In 1979, playwright Augusto Boal introduced the world to Theatre of the Oppressed, a concept performance with a central conflict, an clearly oppressed person, and an equally clear oppressor.
On Nov. 17 and 18, drama students at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk will introduce the High Country to the LMC Interactive Theater Project, presenting a performance based on Boal's concept, which he called "a rehearsal for social change."

"The students have created pieces about what they feel are the most fracturing events that could occur in their community, which, for their purposes, is a case of sexual assault," director Tessa Carr said.

Once the students present their case, audience members are allowed to come on stage to demonstrate potential outcomes differing from the students'.

"So, the purpose of it really is to create dialogue in the community," Carr said. "It comes out of issues the community identifies as being meaningful and important. The students have generated the material."

Though their selected theme is sexual assault, Carr clarified that the show is not about such, but rather about the idea of community and what it means for the students to live in a community together.

"So, the show will have elements of poetry, song and scene work that's almost like a Rubik's Cube ... a multi-faceted look at what this complicated idea of community means to them. And it's been such a revelation for me ... to hear them talk about and create their concept of community, instead of it coming down from the faculty and all these ideas of we have of what community means, which I discovered are often quite different."

Carr finds the students' participation exciting, but also looks forward to community members' input, as well. Audience participation is completely voluntary, she said, with students first performing context pieces through song and poetry, before introducing the interactive aspect in the middle of the production.

"We'll basically stop and explain the process," she said. "The scenes are constructed in such a way that audience members won't be able to stop themselves from watching to change what they see."

Carr said that when Boal's first experience with this technique came when an audience member was so disgusted with the outcome of a scenario on stage that she went on stage and performed a different take on the same scene.
Carr attended a master workshop with Boal last summer, an opportunity for which she couldn't be more grateful, and she hopes to see her students continue his work.

"The students are tremendously excited about it," she said. "They have so much to say, and they really want to communicate not only their artistic ideas, but also their concepts of what it means to be going through this experience as a college student."

With the students having created the production themselves, Carr said they're that much more vested in the final product. "They're not trying to provide answers or descriptions - they're really trying to foster dialogue about what that means," she said.

Thirteen students belong to the interactive troupe and are participating in the Interactive Theater Project, including Laurel Wilde, Francie Boll, Kadey Ballard, Ra'shwandra Doby, Takema Howard, Robin Olsen, Saraea Adams, Luke VanVrenken, Drew Coston, Austin Perry, Michael Rogers, Jake Sheffer, Ciddy Forkpah, Gabi Celi and Daniel Fraley.

The performance takes place Nov. 17 and 18 at 7:30 p.m. (both nights) in Evans Auditorium, located in the Cannon Student Center on Main Street in Banner Elk, next-door to Hayes Auditorium. Admission is free.

For more information, call (828) 898-8840 or visit www.lmc.edu.