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Takalay Hamill - What a Riot Response

In 2005, Mary Shutzman was invited by the CalArts arts partnership to direct and write a play for the Plaza de la Raza theater program called UPSET! This play was created in collaboration with somewhere between 13-17 Latino students who wrote down a list of historical figures they'd like to know more about. "After several pedagogical sessions...the students voted on Rodney King and Claudette Colvin." The play was modeled after Augusto Boal's style of theater called The Joker System. This particular style of social theater is interesting to me because it elicits a real-time discussion with the audience. The Joker and the Chorus are meant to raise questions and discover new sides of a story that were never thought of before. "There's always a big chorus (sometimes two) that sings, dances, complains, rallies, and talks directly to the audience." The Boal style of theater is also very intriguing in that, it challenges people's set opinion about an event/issue through a container of personal interaction. The audience also feels the need to speak their mind when something such as The Joker (middle man) is a catalyst for a directional shift in the theme of a historically charged issue.

Some things I would as Mary Shutzman:
- In what ways can the aspects of The Joker System and Invisible Theater be combined, if at all?
- What was the audience reaction to UPSET!? Were there any particular moments within the show where it got heated or unpredictable?
- In what ways could we begin to perform Augusto Boal's different styles of theater? (what would be a book you could recommend?)
 

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