A Mila Productions film produced for Plan International
Brazilian theater director Augusto Boal developed The Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) during the 1950s and 1960s, from which Boal evolved various forms of theater including Theater for Development (TFD) with children. TFD facilitates children to interact and have dialogue not only among themselves, but with the adults. It also meets the need of children to critical thinking, action and fun.
TFD for children is a new way of learning about things that directly affect the lives of children who are poor, disadvantaged, disabled or excluded. It is used for awareness raising, empowering, advocacy, situational analysis, evaluation or just fun. Unlike Street Theatre, in TFD the issues are identified by the children, plays are made by the children and the performers decided amongst themselves, there is no external support. It is collective creativity, collective improvisation and collective spontaneity.
TFD emphasizes three things –
- the process (how problems are identified and plays made)
- the product (the play itself) and
- interaction with the audience to encourage discussion after the performance to facilitate a process for change.
This film is based on a TFD workshop conducted in Sunsary Morang with children from child-clubs, staff of PLAN and partner organizations, where the effect of TFD is clearly seen by the end of the workshop. However, change doesn’t happen overnight. Such a workshop should only be seen as a small beginning in a long-term process.
