maharashtra), but is also of use in the countries developed to raise societies' problems.

Audio-visual documents and articles

• Presentation of the Theater of Oppressed by Augusto Boal (MP3  84  Mo)
• Performance of theater forum on the topic of housing in the area of Forcalquier (MP3  60  Mo)
• Performance of legislative theater on the same topic (MP3  77  Mo)

See too

• Psychodrama

• Jacob Levy Moreno (1889-1974)