Archive for July, 2010
Earlier this month, France’s lower house of parliament approved a bill to ban Islamic face veiling, or the burqa.* Though not yet law, the bill is expected to pass through the French senate in September. Lawmakers have somehow framed this proposal as a boost for security and women’s rights, but—as anyone who reads into the [...]
The world wide web was supposed to usher in an era of connection between various cultures, opinions, and voices around the world. However, according to Ethan Zuckerman, the overwhelming majority of online users simply access domestic media and surround ourselves with people just like us. Logging onto the internet may give us an illusory feeling [...]
Much of the work we highlight here at thambo.org focuses on the influence of external audiences through performance and other art forms. However, art is often used for or results in an internal transformation as well. Nowhere more apparent is that fact than San Fancisco, CA where a small organization called Community Works is changing [...]
How can social justice artists make their work true, both to specific injustices portrayed but also to a larger truth? Forum Theatre, developed by Augusto Boal, is most effective when an experience drawn from the spect-actors is reproduced and played. To work, it must be real. It does not, however, have to adhere exclusively to the facts.
They’re one of the world’s leading practitioners of Theatre of the Oppressed. And with nearly 20 years of performances from the streets of London to the Royal Shakespeare company, they’ve got a track record like none you’ve ever seen. If there’s ever inspiration by great (erm…brilliant) example, Cardboard Citizens is at the top of the [...]
Even if you can’t make it out to Serbia this August, this group organizes an inspiring program. Check out the site to preview their work in music, street art, and theatre for non-actors to see if it can inspire ideas for your own summer art workshops. http://artcamp.ktowngroup.org.rs/?page_id=22 From the website: 1. SOUNDING (music workshop) The [...]
Think social justice and the arts don’t go together? Think that college campuses are the only venues for tackling difficult social issues? Think again! Grantmakers in the Arts is a leading organization of arts related grants and they have a special page dedicated to social justice. Here you can find various articles on the intersection [...]
Welcome to The Thambo Project! For a half-decade the Project has been working across the globe to find answers to the question, “How can we change the world through art?” In that time, we’ve worked with teenagers in Iowa, school children in India, peace workers in Morocco and artists in Minneapolis. Now, we’re excited to [...]
We’ll kick things off by looking at three organizations whose work in Theatre of the Oppressed is exciting and innovative. Meet the people behind ImaginAction, The Forum Project, and Mixed Company Theatre. ImaginAction, based in Los Angeles, CA, is led by the incredible, intimidating, inspirational Hector Aristizábal. To meet Aristizábal is to come face to [...]
The death of Augusto Boal in 2009 left a hole in the theatre community felt around the world. One year after his passing, the work of the Theatre of the Oppressed, the CTO-Rio and the many manifestations of his techniques in places far and wide continue to challenge authority and inspire those who struggle. We [...]