Human Body Theater: A Non-Fiction Revue

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It’s not clear if this argument of Boal’s requires a position of transcendence. Critics might argue that the splitting of the self will lead to an alienated relationship between the observing and acting parts of the self, subordinating the latter to the former. But this seems to go against the spirit of Boal’s work – which is deeply embodied and aims to dis-alienate. The capacity to split into observer and actor is not reified but, rather, re-united in the “spect-actor” (see part 2). The split produces a line of flight to a future, which is created as something distinct from the present – to which thought and life are often reduced. This is arguably a radically immanent form of practice, despite its transcendental theoretical underpinnings.

This theory of hearing/seeing is central to the concept of oppression. Oppression entails an absence of dialogue. It involves a monological relation in which only one of the terms can speak. It also implies a basically conflictual relation in which both sides, but especially the oppressed, are victims. Dialogue is impossible until people recognise each other as different. Towards the end of the book when discussing the skin, the book states that "a little sun exposure will actually help the skin protect itself from future sunburns". This is a myth which has been debunked (Maron, Dina Fine. "Fact or Fiction? A 'Base Tan' Can Protect Against Sunburn", Scientific American, May 22, 2015). Design will be by Fly Davis, with Lighting design by Joshua Pharo, Sound design by Ben and Max Ringham, the Fight director is Kate Waters, and Casting is by Anna Cooper CDG.

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All culture is involved in aesthetic production. However, theatre has a special significance, in that it embodies the capacity for self-observation. Theatre stems from humans’ ability to observe ourselves – not only to see, but to see ourselves seeing. At root, theatre is the uniquely human capacity to observe oneself in action. By seeing ourselves seeing, we can see ourselves in situ – in the situations we’re in. And we can imagine what we can become. We can split ourselves into the person in situ; the observer; and the “not-I”, the person we are not. The doubling or splitting of the self into observer and observed is crucial here. It allows reflexivity. The role of theatre is to enact this split. Hence, theatre is change and creation. It does not simply represent realities. All topics were handled gracefully and educationally, making this a graphic novel that even the most strict parents can't say no to! Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-07-02 18:01:03 Boxid IA40164423 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier But for real, this book does an absolutely fantastic at breaking down the human body into basics (and then some). Sure, our body parts are made of cells, but what exactly are those made of? And how do cells interact with each other? Why are they so different? What do they do? All of these questions are answered in a logical way, going from bone, to muscle, to organs, and more! Forum Theatre works from rehearsal improvisation to create a scene of a specific oppression. Using the Greek terms “protagonist” and “antagonist,” Forum Theatre seeks to show a person (the protagonist) who is trying to deal with an oppression and failing because of the resistance of one or more obstacles (the antagonists).

If there is a problem with the book it may come right at the very beginning. Our skeleton hero introduces herself and from there you would expect her to jump right in to Human Body Theater with the bones. Instead, the storyline comes to a near screeching halt from the get go with a laborious explanation of cells, elements, and molecules. It’s not that these things aren’t important or interesting. Indeed, you can more than understand why they come at the beginning the way that they do. But as the book currently stands, this section feels like it was added in at the last minute. If it was going to preface the actual “show” then couldn’t it have been truly separate from the main event and act as a kind of pre-show entertainment?In the section about digestion, there is an explanation of different vitamins and minerals. The description of Vitamin D states that it can be found in sunlight. This isn't inaccurate, but not fully explained. The body produces vitamin D as a result of exposure to sunlight. With as much detail as this book goes into explaining the different processes of the human body, a clarification of this statement would have been nice. My kids (4 and 7) loved it when I read this to them, even though there was a lot of information. It's been one of their favorite books of the school year so far. I may not always enjoy graphic novels, but now I'll never question whether they can be used to present important information in an engaging, fun, reader-friendly format. It's like the perfect cross between a child's science textbook and a comic book. I learned a few things myself, and getting to really see the relationship between body systems was helpful. Even when the text was humorous and the images presented used non-anatomical analogies (for example, showing an antibody storage room for the immune system), these served to enhance the information rather than distract from it. Boal theorises theatre as necessarily conflictual and processual. In Rainbow of Desire, Boal claims that theatre has three elements: it is a passionate combat of two humans on a platform. It performs the conflicts and contradictions of social life in a special, aesthetic space which allows them to be observed. Anything can be an aesthetic space, provided it is designated apart from the wider, observational space. For an aesthetic space to exist, there needs to be a split between actor and spectator, even if they are the same person. The aesthetic space “is” but does not “exist”: it is a represented space.

