Boal’s Reading

Response to Suly

I think it is possible to learn from theatre, because theatre can act as a mirror for behavior of man to actually see.  How many times in life have you seen or been exposed to quotes from famous play writes.  Usually these quotes are used to either teach, expose, or explains man’s behavior in our everyday life.  For example quotes from play write William Shakespeare is notoriously used in this manner.  I’m sure we all heard in one way or another “whoa what a tangled web we’ve weaved, when we first practice to deceive”.  I’ve personally been exposed to this famous quote from readings other than the famous play it’s from, movies I’ve seen, even ex-boyfriends trying to manipulate a situation in our relationship. This also shows the interactivity of theater and its audience intrinsically.

Although this example is more of an indirect interaction dependent upon the result of exposure to theatre but still breads the same results which is ultimately  a direct connection and communication between the audience and play in the theatre. The proof of this interaction is timeless appeal of the plays.  William Shakespeare’s works are over hundreds of years but yet are still popular and continuously remade today. In the reading the interaction is immediate and directly affects its outcome.  I think by invoking other senses Boals makes the experience more memorable for the audience.  Thus achieving what play writes like William Shakespeare and others have accomplished which is to stand the test of time.

If I were to choose a sport to mimic the same memorable / impressionable affect through and results of its interactivity and that will stand the test of time, I would have to say chess.  Not only has it stood the test of time.  So much so the game is compared metaphorically to life, war, business, and fighting.  The strategic capability and intuition is needed for comprehension of this game displaying the interaction between the player and his or her opponents.  This mentality is used intrinsically in the real world in our everyday relations.  It’s also used in identifying, exposing, or exploiting weakness.  What’s interesting to me as a designer is the way we toggle between gaming and reality.  I believe Boals touches on this duality by making the theatre a game and the audience’s reality. A weird analogy would be that border between the physical realm and the spiritual. “You’re Move, Check!”