Theater, Boal and Me!

This month is Augusto Boal's 93rd birthday

Happy Birthday, Maestro Boal!

During the 1990s and early 2000s, while very active in the performing arts, I took workshops at the University of Southern California (USC) based on Augusto Boal’s theory of “Theater of the Oppressed.” Fascinated by his techniques, especially affecting dialogue, I easily absorbed his influence into previous theater training I undertook in El Salvador in the 1980s at CENAR, Centro Nacional De Artes, where Stanislavski's techniques prevailed. At Mount San Antonio College, (MTSAC) in Walnut, California, I studied theater and learned about Meyerhold and Grotowski.  

With Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed theatrical theory, I identified very well, especially as someone who, like Boal, lived in exile as an immigrant, first in Canada, and then in the United States.  In the 1990s I did a lot of theater in the streets and neighborhoods of Southern California, in houses, in parks... including one year as a clown, at the invitation of a Mexican actor. Whenever I went out on my own to perform, I told stories in Spanish and English, and with pantomime at children's or adults' birthday parties. I learned to do balloon tricks… during these magical years, in a surreal and strange times in Southern California.

My clown name was Cipotita.