I didn’t know how relevant Theater of the Oppressed (TO) would be. All I knew was that the games were fun and helped build a cooperative classroom climate in my classes. I thought TO would simply be a practice to wrestle with the ideas of resilience in an embodied way. Yet the animating purpose of TO is related to resilience.

What is TO? Theater of the Oppressed is a set of community theater practices originated in the 1960s by Augusto Boal in Brazil during a military dictatorship. He realized theater could be oppressive if it focused only on the traditional modes of a play. What if a play inspires empathy or revolt against oppressors, but takes no further action? So he and collaborators created TO. In its current form, TO performances often happen with groups of people suffering a particular injustice. They act out a scene portraying the injustice once, and then draw the audience in to improvise variations of the scene with a goal of generating ideas for addressing the injustice. TO, practitioners say, is “rehearsal for the revolution.” This implies that the plays don’t end when the performance stops. They try to work in connection with non-profits, government agencies, and/or justice-seeking collectives to make change.

What is resilience? Resilience is commonly defined as bouncing back after a setback. The interest in resilience has grown over the last 20 years or so and is often used now in relation to social, political, economic, and environmental problems. These problems are multiplying, so it is reasonable to assert that we need more resilience. Socially, many people are concerned that young people are too fragile. “Whatever happened to sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me?” They might ask. Politically, power is constantly seized and wielded, and many people want to display resilience instead of rolling over and accepting authoritarianism and/or injustice. In the realm of economics, resilience is a popular idea regarding sustaining a business or maintaining a standard of living. Environmental disasters happen so frequently now, people want to be resilient so they can go on with their lives.

Issues with resilience. The systems of power that exist in our country were created by people, and are flawed. Those with power generally try to maintain it at the expense of others. Unfairness is rampant. People shouldn’t have to be so resilient, or strive for resilience. People should strive for fairness. In a way, resilience can be “used” similarly to a call to pull yourself up by your bootstraps. For example, a recent newspaper article I saw called the people of Eastern Tennessee resilient in relation to the situation they are in compared to a year ago, after the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. The destruction from this environmental disaster was extensive, and part of why it was so extensive in the first place was because of historical dis- and under-investment in the region. Those who survived were lauded as examples of perseverance or grit. Yet being lucky, and being lucky to be hard working, should not determine whether or not one gets to live or die. Resilience is not something we want to have to have, but something we need to help us accomplish goals.

Theater of the Oppressed and Resilience. As I said above, I was surprised by the connections between resilience and TO. The debates around the concept of resilience, in essence, are this: resilience shouldn’t be simply about coping with disasters and injustice, it should be about collaborating for justice and creating conditions that are healthier and safer. With TO, practitioners are empowered to act within the space carved out by the play. They are encouraged to develop solutions that acknowledge the complexity and entanglements of poverty, white supremacy, patriarchy, and ableism. Similarly, a good resilience practice opens up a space (within consciousness) to explore alternatives to the existing situation. With both, the spaces created allow for strategic thinking about what to do and how to do it. Coping for a moment with stress, trauma, or injustice, putting it on display through noticing body sensations or performing a scene, allows time to think of a different way for things to be. Coping is not the end-product of TO or resilience. It’s a step along the way to transforming oppression and harm.

 p.s. Playwrights could argue, like some philosophers do, that their job is not to implement ideas, but to explore them. This division of labor can be useful: I don’t want the philosopher or playwright to be held up by practical concerns during their meandering flow of creativity. Yet to present a philosophy or a play and wash your hands of it, to say now I’m done, see you later, is a refusal of responsibility.

p.s.s. Just saw Kristine Tompkins in a video saying we have a responsibility to do something (about climate crisis). Whatever you’re good at. I agree. I also see the potential ableism. So one could kindly add, do whatever you’re good at, and whatever you’re capable of. Because honoring the capacity of everyone might be frustrating, but if the alternative is browbeating everyone into action, we’re just repeating modes of oppression. We can try to make the world what we want now. So an addendum to Tompkins' advice: do something you’re capable of, in a way that creates joy/love/builds up life.