of socio-cultural animation. He writes of theatre as the art of looking at ourselves: The Theatre of the Oppressed is theatre in this most archaic application of the word. In this usage, all human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!). They are Spect-Actors.... Everything that actors do, we do throughout our lives, always and everywhere. Actors talk, move, dress to suit the setting, express ideas, reveal passions - just as we do in our everyday lives. The only difference is that actors are conscious that they are using the language of theatre, and are thus better able to turn it to their advantage, whereas the woman and man in the street do not know that they are speaking theatre. (Boal 1992: xxx). In these words we can see some immediate connections to what we do as informal and community educators.What Boal has done is to work in workshops - perhaps with workers from a particular factory(Forum Theatre) or to take performance to the street (Invisible Theatre) where people are confronted with what at first sight appear to be events - but are revealed as theatre. He begins by seeking to integrate the group and to explore political and economic questions (2 days). In this there is an emphasis on exercise - 'actors must work on their bodies to get to know them better and to make them more expressive' (ibid.: 1). The group would then work for a couple of days on preparing 'scenes' (through exercises, games etc.). On the fifth day they may take the scenes to the street (Invisible Theatre) and then on sixth make a presentation to an audience (Forum Theatre).What we can see in this is a fairly straightforward process that carries within in many of the concerns and a significant amount of the analysis that runs through Freire's work. For example on dialogue: 'I believe it is...
