Human Body Theater: A Non-Fiction Revue

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But for real, this book does an absolutely fantastic at breaking down the human body into basics (and then some). Sure, our body parts are made of cells, but what exactly are those made of? And how do cells interact with each other? Why are they so different? What do they do? All of these questions are answered in a logical way, going from bone, to muscle, to organs, and more! Forum scenes can be virtual one-act plays or more often short scenes. In either case, a full presentation is offered to the audience. The joker (difficultator) then says to the audience we will do this again, and if you would do something different than what the protagonist (not the antagonists) is doing, stand up and yell stop. The protagonist will then sit down and the audience member is invited forward to show their solution of the moment. Once the intervention is performed, the audience invariably applauds, and the joker invites the audience to discuss the proposed solution, and to offer even more solutions. The "host" is Bones, a skeleton, who deftly leads us through several "acts" of the human body systems, introducing us to all kinds of interesting characters, from a chorus line of germs to the five oversized senses, to the poor "finger" who has to serve as an example of many different body problems. Despite these characterizations, most things are drawn realistically, and lots of scientific words are introduced. My kids (4 and 7) loved it when I read this to them, even though there was a lot of information. It's been one of their favorite books of the school year so far. I may not always enjoy graphic novels, but now I'll never question whether they can be used to present important information in an engaging, fun, reader-friendly format. It's like the perfect cross between a child's science textbook and a comic book. I learned a few things myself, and getting to really see the relationship between body systems was helpful. Even when the text was humorous and the images presented used non-anatomical analogies (for example, showing an antibody storage room for the immune system), these served to enhance the information rather than distract from it.

Towards the end of the book when discussing the skin, the book states that "a little sun exposure will actually help the skin protect itself from future sunburns". This is a myth which has been debunked (Maron, Dina Fine. "Fact or Fiction? A 'Base Tan' Can Protect Against Sunburn", Scientific American, May 22, 2015). Boal theorises theatre as necessarily conflictual and processual. In Rainbow of Desire, Boal claims that theatre has three elements: it is a passionate combat of two humans on a platform. It performs the conflicts and contradictions of social life in a special, aesthetic space which allows them to be observed. Anything can be an aesthetic space, provided it is designated apart from the wider, observational space. For an aesthetic space to exist, there needs to be a split between actor and spectator, even if they are the same person. The aesthetic space “is” but does not “exist”: it is a represented space. Aesthetics of the oppressed is fundamentally about problem-posing. The focus of Boal’s method is thus on the question “what if?” Traditional theatre usually uses the indicative mood – “I do”. Adverts use the imperative mood – “Do!” Theatre of the Oppressed uses the subjunctive mood, either past – “what if I were doing that?” or future – “what if I were to do this?” Its questions are also accompanied by corresponding acts. Boal situates his theatrical work in relation to a particular politics of knowledge. He contrasts a desirable, human state of creative freedom with various oppressive social realities. Oppression goes hand in hand with voicelessness and the inability to act on one’s own desires. As such, Boal insists that ‘to speak is to take power’. Theatre is one of the domains of the resultant struggle. Theatre is necessarily political, because all human action is political. Theatre is about power, human relationships, and who gets to speak. In his earlier works, Boal writes of theatre as a weapon to be fought for. The ruling class will seek to hold onto it. The oppressed need to wrest it from their hands. It is clear from such statements that Boal is both a conflict theorist and a believer in an underlying human potential for creative becoming. Tweens and teens working on science reports will find the Table of Contents useful in identifying chapters on each of the body systems. Youth will also use the glossary and bibliography as reference sources.If there is a problem with the book it may come right at the very beginning. Our skeleton hero introduces herself and from there you would expect her to jump right in to Human Body Theater with the bones. Instead, the storyline comes to a near screeching halt from the get go with a laborious explanation of cells, elements, and molecules. It’s not that these things aren’t important or interesting. Indeed, you can more than understand why they come at the beginning the way that they do. But as the book currently stands, this section feels like it was added in at the last minute. If it was going to preface the actual “show” then couldn’t it have been truly separate from the main event and act as a kind of pre-show entertainment? For Boal, art is central to human life. Art is part of culture. Culture is what is specifically human about human beings. Culture is a process of humanising ourselves, by replacing natural savagery with ethics. To do this, artists must be free from market demands, which are part of the world to be overcome. Capitalist globalisation undermines this process. It replaces artists with technicians, who reproduce a model over and over. Art is replaced by mass-produced products. The culture market makes people perform with a voice, body, emotions, and so on, other than their own, to maximise profits. Instead we should sing with our own voice. To help change the world, artists need to work outside the profit system, and in the spaces of the people. Saying no to capitalism is not enough. We also need to desire and dream in autonomous ways, which are not dominated by mass culture. The ability to choose different responses – rather than respond on instinct – is a central human trait enabled by art. What I thought was done exceptionally well, however, were the bits on reproductive organs. It wasn't super cutesy or too clinical--just perfect, in my opinion, for not being too embarrassing for the younger reader to read or see. This chapter discusses the different ways in which female and male bodies grow through puberty, what to expect when you're older, how a fetus is made, and how that fetus is born. In Aesthetics of the Oppressed, Boal lists several techniques for forms of art other than theatre. One of these entails listing a personal or national event, and trying to link its personal and political significance together. Another involves declaring identity based on different relationships – modelled on the theory that identity is relational. Forms of imagery include photographs of hands, which show a person’s activity, and sculptures made from clean rubbish. In terms of sound techniques, the goal is to connect with inner rhythms. Techniques include telling stories in dance, and turning mechanistic gestures into dance.

