Spect-Actors: Doing Forum Theatre in Argoncilhe

Argoncilhe is a small village in the north of Portugal, nearby Porto. The youth organization Argoncilhe Jovem learned about Theatre of the Oppressed and the work some of us were doing already through some of Argoncilhe Jovem's own members. They took the initiative of organizing a Forum Theatre workshop among other activities they were promoting. Through word of mouth, Argoncilhe Jovem could invite a group of people to facilitate the workshop in which Argoncilhe's community members participated. To be sure, even though there is no organization doing Forum Theatre in Porto, there have been many people involved frequently in various Forum theatre workshops and activities entities such as municipalities, NGOs and universities have organized. Among the group of people guiding and participating in the workshop were some of the spect-actors.

1. The Group dynamics

Playing fun games

2. Coming up with themes for discussion

Small groups discussing their own personal stories:

Sharing our stories with the larger group:

A generic situation: teachers abusing their power in the classroom…

And a situation specific to Argoncilhe: the problem caused by a large cow-shed (or herd-house) with a particular strong stench felt by a large part of the community of Argoncilhe. And with a particular owner: the current mayor...

Among the 5 stories shared we chose the one with most relevance to the local context: the cow-shed. The whole group prepared the play further by developing the characters: through a discussion mediated by the curinga (on the right) we discussed the motivations and personalities of the characters.

3. The performance

In the case of Argoncilhe, the performance was meant to be included in a local event. After a cake competition to raise funds for the village’s center, we presented our short play to approximately 50 members of the community of Argoncilhe.