AtticRep

AtticRep - One Trinity Place, San Antonio, TX 78212   Tel: 210.999.8524

AtticRep's Forum Theater Project

Artistic Statement
AtticRep’s Forum Theater Project strives to reflect the topics of its community. Using performance strategies and theatrical language, Forum Theater Project constructs original performances that focuses on the individual’s sense of belonging to our community. The Forum Theater Project provides the means to forge these ideas into provocative concrete form and aims to stimulate dialogue; and through dialogue, change.

Pragmatics
The Forum Theater Project is divided in three parts; research, workshop, and Forum Performance.

Research
The first stage identifies a topic pertinent to our community. Once the topic is identified, AtticRep artists canvas the community to collect life stories from the members of the community. Stories that deal with the topic at hand.

Workshop
The collected stories are brought to AtticRep, and in a workshop environment using improvisational and narrative techniques, these stories are translated into an original theatrical language and a storyline is defined. This storyline is then developed, the actors develop specific characters, and a 15-20 minute play finally emerges. This play is never written down, the actors are aware of their characters, the story, and the topic. Since the Forum Theater Project is based on improvistation, the text would be an obstacle to the ability of the actor to respond to the needs of the Forum in performance.

Forum Theater Performance
The Forum Performance is divided in three events.

Event One is the performance of the original text.

• Event Two is the repeated performance of the original text. This time, however, the spectators will be invited to participate in the performance with the objective of changing the outcome of the story. Spectators can do so by stopping the performance and taking the place of one of the actors on stage. More audience members can replace more actors, and the performance is continued to its final, often unpredictable, resolution.
  
  Event Three is a discussion between the spectators, the actors, and the spect-actors, those spectators that took the place of the actors. The objective of this discussion is to bring to the surface the theme of the Forum Theater.
  
  Inspired by the work of Brazilian theater director Augusto Boal, Roberto Prestigiacomo, the Producing Artistic Director of AtticRep, has developed a unique Forum Theater Project which is the first of its kind in San Antonio. Since 2006, with his students at Trinity University and with the actors of AtticRep, Roberto has created Forum Theater Projects and Invisible Theater performances dealing with Physical Abuse, Bulimia, Teen Pregnancy, Personal Distance, Walls, Homelessnes, Illigal Immigration. Roberto is currently working with his students on the next Forum Theater Project which deals with Sexual Arrassment on Campus.
  
  
  Here is the list of Forum Theater Projects presented at AtticRep and Trinity University
  Forum Theater Project 2007: "Physical Abuse" (Trinity University)
  Forum Theater Project 2008: "Facing San Antonio's Homeless" (AtticRep)
  Forum Theater Project March 2009: "Borders and Walls" (AtticRep)
  Forum Theater Project April 2009: "Sexual Arrassment on Campus" (Trinity University)
  
  

1. 
3. Links to articles, radio stories, videos, and photos of our Forum Theater Projects
   
   
   

Texas Public Radio Story on "Facing San Antonio Homeles"

Texas Public Radio Story on "Borders and Walls"

Photos of our Forum Theater 2008 and 2009

FaceBook Group "Share your borderstory with AtticRep"

MySA Blog by Deborah Martin

Walls Symposium and the Forum Theater Project

WordPress for stories and videos of the 2008 Forum

Ford Foundation Difficult Dialogues sponsors Forum Theater Project 2008

Act, participate, discuss: Play explores immigration Express-News

TPR Texas Matter, March 13, 2009

HOME