Day 7: Journal Excerpts

THOUGHTS:

I woke up today wanting to write about freedom.

What are my freedoms, and how have they manifested on this trip. Also, in what ways am i feeling restricted-and is it appropriate to act against them, or work to change them?

Being part of a group highlights freedoms and restrictions. This group is free to move about, but if it to remain a group, individuals become more limited. I feel like this group operates to allow as much freedom as possible for indiviuals which is affecting the degree to which it feels like a group (if that makes sense). As a result, individuals are left feeling unsafe and isolated.

On our way to the day treatment center, we drove past these immense favelas, huge and sprawling, and they left me thinking about appearances. I was struck by the appearance of those favelas, the garbage, and the homeless, but I had no interaction with people living there to back up an assumption of a miserable existence. I'm sure some of these places are dangerous, but people love each other there, and work hard, and laugh, and raise their children. But they are isolated, and so am I, in my bus that is driving through and doesn't stop. And that makes me really, really sad.

On the other hand, the performance at the facility was great. I got a chance to participate, and I really enjoyed hearing from the men and women in treatment there. They had very similar concerns to things I hear from those i have worked with in the States, and what we reinforced for each other is that there are other people working to chip away at the prejudice directed toward people with mental illness.

What I realized on this trip though, was that everyone had not previously working with the mentally ill. I had forgotten that, and was surprised at the discomfort some clearly felt. However, I think by the end of the performance, everyone was drawn in and open to receiving the beauty of these men and women.

I bought some orange beads, made by one of the patients, before we left.


This evening we are supposed to be going out to Lapa. I am anxious about traveling there with the group because i feel like I will be more vulnerable, more visible, and not really able to enjoy myself. With that said, I also don't want to miss this experience. There is a party at the Boal Center, which i think P and I will attend, since I really dont know what to expect.

CLASS NOTES:

"The Normal Ones"
I asked the group what they enjoy about being a part of "the normal ones":
- Getting to play different roles
- having fun
- doing new things

They also relayed to our group their feelings about being decriminated against and how they are working to change stereotypes.

Games:
These have been my favorite games so far,
Blank Character/Protagonist
What you would like to be
Exploring faces
Complete the image
Recognizable ritual
Image/counter-image

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BOAL:
Boal talked about traditional theatre and how it is formatted to give both the question and the answer, when the absurd is pedagogical without having to give an answer.
TO is trying to understand the situation, trying to humanize humanity. Moreover, the spectactor has to be responsible for what they do.


The questions about yesterday's work were centered around empathy, what the joker should look like, acting, improv, and opportunities in the techniques. I asked about the scenes with children in them, and how people were acting like adults when confronting their childhood oppressors. Boal mentioned that he dislikes when there is too much space from the character and the person who goes up to play them, like adult/child, black man/white woman, etc.

Someone also asked about being able to hear the entire story before creating the image to give the actors a better sense of what is going on. Boal's answer was that when you tell story AFTER creating the image you destroy the opportunity for people to project onto the image, their own ideas to share with the group and the protagonist.




"I want to meet the person who shades my shadow"