Boal situates his theatrical work in relation to a particular politics of knowledge. He contrasts a desirable, human state of creative freedom with various oppressive social realities. Oppression goes hand in hand with voicelessness and the inability to act on one’s own desires. As such, Boal insists that ‘to speak is to take power’. Theatre is one of the domains of the resultant struggle. Theatre is necessarily political, because all human action is political. Theatre is about power, human relationships, and who gets to speak. In his earlier works, Boal writes of theatre as a weapon to be fought for. The ruling class will seek to hold onto it. The oppressed need to wrest it from their hands. It is clear from such statements that Boal is both a conflict theorist and a believer in an underlying human potential for creative becoming. Forum scenes can be virtual one-act plays or more often short scenes. In either case, a full presentation is offered to the audience. The joker (difficultator) then says to the audience we will do this again, and if you would do something different than what the protagonist (not the antagonists) is doing, stand up and yell stop. The protagonist will then sit down and the audience member is invited forward to show their solution of the moment. Once the intervention is performed, the audience invariably applauds, and the joker invites the audience to discuss the proposed solution, and to offer even more solutions. Theatre makes a special contribution in enabling dialogue. For Boal, all human relations, especially those across difference, should be dialogues. Real dialogue is not simply a set of overlapping monologues. It requires listening, and respect for difference. Boal also draws a recurring contrast between really seeing or hearing, and simply watching or being silent. This is exemplified in his critique of mass media. Television encourages watching, but not seeing. In contrast, art and science help us to see or hear. Boal shows what he means by this distinction with various examples. Newton really saw the apple fall to earth, where others had simply watched it. Beethoven makes us hear silence, a psychoanalyst hears what is not said. The implication in each case is that to really see or hear is to perceive or intuit an underlying, inner or qualitative dimension which is obscured in the surface appearance. Too often, we only watch or absorb sounds, without really seeing and hearing in this sense. In Aesthetics of the Oppressed, Boal lists several techniques for forms of art other than theatre. One of these entails listing a personal or national event, and trying to link its personal and political significance together. Another involves declaring identity based on different relationships – modelled on the theory that identity is relational. Forms of imagery include photographs of hands, which show a person’s activity, and sculptures made from clean rubbish. In terms of sound techniques, the goal is to connect with inner rhythms. Techniques include telling stories in dance, and turning mechanistic gestures into dance. What I thought was done exceptionally well, however, were the bits on reproductive organs. It wasn't super cutesy or too clinical--just perfect, in my opinion, for not being too embarrassing for the younger reader to read or see. This chapter discusses the different ways in which female and male bodies grow through puberty, what to expect when you're older, how a fetus is made, and how that fetus is born.

This informative, frank exploration of the body perfectly balances science and silliness.” — Booklist, Starred Review The world is diverse, composed of billions of unique entities, and constantly in flux. In other words, everything is ultimately a unicity – something unique which signifies only itself. People use habits and categories to survive the resultant vertigo of sensory input. Naming, for instance, is a way of fixing things in time and space. Although Boal sees such categorising processes as necessary (its absence leads to madness), he also sees them as dangerous, and implies that they are over-used in existing societies. Language is alleged to have a role in the degradation of the senses. Words can even over-ride senses, making people imagine the world is different from what they experience. The "host" is Bones, a skeleton, who deftly leads us through several "acts" of the human body systems, introducing us to all kinds of interesting characters, from a chorus line of germs to the five oversized senses, to the poor "finger" who has to serve as an example of many different body problems. Despite these characterizations, most things are drawn realistically, and lots of scientific words are introduced. Aesthetics of the oppressed is fundamentally about problem-posing. The focus of Boal’s method is thus on the question “what if?” Traditional theatre usually uses the indicative mood – “I do”. Adverts use the imperative mood – “Do!” Theatre of the Oppressed uses the subjunctive mood, either past – “what if I were doing that?” or future – “what if I were to do this?” Its questions are also accompanied by corresponding acts. Augusto Boal is credited with formulating one of the most radical forms of theatre ever devised. In his Theatre of the Oppressed, members of the audience are invited to “invade” the stage and become protagonists in drama – and their own lives. In this first of a 7-part series of essays, I attempt to summarise Boal’s view of the central role of art in human life.

The most important part of the Aesthetics of the Oppressed is the Aesthetic Process. The process develops the ability to experience things in a sensory way. It expands people’s expressive and perceptual potential. The main role of artistic products (or works of art) is to amplify this process socially. A participant in Theatre of the Oppressed is said, paradoxically, to become her or himself. What Boal seems to mean here is that the participant is formerly submerged in an alien culture. By forming her/his own perspective, s/he becomes an autonomous subject. More broadly, oppression undermines the artistic capabilities of the oppressed. Oppressors generally seek to pare down the symbolic life of the oppressed, reducing them to mechanised work and numerical representation. For instance, workers’ capacity to produce art was partly taken away when artisans were turned into workers. In contrast, Aesthetics of the Oppressed seeks to expand metaphoric activity, symbolic languages, and sensitivity. Forum Theatre seeks to create actions which project one’s values into the future, rather than simply reacting to situations. Tweens and teens working on science reports will find the Table of Contents useful in identifying chapters on each of the body systems. Youth will also use the glossary and bibliography as reference sources.There are different phases to Boal’s work. In his own writings, Boal suggests that his early work is mostly about theatre in the conventional sense. His later work is more focused on ‘human beings as theatre’, or theatre as the ‘true nature of humanity’. He increasingly sees social life, in itself, as theatrical. Theatre is a microcosm – a reproduction on a smaller scale – of the whole of social life.