Structure of the actor's work
Acting is emotion with reason
Boal's theatre is not to generate a catharsis or to end a development. Its objective is to encourage autonomous activity, to set a process in motion and to change the audience into protagonists (Boal, 1992, p.245).
Actor and non-actor
Boal's philosophy that non-actors (i.e. the general public) can create change by taking on acting roles; he believed people can change theatre and be changed by theatre.
Activity
Workshop the Games of Mask and Ritual I - Follow the master (Boal, 2002, p.148).
In this game the Master takes on the role of a professional actor and the others are the non-actors or general public.
Discusses as a class how you felt as the actors and non-actors.
Write a reflection in your logbook on the question below.
How might this theatrical exercise demonstrate strategies to help our society change?
De-mechanisation of the body
An actor's body has to be prepared to rid itself of previous learnt behaviours (actions, re-actions, tensions etc) and be able to take on new concepts. This is achieved by engaging with a variety of emotional, imaginative, memory, muscular, sensory, exercises.
Activity
Four groups are formed and each takes one warm-up from Emotional warm-up exercises and/or one from Ideological Warm-ups.
Improvise these warm-ups exploring the variety of ways these help to de-mechanise the body.
Empathy and character
Boal is 'concerned with the nature of empathy and specifically with its misuse and abuse' (Babbage, 2004, p.43). He believes that an audience member is often drawn to feel empathy for the main protagonists as they adopt the values and emotions of this character, instead of asking why did this happen to this person and how can it be changed.
Activity
Workshop pages 42 and 43 of the text exploring what a character's emotion should signify to an audience in a Boalian performance.
Boal rejects the ideology (although not always the acting techniques) of Aristotelian theatre where the protagonist was set up to represent the aristocracy and the chorus were the masses; this approach created divisions between the actors and the audience.
Boal draws on influential theatre practitioners' techniques such as on Stanislavksi, Brecht, Gassner for his approach to characterisation and acting.
Power and status
Boal discusses that his theatre confronts power and status through examining ways to transform society. His theatrical forms reflect conflicts, struggle and the importance of transformation. Acting techniques for power and status can be explored in exercises such as The great game of power.
Activity
Try varying The Great game of power exercise by improvising it again with different types of objects and seats, such as a telephone or an ipod. You could use cushions, stools or office chairs.
Examine how the power and status change because of the symbolism inherent in different seats and objects.
Will and counter will
Boal describes the actor's interpretation of a role as dialectical. Dialectics in a character are the opposing thoughts/contradictions/juxtapositions. For example, the character has a will (objective) and against this are counter wills (opposing thoughts, because all emotions are mixed with contradictions. It is the contradictions that can allow society to examine itself and change. Will and counter will can be explained thus:
a character's emotion and reason are not static but are in a dynamic interaction with other characters.
this means that a character's wants and objectives are his/her will and motivate him/her to carry out his/her emotion.
against will are a character's counter wills because no emotion in a character is pure. Eg We want, we don't want; we love, we don't love.
will and counter wills create tensions and conflict which are the essential ingredient of what is theatrical.
this approach can enable an audience to be more interested in watching and empathising with a character who strives for something rather than sympathising with his/her plight.
Activity
The Three Wishes (Boal, 1992, p.197) is a practical approach for understanding will and counter will. You could take the theme of Friendship and follow the outline of the exercise. The Friendships could be happy ones, ones fraught with antagonism, ones of love and hate, ones forged in secrecy etc. If the protagonists need help with the wishes, which can be thought of as will and counter will, look at the chart below to help stimulate ideas about how characters and hence society, can be changed.
External character change
Wealth
Allegiances
Family
Circumstances
Location
Health
(Hatton and Lovesy, 2009, p.116).
Internal character change
Passions
Beliefs
Views
Mind
Heart
Mood