International Theater of the Opressed Organization
Augusto Boal, Founder of the The ater of the Oppressed, Dies at 78
Story and Interview from Democracy NOW : Augusto Boal, the legendary Brazilian political playwright and popular educator, died Saturday at the age of seventy-eight. He was the founder of the Theater of the Oppressed, a popular international movement for a participatory form of theater as a means of promoting knowledge, democratic forms of interaction, and transformation. We play a never-before-aired interview on his life and work. [includes rush transcript]May 03, 2009
Augusto Boal Passes
CAN website
Augusto Boal, the Brazilian theater director and playwright known for the interactive genre called the “Theater of the Oppressed,” died Saturday, May 2, 2009. He was 78. Boal died of respiratory failure following a long battle with leukemia, says an AP story (5/3/09). Boal, who studied theater arts at New York City’s Columbia University, created Theater of the Oppressed in the early 1960s as a way to establish a dialogue between audience, playwright, director and actors that encouraged political activism. Seen as a threat to the dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, Boal was arrested, jailed and tortured before being exiled to Argentina. He returned to Brazil after the fall of the military regime. His impact on the field of community-based art is incalculable. [LINK]
CAN websiteAugusto Boal, the Brazilian theater director and playwright known for the interactive genre called the “Theater of the Oppressed,” died Saturday, May 2, 2009. He was 78. Boal died of respiratory failure following a long battle with leukemia, says an AP story (5/3/09). Boal, who studied theater arts at New York City’s Columbia University, created Theater of the Oppressed in the early 1960s as a way to establish a dialogue between audience, playwright, director and actors that encouraged political activism. Seen as a threat to the dictatorship that ruled Brazil between 1964 and 1985, Boal was arrested, jailed and tortured before being exiled to Argentina. He returned to Brazil after the fall of the military regime. His impact on the field of community-based art is incalculable. [LINK]
Finally, the NYTimes Obit on Boal