TOPLAB Fall 2005 Events

TOPLAB General Audience Workshop #2: Introduction to the Theater of the Oppressed--Forum Theater

Saturday, November 12, 9:00 am - 8:00 pm (includes group meal from 6:00 to 8:00) Sunday, November 13, 9:00 am - 6:00 pm

This introductory workshop is framed as a practical application of Education for Liberation, specifically, the Paulo Freire methodology. An innovative approach to public forums, Forum Theater analyzes situations of conflict involving oppression, in which the action to be taken is not immediately clear. Themes to be developed are suggested by participants and chosen by vote. Workshop participants (the actors) are asked to tell personal stories of unresolved conflicts, taken from daily life, stemming from political or social problems of difficult solution. Skits depicting those conflicts are improvised and presented. Each story represents the perspective of an oppressed protagonist actively engaged in implementing a strategy for resolving a conflict; the original strategy fails, however, due to at least one social or political error. When the skit is over, the audience discusses the proposed strategy, and then the scene is performed once more. But now, audience members are urged to intervene by stopping the action, coming on stage to replace actors, and enacting their own strategies for resolving the conflict. Thus, instead of remaining pbuttive, the audience becomes a group of active "spect-actors" involved in creating alternative solutions and thus controlling the dramatic action. The aim of the forum is not to find an ideal solution, but to invent new ways of confronting oppression. Forum Theater is useful both as a means of preparing for immediate action, and as a discussion process that begins in workshop and continues as performance to include new people. It is particularly useful in the specific context of a conflict resolution process involving an on-going community group to the extent that it gives the members of the group the opportunity to run the event themselves.

What Is Specific to Forum Theater?

In Forum Theater, role-playing serves as a vehicle for analyzing power and stimulating public debate. Participants explore the complexity of the individual-group relation at a variety of levels of human exchange. They are invited to map out: a) the dynamics of power within and between groups; b) the experience and the fear of powerlessness within the individual; and c) rigid patterns of perception that generate miscommunication and conflict, as well as ways of transforming them.

Registration begins at 9:00 am on Saturday.

Facilitators: Carmelina Cartei, Kelly di Bertolli

Tuition--sliding scale: $100-$175

*****

November 10-27

Sultan Kudarat: A Performance on Aspects of the History of Decolonization in the Philippines (a co-production of Kinding Sindaw, La Mama ETC, and the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory)

at La Mama ETC Theater 74A East Fourth Street (between Bowery and Second Avenue) New York City Thursday, Friday and Saturday, November 10, 11, 12, 17, 18, 19

*****

December 2-4

TOPLAB General Audience Workshop #3: Cop-in-the-Head for Community Organizers--A Workshop on Internalized Oppression (Confronting Internalized Oppression in Order to Decolonize the Mind)

Friday, December 2, 5:00 - 9:00 pm Saturday, December 3, 10:00 am - 8:00 pm Sunday, December 4, 10:00 am - 6:00 pm

Cop-in-the-Head is a collection of Theater of the Oppressed techniques that use games and exercises to recognize and confront internalized forms of oppression, and explore power relations and collective solutions to concrete problems.

Facilitators: Kelly di Bertolli, Esperanza Martell, Marie-Claire Picher

Tuition--sliding scale: $125-$200

*****

December 17-18 (times to be announced)

Celebration and Fundraising Weekend for the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory and the Brecht Forum

TOPLAB Fifteenth Anniversay Year 1990-2005 Brecht Forum Thirtieth Anniversary Year 1975-2005

A festival of the arts, including Forum Theater performances, and performances by Kinding Sindaw Kelly di Bertolli and Kayhan Irani. Art exhibit, music (free jazz presented by Neues Cabaret and other musicians), spoken word, workshops, and more!

