Theatre of the oppressed activities

Blind-cars-based actitivy

The teacher, along with the students, should rearrange the desks and chairs and decorate the class so that there are zones standing for different typical urban places like the chemist´s, the restaurant, the doctor or the supermarket, p.e.

Then, the students are divided into pairs. One person must close his eyes and place himself in front of the other. This will be the blind car. His partner will play the driver. He should decide a place to go and give the blind car the appropiate directions (´turn right`, ´turn left`, ´stop`) to get to that place. After some minutes they can swap the roles.

Students can practice how to give directions and how to receive and follow them.

Remember-the-image-based activity

One volunteer stands in front of the rest of the group, which is asked to close their eyes by the leader. The volunteer then moulds herself into a frozen image. The leader tells the group to open their eyes for a couple of seconds, take in the image they see, then write what they think it is and explain to the rest of the group why. After all the students have explained what they saw, the volunteer gives the correct answer.

Forum theatre

In the forum theatre activity all the students have to participate. Some of them will start performing and introducing the plot. Once the story has been set the spectators can become spect-actors, meaning that students who are watching the play can interrupt it at any moment and substitute the actor who was about to talk.

This way the script is flexible and we will foster the improvisation of the students on top of their dramaturgic skills. Themes are various and do not have to be bound to oppression issues. All the students have to take part in the activity.