Banking Collapses: Transforming the Learning Environment in Iraq Through Forum Theatre

Abstract

This is the story of an experimental attempt, by a group of academics in Iraq, the UK and Canada, to introduce the practice known as ‘Forum Theatre’ into the Arts Faculty of the University of Basra and to study its reception and impact. We call the project ‘Transforming the Learning Environment through Theatre’ or TLET. Forum theatre is a practice invented and pioneered by the Brazilian director and teacher, Augusto Boal, in the 1970s, Forum Theatre invites spectators to alter and complete scenarios, presented by actors, which depict unsatisfactory personal and social situations in the spectators’ own community.