Upset! Gave freedom for the youth to be able to gain insight into historical figures that the may not have known too much about. As well as created a dialog that highlighted on the youths view of the past and their understanding of it. “Aesthetic Eclecticism” was introduced in the Joker system, which allowed for pastiche of ideas to be presented and dissected. Encouraging audience participation is a clear way of starting a coherent conversation where all sides are valued and it is not one side telling the other how it is. Showing the process is fundamental in showing how one COMES to understand, not through statements but more and more questions that we might not have the answers to yet, but this is the beauty of the process. The aim in this was to keep the dialogue going and keep discovering. The students were asked to explore identities and cultures that were different from their own and see what they find. This is particularly interesting when we are asked to play the villain, or the other side. We have to find the empathy within us to understand those that are different from us and will inevitably learn more about ourselves. I wonder what the consensus was after the performance, what did the audience take home from this experience.
“The Joker System provided a perfect aesthetic vehicle to tell not only the story of Rodney King and the ensuing uprising, but a larger, ever changing and ever-the-same, storyo of violence, racism, and resistance in the US. Creating UPSET! In the mode of the Joker System provided a means to incorporate the teens curiosity, dismay, outrage, confusion, fear, and inspiration in relation to the subject matter of the play within the play.” Here's a bit of extra background on the joker system: “The Joker System laid the theoretical foundation for the Theatre of the Oppressed, the umbrella term Boal employed for all his subsequent theoretical developments. Even in the Forum Theatre, his most popular theatrical format, the lineaments of the Joker system are apparent. The Joker System began in 1965, when the Arena Theatre performed Arena Narrates ZumbĂ. The word “Joker” had, in Boal’s mind, the same significance as the “Joker” playing card, a card which has more mobility than a...
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