Food and drink

*****

Winter-Spring 2006

TOPLAB 2006 Internship Program

the Oppressed for Community Organizers

Tuition: $1,300 (food not included)

Friday evenings, 5:00 - 9:00 pm* (discuss projects, concepts and buttigned readings) (10:00 am - 8:00 pm for June session) Saturdays, 10:00 am - 8:00 pm (includes lunch and dinner together) Sundays, 10:00 am - 8:00 pm (includes lunch and dinner together)

January 27-29, 2006: Paulo Freire Methodology I and Image Theater I February 24-26: Freire Methodology II and Image Theater II March 24-26: Forum Theater I April 28-30: Forum Theater II May 26-28: Forum Theater III June 23-25: Forum Theater IV; Forum Theater festival (Saturday and Sunday)

For more information, please contact TOPLAB at toplab at toplab.org or call (212) 924-1858

*****

The purpose of the Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory, founded in New York City in July 1990, is to provide a forum for the practice, performance and dissemination of the techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. TOPLAB is a group of educators, cultural and political activists and artists whose work is based on extensive training and collaboration with Augusto Boal since its founding. TOPLAB conducts on-site training workshops on theater as an organizing tool for activists in neighborhood, labor, peace, human rights, youth and community-based organizations. We work with educators, human service and mental health workers, union organizers, and political and community activists who are interested in using interactive theater as a tool for analyzing and exploring solutions to problems of oppression and power that arise in the workplace, school, and community--problems connected to AIDS, substance abuse, family violence, homelessness, unemployment, racism and loveism.

Since 1990, through the auspices of the Brecht Forum, TOPLAB has initiated and organized intensive workshops led by Augusto Boal in New York City. It has also planned and led hundreds of training workshops in the techniques of the Theater of the Oppressed. In this capacity, TOPLAB has brought together people from diverse backgrounds, occupations, and organizations, and functioned as a resource, information, and networking center serving individuals and groups interested in theater for social change. Each year, TOPLAB has both an Internship Program and a series of public workshops at the Brecht Forum in New York.

TOPLAB has presented training workshops elsewhere in New York, and throughout the United States, Mexico and Guatemala for numerous social action organizations, schools and colleges, religious groups, health care professionals, educators and others, as well for the general public.

In addition to targeted training workshops, TOPLAB members have worked in various street theater projects around the themes of globalization, neoliberalism and international solidarity, and to protest United States aggression against Iraq, Cuba, the Balkan countries, Latin America and elsewhere, and its members and buttociates are involved in a wide range of progressive political, solidarity, peace and social justice groups and movements.

The Theater of the Oppressed is an organizing tool for liberating our communities. In keeping with the vision of Augusto Boal, TOPLAB aims to buttist communities-in-struggle to mobilize themselves as "spect-actors" of their own lives. We also share the objectives of the Basic Integrated Theater Arts Workshop developed by the Filipino Educational Theater Alliance (PETA): to help community members become "spect-actors"-- simultaneously actors, teachers, organizers and researchers.

TOPLAB will neither facilitate workshops for, nor accept funding from for-profit corporations and similar enterprises.

*****

Travel Directions to the Brecht Forum and TOPLAB

We are at:

451 West Street * (between Bank and Bethune Streets in the far West Village, 1-1-2 blocks north of West 11 Street) New York City

* Note: West Street is the same as the West Side Highway

The fare for NYC subways and buses is $2.00. You must buy a Metrocard for subway travel (minimum of $4 from the clerk's window; vending machines sell one-trip Metrocards). Buses accept Metrocard and cash (exact fare; coins only--no paper money accepted). You get one free ride for each $10 increment on the purchase of a Metrocard. The fare for New Jersey PATH trains is $1.50. Quick Cards are sold in vending machines and through vendors.

Subway

IND Eighth Avenue A, C, or E to 14 Street or BMT Canarsie L to Eighth Avenue (take a few minutes to look at "Life Underground", Tom Otterness' series of whimsical bronze sculptures scattered throughout both sections of the station). Walk down Eighth Avenue (against the traffic) to Bethune Street (at Abingdon Square). Turn right on Bethune and walk west to West Street. Turn left, walk a half-block to 451.

IRT Seventh Avenue 1, 2, or 3 trains to 14 Street. Exit at the south (12 Street) end of the station. Walk a short block west, across 12 Street, to Greenwich Avenue. Turn left and walk one block to Bank Street. Turn right, walk west on Bank Street to Abingdon Square. Bank Street continues on the other side of the park; keep walking on Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.

