- This event has passed.
TOPLAB turns 25
Sun, November 22, 2015 @ 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM
“We must emphasize: What Brecht does not want is that the spectators continue to leave their brains with their hats upon entering the theater, as do bourgeois spectators.” —Augusto Boal
The Theater of the Oppressed Laboratory (TOPLAB) turned 25-years-old this year and we are celebrating with a low-keyed birthday party on Sunday, November 22, 2015 from 5:00 to 7:00 pm
No long-winded speeches, no somber introspection, no academic discourse and analysis. Just good company, good conversation and light-spirited merry-making. Snacks, wine and beer from The Commons’ cash bar.
TOPLAB, an all-woman teaching collective, was founded in 1990 and is the oldest group in the United States offering training in the techniques and methodology of the Theater of the Oppressed (TO). We have enjoyed a close relationship with Augusto Boal, the founder of TO, and our facilitators have collaborated closely with him from our start until his death in 2009. TOPLAB offers monthly training workshops, open to the general public, and also creates and facilitates workshops for specific communities, organizations and constituencies designed to meet the needs of the people involved. Since our beginning, TOPLAB has been committed to making TO accessible to as many people as possible by keeping our fees and tuition rates low. We do not seek funding from foundations or government agencies, and we certainly do not seek money from corporations and for-profit enterprises—and we never will. Most of all, we are committed to changing the world, to abolishing an unjust, exploitative economic system and transforming the world into a place where wealth is owned, shared and controlled by society as a whole, for the benefit of all. TOPLAB owes its success to its many friends, associates and comrades, and all are invited to celebrate our 25th birthday.
Please RSVP to toplabnyc@gmail.com to let us know that you will be coming.
“I believe that all the truly revolutionary theatrical groups should transfer to the people the means of production in the theater so that the people themselves may utilize them. The theater is a weapon, and it is the people who should wield it”
—Augusto Boal