Community Arts Blog

Augusto Boal was born on the 16th March 1931 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. He was a Brazilian theater director, politician and writer.
In class we took part in exercises that were created by Boal, which allowed us to use our senses more rather than verbally or too physically. For example, we did an exercise where we got into different specific orders within the class, however we had to do this without verbally communicating to anyone. In my opinion, this was quite hard, however it forced us to use gestures in order to get our point across and to help others understand. This relates to our type of project because we are working with several people who have different abilities, some can't speak or move, therefore it is important that I learn from an early stage different ways to communicate to the people.
Additionally, we did an exercise called 'Colombian Hypnosis'. This is when somebody controlled their partners movements with a certain part of their body. At first when I tried this with our hands, I felt that there was a barrier between me and the partner because we couldn't connect as much. However, we then later did this same exercise with one person being sat stationary whilst leading their partner with only their eyes. During this I felt more of a connection, with my partner whilst following them. At times it was quite hard to understand where they wanted me to move or what to do, but as long as you kept with the flow, the exercise worked well to me, and allowed us to have a stronger connection.
Also, we did another Boal exercise called the 'Glass Cobra', this was when we had our eyes shut and got into a specific order, and then we had to feel textures in order to get back into the same order. Again, I feel that Boal's exercises allow everyone to have a chance to be included, by doing things that limit our use of senses.
Also, we then did another exercise where we put movements together from forming a simple image, which then later turned into a movement that flows together. Lastly, we did an exercise where we chose a specific sound, closed our eyes and allowed the sound of our partner to guide us towards them. Again, these type of exercises allowed us to get an idea of what it's like to have limits to our senses, and because we are going to be working with people who have less abilities than us, I think it was great that we put ourselves in similar positions to them, therefore I think that everything we do would be done with a bit more truth towards it.