This space is plastic and malleable, like dreams. This is what gives it creative power. It allows the creation of concrete dreams. And it allows for things to be in two spaces, through representation. Both signified and signifier are real. For example, a photo of a person is a real object, even though the person it represents is also real. This means we can exist in two different worlds at once ( metaxis). While such representation has oppressive possibilities ( see part 3), it can also be used in emancipatory ways. Theatre is conceived as a form of reflexivity. Whereas ‘in real life we live, in theatre we re-live and observe ourselves better’. Theatre can enhance knowledge because of three aspects. Firstly, its plasticity, allowing free expression. Secondly, its doubling or splitting of the self into observer and observed. Thirdly, its magnification of the event on which it focuses. Culture of all forms (not only theatre) emerges from this aesthetic nature. We are all cultural producers, in that we produce our own lives, and produce things we need to live. Culture is necessarily diverse, because it is a set of ‘ways of doing’, which in turn are ways to reach different dreams. Hence, while the essence is in a sense common, it manifests in ways which produce diversity and difference. This is because the essence is a creative force, rather than a fixed type of being.

Multi-award winning writer Lucy Kirkwood’s current projects include writing the book and lyrics for new musical The Witches, based on Roald Dahl’s classic book, now playing at the National Theatre. Image Theatre uses the human body as a tool of representing feelings, ideas, and relationships. Through sculpting others or using our own body to demonstrate a body position, participants create anything from one-person to large-group image sculptures that reflect the sculptor’s impression of a situation or oppression. From his work Boal evolved various forms of theatre workshops and performances which aimed to meet the needs of all people for interaction, dialogue, critical thinking, action, and fun. While the performance modes of Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, Cop-In-The-Head, and the vast array of the Rainbow of Desire are designed to bring the audience into active relationship with the performed event, the workshops are virtually a training ground for action not only in these performance forms, but for action in life. Design will be by Fly Davis, with Lighting design by Joshua Pharo, Sound design by Ben and Max Ringham, the Fight director is Kate Waters, and Casting is by Anna Cooper CDG. It’s not clear if this argument of Boal’s requires a position of transcendence. Critics might argue that the splitting of the self will lead to an alienated relationship between the observing and acting parts of the self, subordinating the latter to the former. But this seems to go against the spirit of Boal’s work – which is deeply embodied and aims to dis-alienate. The capacity to split into observer and actor is not reified but, rather, re-united in the “spect-actor” (see part 2). The split produces a line of flight to a future, which is created as something distinct from the present – to which thought and life are often reduced. This is arguably a radically immanent form of practice, despite its transcendental theoretical underpinnings.

Theatre makes a special contribution in enabling dialogue. For Boal, all human relations, especially those across difference, should be dialogues. Real dialogue is not simply a set of overlapping monologues. It requires listening, and respect for difference. Boal also draws a recurring contrast between really seeing or hearing, and simply watching or being silent. This is exemplified in his critique of mass media. Television encourages watching, but not seeing. In contrast, art and science help us to see or hear. Boal shows what he means by this distinction with various examples. Newton really saw the apple fall to earth, where others had simply watched it. Beethoven makes us hear silence, a psychoanalyst hears what is not said. The implication in each case is that to really see or hear is to perceive or intuit an underlying, inner or qualitative dimension which is obscured in the surface appearance. Too often, we only watch or absorb sounds, without really seeing and hearing in this sense. The world is diverse, composed of billions of unique entities, and constantly in flux. In other words, everything is ultimately a unicity – something unique which signifies only itself. People use habits and categories to survive the resultant vertigo of sensory input. Naming, for instance, is a way of fixing things in time and space. Although Boal sees such categorising processes as necessary (its absence leads to madness), he also sees them as dangerous, and implies that they are over-used in existing societies. Language is alleged to have a role in the degradation of the senses. Words can even over-ride senses, making people imagine the world is different from what they experience. The Human Body is part of outgoing Donmar artist director Michael Longhurst’s final season at the iconic London venue.

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In particular, theatre expresses the human capacity for creativity. There are many different “languages”, or forms of expression. All of these are irreplaceable and valuable. They are different ways of knowing the world. The multiplication of languages, or learning of new languages, help us get closer to the real, because they give more and more perspectives on it. The particular “language” of theatre is the human body. To act is to know and control one’s body, to make it expressive. The body, not theatrical technique, is the proper focus of learning. In his later works, Boal claims that ‘theatre is the human language par excellence’. Humans are most human when doing theatre. This is because theatre emphasises the capacity to observe oneself in action. This reflexive structure of self-observation is for Boal central to humanity. The underlying worldview informing Boal’s position is a view of human beings as active producers of reality. Boal embraces a humanist position in which humanity has an essence, and this essence has overwhelming value (relative to particularities, “inhuman” aspects of human beings, and non-human entities). Hence, Boal aims to relate to participants as human beings, rather than specific groups or types. This results in the expected rejection, both of “inhuman” aspects of humanity, and of nature – a ‘cruel’ other we need to transform to survive. Boal’s view of the human essence, akin to Marxian species-being, is also specifically aesthertic. Humanity is the greatest masterpiece of nature. What sets us apart from animals is the ability to invent (rather than await) the future. Humanity has five basic properties: sensitivity, emotion, rationality, sex/gender, and movement. The first three of these – sensation, emotion, reason – are specifically mental. Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 2021-07-02 18:01:03 Boxid IA40164423 Camera Sony Alpha-A6300 (Control) Collection_set printdisabled External-identifier In fact, words are always shifting in meaning. In discussions, they change subtly from the signification meant by the speaker, to the signification held by the listener. Every word is loaded with the speaker’s desire, but received with the hearer’s. Communication often fails because words have different connotations for different people. One way to overcome this problem is to use neologisms.