Playing games (ercises): Adopting an acting approach for theatre for young audiences based on theatre of the oppressed

Abstract

Children’s Theatre is a marginalised field that is frequently relegated to an amateur status. I argue that this is due to its strong links to education. In turn, both these factors resulted in the absence of a robust acting approach for the adult actor in Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA). I propose that Augusto Boal’s acting approach in Theatre of the Oppressed (i.e. the “gamesercises”) is a suitable solution to the problem. This is due to the similarities that his theatre shares with the field of Children’s Theatre. In both cases, empathy and selective realism takes centrestage. For the actor, this consideration needs to be informed by prevalent discourse in acting, of which there are two: emotions and the inside/outside dichotomy. Ultimately, Boal’s gamesercises should lead the TYA actor to a “childlike” quality.