This is the beginning of many interviews around this kind of theatre.
Here is a reading from the book by Augusto Boal
# Legislative Theatre: The Show and the Community ## Source From *Legislative Theatre* by Augusto Boal, based on the work of Paulo Freire (*Theatre of the Oppressed*). Commentary by David Landrieyer. --- ## Chapter 6: The Show and the Community ### Giving the Show Its Proper Significance In one community, a participant asked the group to make posters advertising the show. She wanted to distribute them not only on the hill where she lived, but also on Copacabana beach just below. She did not want the actresses to interrupt other community activities by presenting their shows without prior warning. She wanted publicity. It might have seemed like vanity. It wasn't. She wanted to give the event its proper significance. By advertising the date and time, by naming the actors, by giving the play a title, she wanted to make the show stand out from the other run-of-the-mill activities. She wanted it to be respected by her neighbours, and she wanted to take on that responsibility herself. ### The Show as a Moment of Social Communion The opening of a show for a community is an important moment — a big step. If the rehearsals are already a form of political activity in themselves — the citizens talk to one another and try to pinpoint the repressions, to understand them by means of aesthetics — the shows are the moment of social communion in which other members of the community are invited to participate in the debates, still using the same theatrical language. ### Inter-Community Dialogues Inter-community dialogues are also important. When participants from one community present their work to another community, the members of that second community intervene in the forums of the plays. Sometimes, by being outside the situation, they can see things more clearly. This happened, for instance, when a member of CENUM, visiting Chapa Mangueira, came up with a solution no one had thought of. It had seemed impossible to persuade a philanthropic society — the equivalent of a charity — to act as an intermediary for granting state funds to the project, because of the unpaid work this would involve. The spect-actors from Chapa Mangueira had replaced the protagonist in the forum, but no solution was found. A young man from CENUM intervened. He abandoned the dialogue with the manager of the charity and made a proposition: nothing was stopping these communities from creating their own philanthropic society for this specific purpose. He proposed they create their own charity — which is precisely what was done, with the help of advisors who wrote the statutes and took all the necessary legal steps. ### Festivals and Solidarity Apart from bringing in a fresh perspective from the outside, these dialogues helped to create a network of solidarity. Beyond them, it is important to mount festivals at least once a quarter. The primary goal is to allow contact between each community and the majority — or all — of the others, and by extension with the wider population. As a rule, these festivals take place in busy squares or public gardens on days when there are crowds.