New Jersey PATH train to Christopher Street. Walk north on Greenwich Street to Bank Street. Turn left, walk west on Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.

Bus

#8 (Ninth-Christopher Streets crosstown) to Christopher and West Streets, walk up West Street to 451.

#11 (Ninth and Tenth Avenues): From uptown--to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street). Walk west on Bethune to West Street. Turn left, walk a half-block to 451. No service from downtown--Abingdon Square is the terminal stop.

#14A (Grand-Eslove Streets-Avenue A-Fourteenth Street crosstown) to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street) Walk west on Bethune to West Street. Turn left, walk a half-block to 451.

#20 (Seventh Avenue and Hudson Street-Eighth Avenue): From downtown--to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street) Walk west on Bethune to West Street. Turn left, walk a half-block to 451. From uptown--to 12 Street (near St. Vincent Hospital). Walk a short block west, across 12 Street, to Greenwich Avenue. Turn left and walk one block to Bank Street. Turn right, walk west on Bank Street to Abingdon Square. Bank Street continues on the other side of the park; keep walking on Bank Street to West Street. Turn right, walk a quarter-block to 451.

Subway and Bus combination

The Metrocard allows free transfers from subway to bus and bus to subway (not valid for the New Jersey PATH train). Subway to bus transfer points are as follows:

East Side: IRT Lexington Avenue #6 local train to Astor Place. Walk one block north to the east side of Fourth Avenue and Ninth Street. Take the #8 crosstown bus to Christopher and West Streets. Walk up West Street to 451. Or, BMT Broadway N, R, or W to Eighth Street (N bypbuttes this station on weekdays); walk north one block to Broadway and Ninth Street and take the #8 crosstown bus to Christopher and West Streets. Walk up West Street to 451. Or, IRT Lexington Avenue 4 or 5 express or 6 local or BMT Broadway N, R, Q, or W to 14 Street-Union Square. Take the #14A crosstown bus heading west to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street) Walk west on Bethune to West Street. Turn left, walk a half-block to 451.

West Side: IND Sixth Avenue B, D, F, or V or IND Eighth Avenue A, C, or E to West Fourth Street. Exit at the north (Eighth Street) end of the station. Walk one block north to the east side of Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) and Ninth Street. Take the #8 crosstown bus to Christopher and West Streets. Walk up West Street to 451. Or, take the IND Sixth Avenue F or V, IRT Seventh Avenue 1, 2, or 3, IND Eighth Avenue A, C, or E, or BMT Canarsie L to 14 Street. Take the #14A crosstown bus heading west to Abingdon Square (at Bethune Street) Walk west on Bethune to West Street. Turn left, walk a half-block to 451. Or, take the IRT Seventh Avenue 1 local to Christopher Street. Take the #8 crosstown bus to Christopher and West Streets. Walk up West Street to 451.

Car

Drive west on 11 Street all the way to West Street (West Side Highway). Turn right for one block, to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets.

Along the West Side Highway: From downtown--stay to the right and follow the Highway to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets. From uptown: Take the Highway to Clarkson Street (exit left), make a U-turn at Clarkson and proceed back up the Highway to 451, between Bank and Bethune Streets.

Note that there is no legal parking on many parts of West Street before 6:00 pm, and parking on the surrounding streets is scarce. Fines for illegal parking are a minimum of $115, and your car could be towed. Retrieval can cost you as much as $300. Fees at parking lots and garages can run as high as $30 a day. WE URGE YOU TO USE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION.

Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) 451 West Street New York, New York 10014 (212) 924-1858 toplab at toplab.org

"My fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." ~ --George W. Bush, May 1, 2003

"...I told the American people that the road ahead would be difficult, and that we would prevail. Well, it has been difficult--and we are prevailing." ~ --George W. Bush, June 28, 2005

U.S. military baneities through May 1, 2003: 140 U.S. military baneities through June 28, 2005: 1743 U.S. military baneities as of July 15, 2005: 1761

Iraqi civilian baneities through May 1, 2003: 1982 Iraqi civilian baneities through June 28, 2005: 22,563 ? 25,560 (estimated) Iraqi civilian baneities as of July 15, 2005: 22,838 ? 25,868 plus 1 (estimated)

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