The Birth of the International Theatre of the Oppressed Organisation (ITO)

by Ronald Matthijssen

Paris, September 2002: On a warm but rainy day we sat together to draw the first sketch of the ITO: Augusto and Julián Boal, Luc Opdebeeck and me. By that time, the Yellow Pages had already crossed the 100 entries barrier, and we felt encouraged by the enthusiastic reactions of so many colleagues around the world. It became absolutely clear that an international organisation is needed to stimulate the growth of the international Theatre of the Oppressed community. There is a need for more and sustained training in the various techniques of TO. This is especially true for the craft of the joker: many TO companies need more jokers in order to do their work properly.

Increasing Demand
Without enough jokers, the development of TO cannot continue as it should. This development is necessary to cope with the increasing demand for TO in all sectors of humanity. The demand does not come out of the blue: in times of violent conflicts in many regions, which causes so much inhumanity, people look for a way to express themselves, their desires and their will to change their circumstances. In regions that seem peaceful, social conflicts affect the lives of many citizens. Economic disasters aggravate their situations rapidly, and their human rights are violated in many ways.

Lack of Jokers
By November 2002 115 groups and practitioners from almost 40 countries appeared in the Yellow Pages. Among the latest entries, there are some from Pakistan, Nigeria, Singapore and Spain. People working for communities of peasants, for the rights of women, immigrants and young people, most of them asking us for addresses where they can find more training, financial and organisational support. If we look at the developments in our own country, the Netherlands, we are embarking on new projects with prisoners, homeless people, against bullying and violence, and to support urban development in underprivileged areas. So much work to do, but such a lack of jokers.

Aims of the ITO
This calls for a change within our movement. First, training in TO techniques should be available to everybody that wants to learn them. In our ideal image, every country where TO is practiced has its own CTO: a centre where the activities are coordinated, where training is offered and from which local groups are supported. Secondly, in order to equip the CTO’s with the sufficient means to carry out their tasks, TO must receive worldwide recognition on the levels of national and local governments, NGO’s, Funds and even science. This requires an organisation which is strong enough to get TO firmly on the map of the 21st century. Thirdly, in order to achieve this, the international organisation needs to develop standards, so that it is recognizable what TO is –and also what it is not. And finally, to be able to really show what TO can do, this organisation should conceive and carry out projects on a global scale, tackling issues of importance for all humanity. The four of us who sat together in Paris believe that the ITO has the potential of becoming such an organisation.

Partnerships
What do we need to make ITO work? Some of you may recall earlier attempts to found an international organisation. The attempts failed because there was too much organisation involved. All those working with TO, as we know now, are submerged in their own work and they cannot be expected to make their time partially available to a second organisation beside the one they are working with. Therefore we propose a structure which cuts organisation to a minimum. The ITO will be a virtual network, a virtual body which is visible but can still move freely. This means that bureaucracy should be minimal, but the output maximal. In the Netherlands we experimented with a model which proved to work out just as we hoped it would: the partnership model. The idea is simple but effective: in joint ventures with organisations with the same objectives we can share the bureaucracy or even do without it. This can also be implemented on an international level. Why should we invent the wheel again? Why should we become bureaucrats as well? There are already so many of them, what we need is to convince them to work for a just cause. It is our –and not only ours- experience that they will, for the simple reason that TO has an enormous power: the power to reach those who cannot be reached in another way. The power to activate the human potential, and to canalise this potential into a sustained development of humanity. Anyone who has witnessed a Forum will agree: they have experienced things they had never seen before. People speak up, act, reflect on and analyse their situation and come up with new and positive ideas.

Examples
International partnerships and joint ventures do already exist on some scale. Amnesty International implements TO in a growing number of African countries to give women access to legal support in order to claim their rights as a human being. AIDS prevention projects implement TO to raise awareness and understanding. In Theatre for Development, TO has a prominent place. Prison Theatre is a fast growing area of TO activity in various parts of the world. Major international funds, like the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations support TO activities in many countries. The ITO would be able to stimulate and enhance these partnerships. To make the point that a partnership with TO has a benefit for all, an exemplary project should be implemented. The idea for this project is called Flying Jokers.

Flying Jokers
The idea is simple but very effective: you bring say 20 emerging jokers from 20 different groups together with a number of experienced jokers and you give them the facilities to work together for 4-6 weeks. Then the new jokers return to their groups and transfer what they have learned to their colleagues. Then we would have 20 well-trained jokers and maybe 100 new emerging jokers.

Now, if these training weeks would take place in an area where the need for Theatre of the Oppressed is obvious, the participants could work with local groups as well. The local groups would be trained by both the experienced jokers as well as the emerging jokers. It could be a human rights project, it could be a peace project, an environmental project or a health project. It should be a project which is observed by many people. If it is successful, and I have no doubts whatsoever that it will, the Flying Jokers could fly every year to another place on this planet.

Participation
These are the ideas about the ITO. Shortly, a Declaration of Principles will be submitted and the founding process will begin. Anyone can participate by sharing ideas, information and proposals. But remember: we are a virtual network, so we must communicate. For that reason, the website www.theatreoftheoppressed.org was created to channel the communication. The Yellow Pages and the Formaat Forum will be transferred to these pages in the following weeks.

The ITO has landed
You are now witnessing the official launch of the ITO. During a follow-up meeting in Rotterdam, last January, the final details were settled. To become the virtual network it is conceived to be, we refer directly to the practitioners in the world, to participate in any possible way to build up the organisation gradually. The most important contribution is: make yourselves heard! Send us your information, ideas, queries, proposals, join the Forum on the website, communicate with your colleagues!

Contact
To reach ITO, email is the easiest option. We can communicate with you in six languages:
French and Portuguese speakers, your contact person is Julián Boal: julian.boal@libertysurf.fr
German and Dutch speakers, your contact person is Ronald Matthijssen: ramatthyssen@formaat.org English and Spanish speakers can reach either of the two.
Please always send a copy of your message to info@formaat.org and augustoboal@uol.com.br. In the following months, separate ITO-email-addresses will be created.

Below, the Declaration of Principles of the ITO is displayed. Translations in five languages, as well as the list of exemplary projects mentioned in the Declaration, are available on the news page of www.formaat.org and will be on the ITO website soon.

Under Pressure 12/13, February 2003