USC School of Theatre Continuing Education

Course Offering For Summer 2008  

Theatre of the Oppressed for Cultural Fieldworkers

August 11 - 16  

Engage in a week-long intensive training program in the theory and practice of Theatre of the Oppressed with the co-founder of the Los Angeles Center for Theatre of the Oppressed and Applied Theatre Arts. Explore the roots of TO from Brazil and its roots in Freirean pedagogy to its current incarnation in more than 70 countries around the world. Experience and learn how to teach the games, preparatory exercises and techniques that can be applied to virtually any setting from education and therapy to social change and trauma recovery, including Image Theatre, Forum Theatre and classic Rainbow of Desire work. Ideal for teachers, therapists, social workers, political activists, actors, artists and civic leaders.

Schedule: Mon – Fri, August 11 - 15, 6 p.m. – 10 p.m.

Sat, August 16, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Total: 27 hours

Fee: $250*

Instructor: Brent Blair

*USC Alumni receive a 10% discount

The instructor:

Brent Blair is founder of the Applied Theatre Arts (ATA) emphasis at the USC School of Theatre where he is a senior lecturer. He created and teaches courses in Theatre in Education, Theatre and Therapy and Theatre in the Community, in addition to heading up an Applied Theatre Arts minor program. He has trained with Augusto Boal since 1996 and co-founded the Center for Theatre of the Oppressed and Applied Theatre Arts, Los Angeles (http://www.ctoatala.org), which has hosted Boal in four L.A. area workshops including the 11 th Annual International Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed conference in 2005. He has been training Cultural Field Workers across Los Angeles and around the world for 12 years, most recently engaging in theatre for trauma recovery in Rwanda and training cultural field workers in Australia. His research is focused on Liberation Arts from a post-colonial model, and recent projects have addressed homelessness and displacement; the prison industrial complex; depressive disorder, high school bullying and suicidal ideation; labor injustice and the exploitation of day laborers; and juvenile justice.

Location: USC School of Theatre, Drama Center - Massman Theatre

Click here to download the registration form (pdf).

For additional information, please email bblair@usc.edu.