It is not the place of the theatre to show the correct path, but only to offer the means by which all possible paths may be examined.
All human beings are Actors (they act!) and Spectators (they observe!).
Theatre is the most perfect artistic form of coercion.
Theatre has nothing to do with buildings or other physical constructions. Theatre - or theatricality - is the capacity, this human property which allows man to observe himself in action, in activity. Man can see himself in the act of seeing, in the act of acting, in the act of feeling, the act of thinking. Feel himself feeling, think himself thinking.
Theatre is the art of looking at ourselves.
Anyone can do theater, even actors. And theater can be done everywhere. Even in a theater.
When does a session of The Theatre of the Oppressed end? Never - since the objective is not to close a cycle, to generate a catharsis, or to end a development. On the contrary, its objective is to encourage autonomous activity, to set a process in motion, to stimulate transformative creativity, to change spectators into protagonists. And it is precisely for these reasons that the Theatre of the Oppressed should be the initiator of changes the culmination of which is not the aesthetic phenomenon but real life.
It is forbidden to walk on the grass. It is not forbidden to fly over the grass.
Empathy is the most powerful weapon [...]
The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it.
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!).
Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society. Theatre can help us build our future, rather than just waiting for it.
We are all actors: being a citizen is not living in society, it is changing it.
The poetics of the oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation: the spectator no longer delegates power to the characters either to think or to act in his place. The spectator frees himself; he thinks and acts for himself! Theatre is action!
The theater itself is not revolutionary: it is a rehearsal for the revolution.
Nothing is going to remain the way it is. Let us, in the present, study the past, so as to invent the future.
Theatre is a weapon. For that reason it must be fought for.
