Boal & Enacting Social Change

Boal views performance as a means for enacting social change. While this is fairly obvious due to Boal developing the Theatre of the Oppressed it is also seen in the games, roles, and theatre styles Boal created and employed. Boal was interested in gaining the view point of the audience members as well as the performers in order to create social change and remove oppression. It appeared that Boal felt to a certian degree we are all oppressed.
Games such as "The Vampire of Strasbourg" where all players close their eyes and one person is a vampire who runs around pinching other players on the neck in order to transform them into vampires as well is a game Boal developed for actors and nonactors. This game is used to show players and bystanders how quickly the oppressed can become the oppressor. Boal also uses roles such as the spect-actor to involve the audience in the performance and allow audience members to aid in the lifting of oppression. With this method audience members are allowed to stop the performance at any given time and instruct the performers on how to correctly perform the piece and alleviate oppression. Boal employs theatre styles such as invisible theatre to create social change as well. Invisible theatre is interested in simulating real life experiences in a public setting where bystanders are oblivious to the fact that the instance is staged.
Boal uses the perviously stated games, roles, and theatre styles as well as various others to convey how performance can educate people on the various formats of oppression as well as how audience members can aid in creating social change. By showing the audience a form of oppression and then allowing them to lift the oppression Boal allows the audience to have agency in creaing a new performance. The new performance is then collaborative and may help audience members to see how they have the power to create change both inside and outside of the theatre.