I am in a class called Theatre in the Community and the foundation of what we've been learning is centered on Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed (TO). TO uses theatre to give oppressed members of society a voice, as well as a way to establish solutions to the problems faced by the oppressed. I have included a video of how TO comes to life in Mozambique. Also, here is the official TO website. This is a movement to which I would never have been exposed had I not taken this class. Without it, I would also never have developed this amazing new perspective that is a product of studying TO. TO is crucial to our society, especially now during the transition of power and the current state of our economy. I know it sounds cliche to say that theatre can actually change the world, just like it would to make that claim using any other art form, but in this case, I really believe it. For example, a couple of years ago my professor for this class helped out with a TO performance near campus that was held for several higher ups in USC's administration. The goal of the performance was to illuminate the fact that students at an apartment complex in the area were being mistreated by their landlord: there were roaches, leaks, and problems with the heating and cooling units, etc. The landlord always promised to fix these things, but the promises were empty. As in any other TO performance, the main actors performed several short scenes depicting the various ways in which the students of the apartment complex were suffering and how they were dealing with it. After the performance, members of the audience were asked to go onstage with the actors and recreate a scene if they had a solution to the problem that they thought would be more effective than the actors' version. In this way, everyone in the community is encouraged to participate and come up with ways to solve the problems of the oppressed people in a situation. As a result of this performance, USC administrators were informed of the issue and handled it accordingly. It is evident that this method could be used to solve problems of all shapes and sizes, from homelessness to poverty to hunger to domestic violence to racism to discrimination and back again. In fact, our class has been divided into groups according to certain areas of our society that we believe could be improved and, using Boal's concepts of TO, we are going to directly interact with members of the community and try to change some of the ways in which they are oppressed. My group, for example, will be working with students at a public high school who deal with poverty and racism on a daily basis. I wish that TO could be used on a grander scale so that larger of the world's issues could be brought to light and handled using this peaceful, cooperative method. My hope is that what starts with our class will continue to spread throughout South Central and, if we're lucky, to the world.