Come Closer

In «Come Closer,» community activists, scholars, and theatre artists describe their Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) work and how they are transforming TO for new purposes, new audiences, and new settings. Each chapter features a first-person narrative on how the authors’ work both honors and transforms the vision of Augusto Boal, whose imaginative response to human oppression offers the world an aesthetic intervention that has the power to move both the oppressors and the oppressed to the possibility of transformative dialogue. Contributors to this important volume center their ideas and their descriptions of their practice within theoretical frameworks, particularly Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. «Come Closer» will be useful to undergraduate and graduate students, as well as administrators and professors interested in the topic of democratic education.

Toby Emert is a theatre artist and professional educator who has worked with hundreds of pre-service and in-service teachers across the United States on methods to combine literacy instruction and the arts. He holds a BA in English and Theatre Education from Longwood College, an M.Ed. in Educational Administration from the College of William and Mary, an MA in English from the University of Tennessee, and a PhD in Education from the University of Virginia. He is an associate professor in the Department of Education at Agnes Scott College near Atlanta, Georgia, and he also teaches drama-based education courses, including Drama for Community Leadership, through the Creative Arts in Learning graduate program at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His research agenda includes explorations of the connections between deep learning and artistic expression particularly how theatre-based structures can be adapted for any classroom content. He served on the Board of Directors for Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed for six years and was president of the organization in 2008-09.
Ellie Friedland has been an activist teacher educator, writer, and performer for more than 25 years, specializing in teaching for social justice, and integrating drama, Theatre of the Oppressed, and movement into early childhood education and teacher education and professional development. She is Associate Professor of Early Childhood Education at Wheelock College in Boston, where her research and publications focus on teaching anti-bias early education, especially LGBT inclusive practice, in the U.S. and Guatemala, culturally competent teaching and learning, and teaching through drama. She holds a B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies/Nursery-Kindergarten Education from Cornell University, an M.S. in Human Behavior and Development from Drexel University, and a PhD in Education and the Arts from The Union Institute in Ohio. She leads workshops for teens and adults in Theatre of the Oppressed for the Wheelock Family Theatre, nationally renowned for its long history of inclusive, community-based theatre. She served on the Board of Pedagogy and Theatre of the Oppressed for seven years and was president of the organization from 2005-2007.