Forum theatre: engaging knowledge to change outcomes and consequences [Arts & culture in KM part 20]
This article is part 20 of a series exploring arts and culture in knowledge management.
Forum theatre (also known as ‘popular theatre’ or ‘participatory theatre’) is a form of participatory art, a variation of the Theater of the Oppressed method developed by Augusto Boal. Forum theatre takes the form of a conventional play but reflects the community’s lived experience of a chosen issue and culminates in an unresolved crisis within that context.
The play is then presented to the broader public in a participatory format such that the knowledge, aspirations, and capacities of this public may be brought to bear on the exploration of viable solutions on the stage. After the audience observes the play a first time, the play is performed again; audience members are invited to stop the play at any point, replace a character whose experience they feel they understand, and attempt to change the course of dramatic action. In this way, spectators are transformed into “spect-actors”, not only observing but truly acting to change the scenes they are presented.
Each project is stimulated by a specific community’s experience of disempowerment, struggle, and the desire for creative solutions and capacity-building through egalitarian means.
Case study 1: Protect Us from Tetanus project (Vietnam)
Case study 2: CGIAR Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems (Kenya)
Article source: Participedia, CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.
Header image source: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
