The Prince Claus Fund is deeply saddened by the death of Augusto Boal, 2007 Prince Claus Laureate, Brazilian theatre director and playwright known for the interactive genre called the "Theatre of the Oppressed".
On the first of May 2009 at the age of 78 Augusto Boal died of a of respiratory failure following a long battle against leukaemia.
Augusto Boal studied theatre arts at Columbia University in New York, created the Theatre of the Oppressed in the early 1960s as a way to establish a dialogue between audience, playwright, director and actors that encouraged political activism.
The Prince Claus Fund granted Boal a 2007 Prince Claus Award and had the honour to meet Augusto Boal personally when he came to the Netherlands in 2008 where he inspired a large audience at Formaat, a workplace for Participatory Drama in Rotterdam.
From the jury report by the Prince Claus Awards Committee:
‘Catalyst and cultural revolutionary Augusto Boal (b. 1931, Rio de Janeiro) has fundamentally altered global concepts of theatre. Rather than accepting pre-ordained text, Boal’s methods turn spectators into ‘spec-actors’ who intervene and change the story by inserting real issues such as exploitation, violence and corruption. His work in factories and favelas led to imprisonment, torture and exile in 1971. He published his seminal text, Theatre of the Oppressed, in 1973 and organised the first International Festival of the Theatre of the Oppressed in 1981. Returning to Brazil in 1986, Boal founded community-based performance companies, established the Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed (CTO) and published Games for Actors and Non-Actors (1992). Among others, he has worked with the Landless People’s Movement, housemaids, prison guards and prisoners, and as a member of Rio’s Council he invented ‘Legislative Theatre’ for voters, which resulted in reformed city legislation. His methodology is used in over 70 countries and, for example, to deal with conflicts in Brazil’s schools.
Augusto Boal is honoured for his lifetime achievements in innovative and engaged cultural action, for his revolutionary influence on global theatre theory and practice, and for transforming theatre arts into an effective medium for dealing with conflicts’.
The Prince Claus Fund would like to express its heartfelt sympathy to the family and friends of Augusto Boal. His strong and warm personality will be sourly missed but his great work will keep inspiring people throughout the world.
Read the Hymn Robert Wilson wrote for him when Augusto Boal received the Prince Claus Award.
Augusto Boal and his inpired audience at Formaat in Rotterdam January 2008
