Augusto Boal nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008
For Immediate Release
January 21, 2008
Calgary, AB
Theatre has recently been recognized on the global stage as an exceptional tool of world peace as Augusto Boal has been nominated to be a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2008.
Augusto Boal's most important artistic creation, Theater of the Oppressed, is now being used in more than seventy countries by hundreds of individuals and organizations, in such fields as education and pedagogy, social work and mental health, political and cultural activism, as well as numerous other areas where people are deprived of their right to fully be themselves and exist freely. “Theater of the Oppressed artists have helped thousands of people around the world to demand their rights and have been fully engaged in the ongoing struggles against globalization, racism, sexism, homophobia, economic exploitation, and all other forms of oppression,” says Michele Decottignies, Artistic Director of Stage Left Productions – Calgary’s Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed.
The work that Augusto Boal has done throughout the world, for so many decades, truly merits receipt of this prestigious prize. “This candidacy not only honors Boal personally but also acknowledges all Theater of the Oppressed practitioners, working throughout five continents, and it serves as a stimulus to for them continue their splendid work,” continues Decottignies.
Alberta, and especially Calgary, is a vibrant centre of Theatre of the Oppressed practice, with a Centre for the Theatre of the Oppressed in Stage Left Productions, plus a number of companies (e.g. All Nations Theatre) and individuals (e.g. Mariette Sluyter, Diane Conrad, Charlene Hellson, etc.) who are using TO methods in all kinds of creative and social applications of the theatre arts.
For more information about Augusto’s candidacy, please visit:
http://www.theatreoftheoppressed.org/en/index.php?nodeID=13&id=3&id=355
“Otherwise, our congratulations to Boal, and to all Theatre of the Oppressed artists in Calgary, for understanding that theatre can directly benefit hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world,” offers Decottignies.
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For more information:
Michele Decottignies, Artistic Director
Stage Left Productions
829.2307 (direct line)
michele@stage-left.org
"Using the arts to affect personal and social transformation, and to foster social justice, with marginalized communities."