The analysis of popular theater from Augusto Boal's perspective: writing process of Técnicas Latino-Americanas de Teatro Popular

• Grant number: 21/02429-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2021
• End date: August 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Theatre
• Principal Investigator: Sérgio Ricardo de Carvalho Santos
• Grantee: Ana Beatriz de Andrade Cangussu Lima
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The project intends to study the concept and a series of popular theater exercises proposed by the atrologist Augusto Boal in his writings from the 1970s. This material, composed of reflections and descriptions of techniques, was later gathered and reworked in the book Latin American Popular Theater Techniques ("Técnicas Latino-Americanas de Teatro Popular: uma revolução copernicana ao contrário")from 1979. Part of it remains unpublished in the Augusto Boal Institute archive. The research aims to study the materials that gave rise to the book; to understand the process of formation of this fundamental work, its historical, geographical, and political context; and to analyze the specificity of Boal's idea of "popular theater", in comparison to other modern trends in Brazil and Europe. The author's main techniques will be analyzed to prove their current validity. (AU)