Theatre for living: Searching for (and sometimes finding) many peaces in the transrational darkness

Abstract

In his chapter, the author traces the evolution of his Theatre for Living (TfL) from Brazilian theatre visionary Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, combined with his own theatre practice and a deep interest in ‘systems thinking.’ The chapter details Theatre for Living’s application in numerous complex real-world situations, drawing on the author’s work with Canadian Indigenous and other communities. He explains how communities are living organisms and what happens when a living community chooses to use the language of the theatre to tell and process issues with which the community is struggling and how this intersects with Dietrich’s concept of Many Peaces.