Theatre of the Oppressed NYC: Joker Training Level 1
Recently, I attended Theatre of the Oppressed NYC’s (TONYC) Level 1 “Joker Training". In other words, I was taught the basics of how to create/prepare/facilitate forum theatre, to teach respective exercises and games, and to collaborate with others involved in forum theatre. After learning about Agusto Boal’s use and development of Theatre of the Oppressed in the 1970’s and volunteering for TONYC’s public performance of La Casa Malfada, I felt compelled to learn more about how I could use my theatrical knowledge and skills in more of a praxis orientation towards social change.
We started out by learning the fundamental games that TONYC uses to construct forum theatre and to de-mechanize our thought processes along the way. We used exercises to reflect on taking active stances against our harmful implicit biases, develop teamwork, and hone in on partner trust. These exercises included debriefings on our experiences with the games and helped connect them to the bigger pictures we were creating.
We then moved on to team-oriented constructions of forum theatre pieces revolving around a personal experience of oppression that one of the team members had encountered. Our group decided to construct a scene based on a fellow team member’s experience with healthcare discrimination against the trans community. We began discussing how the scene would be broken down and created different pieces of art with found trash related to the scene - an exploration into “aesthetics of the oppressed”. We then went on to rehearse our scenes and get ready to perform them. I had the misfortune of contracting COVID-19 on performance day, but from what I was told, our group did very well!
Looking to the future, I plan to use forum theatre to address the issues and needs of locals at different theatres I end up traveling to for work. I am still extremely new to this process and have reservations about accidentally saying the wrong things while facilitating, but I am trying to remind myself that I am human and that I won’t learn what/what not to say until I do it in front of others. At the end of the day, my intentions are to help facilitate positive change in communities through forum theatre. I can’t wait to further continue my involvement with this artform!
WEBSITE: https://www.tonyc.nyc/
