Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

The French edition of Jeux pour Acteurs et Non-Acteurspublished in 1982 is currently in its seventh edition. For this first translation into English Boal has added new examples and fresh ideas to make it the most up-to-date introduction to the techniques of Image Theatre and Forum Theatre available.
Boal's early work took place under the military regime in Brazil. During a period of exile in Portugal, France, Sweden, Germany, and the US he developed work on combating oppression through theatre. His methods transform theatre from a hierarchical structure where actors are active and audiences passive, to a democratic arena where the spectator becomes the `spectactor', contributing ideas, taking over roles, and using theatre to confront everyday problems, such as sexual harassment, poor pay, homophobia, and racism and find ways of fighting them.
Games for Actors and Non-Actorsis a handbook of methods, techniques, games, and exercises designed to help anyone - whether actor or non-actor - rehearse for real life: make the fictional real.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• List of figures (p. xxi)
• Translator's introduction to the first edition (p. xxii)
• Translator's postscript to the second edition (p. xxvii)
• Preface to the second edition: The Royal Shakespeare Company, theatre in prisons and landless peasants (p. 1)
• Postscript--with pride in our hearts (p. 6)
• Preface to the first edition: the fable of Xua-Xua, the prehuman woman who discovered theatre (p. 11)
• Postscript: actors and non-actors (p. 17)
• 1 Theatre of the Oppressed in Europe (p. 18)
• Introduction (p. 18)
• The Godrano experience: my first Forum Theatre in Europe or the ultimate spect-actor/protagonist! (p. 19)
• Feminism in Godrano (p. 20)
• The police again (p. 21)
• The oppressed and the oppressors (p. 23)
• 2 The Structure of the Actor's Work (p. 29)
• The primacy of emotion (p. 29)
• Muscular exercises (p. 31)
• Sensory exercises (p. 31)
• Memory exercises (p. 32)
• Imagination exercises (p. 32)
• Emotion exercises (p. 32)
• Rationalising emotion (p. 35)
• A la recherche du temps perdu (p. 37)
• The dialectical structure of the actor's interpretation of a role (p. 40)
• The will (p. 40)
• The counter-will (p. 43)
• The dominant will (p. 45)
• Quantitative variation and qualitative variation (p. 46)
• 3 The Arsenal of Theatre of the Oppressed (p. 48)
• Introduction: a new system of exercises and games from Theatre of the Oppressed (p. 48)
• Two unities (p. 49)
• Five categories of game and exercise (p. 49)
• I Feeling What we Touch (Restructuring Muscular Relations) (p. 50)
• Series 1 General exercises (p. 50)
• 1 The cross and the circle (p. 50)
• 2 Colombian hypnosis (p. 51)
• 3 Minimum surface contact (p. 56)
• 4 Pushing against each other (p. 58)
• 5 Joe Egg (aka trust circle) (p. 62)
• 6 The circle of knots (p. 62)
• 7 The actor as 'subject': the Greek exercise (p. 64)
• 8 The actor as 'object' (p. 66)
• 9 Lifting someone out of a chair (p. 67)
• 10 Equilibrium of the body with an object (p. 67)
• 11 A balloon as an extension of the body (p. 68)
• 12 Racing on chairs (p. 68)
• 13 Rhythm with chairs (p. 68)
• 14 Musical chairs (p. 69)
• 15 Movement with over-premeditation (p. 69)
• 16 Difficulties (p. 69)
• 17 Divide up the movement (p. 70)
• 18 Dissociate coordinated movements (p. 70)
• Series 2 Walks (p. 70)
• 1 Slow motion (p. 71)
• 2 At a right angle (p. 72)
• 3 Crab (p. 72)
• 4 Crossed legs (aka three-legged race) (p. 72)
• 5 Monkey (p. 73)
• 6 All fours (p. 73)
• 7 Camel walk (p. 73)
• 8 Elephant walk (p. 73)
• 9 Kangaroo walk (p. 73)
• 10 Leaning-against-each-other walk (p. 73)
• 11 Strapped-feet walk (p. 74)
• 12 Wheelbarrow (p. 74)
• 13 As you like it (p. 74)
• 14 Imitating others (p. 74)
• Series 3 Massages (p. 74)
• 1 In a circle (p. 75)
• 2 The movement comes back (p. 75)
• 3 Sea waves (p. 75)
• 4 The rolling carpet (p. 76)
• 5 Back massage (p. 77)
• 6 The demon (p. 77)
• Series 4 Integration games (p. 77)
• 1 Person to person, Quebec-style (p. 77)
• 2 The bear of Poitiers (p. 78)
• 3 The chair (p. 78)
• 4 Leapfrog (p. 79)
• 5 The Brueghel game (p. 79)
• 6 Stick in the mud (p. 80)
• 7 Grandmother's footsteps (p. 80)
• 8 Millipede (p. 80)
• 9 Apple dance (p. 81)
• 10 Sticky paper (p. 81)
• 11 The wooden sword of Paris (p. 81)
• 12 American football (aka British bulldog) (p. 82)
• 13 Three Irish duels (p. 82)
• 14 Little packets (p. 83)
• 15 Cat and mouse (p. 83)
• 16 Homage to Tex Avery--cat and dog(s) (p. 84)
• 17 The handkerchief game (aka the hat game, aka dog and bone) (p. 84)
• 18 Good day (p. 85)
• 19 Cadavre exquis (aka consequences) (p. 85)
• 20 The parachute (p. 86)
• 21 Balance with an object (p. 86)
• Series 5 Gravity (p. 86)
• 1 Horizontality sequence (p. 87)
• 2 Verticality sequence (p. 88)
• 3 Sequence of rectilinear and circular movements (p. 89)
• II Listening to What We Hear (p. 92)
• Series 1 Rhythm (p. 92)
• 1 A round of rhythm and movement (p. 92)
• 2 Game of rhythm and movement (p. 93)
• 3 Changing rhythms (p. 93)
• 4 The machine of rhythms (p. 94)
• 5 The Peruvian ball game (p. 96)
• 6 The clapping series (p. 97)
• 7 West Side Story (p. 98)
• 8 The Portuguese rhythmic shoes (p. 99)
• 9 The two brooms (p. 100)
• 10 The four brooms (p. 101)
• 11 Horseshoe rhythms (p. 101)
• 12 Circular rhythms (p. 101)
• 13 The big chief (p. 101)
• 14 The orchestra and the conductor (p. 101)
• 15 Rhythm dialogue in teams (p. 102)
• 16 Chain rhythm dialogue (p. 102)
• 17 Pretend Brazilian 'Indians' (p. 102)
• 18 Lines of five (p. 104)
• 19 The president's bodyguards (p. 104)
• 20 Walk, stop, justify (p. 104)
• 21 Carnival in Rio (p. 104)
• 22 Bolivian mimosas (p. 105)
• 23 How many 'A's in a single 'A'? (p. 106)
• 24 Two by three by Bradford (p. 106)
• 25 Crossing the room (p. 107)
• 26 Circle of names of Belo Horizonte (p. 107)
• 27 Circle of rhythms of Toronto (p. 107)
• Series 2 Melody (p. 108)
• 1 Orchestra (p. 108)
• 2 Music and dance (p. 108)
• Series 3 Sounds and noises (p. 108)
• 1 Sound and movement (p. 108)
• 2 Ritual sound (p. 109)
• Series 4 The rhythm of respiration (p. 109)
• 1 Lying on your back completely relaxed (p. 110)
• 2 Leaning against a wall (p. 110)
• 3 Standing up straight (p. 110)
• 4 Breathe in slowly (p. 110)
• 5 Explosion (p. 110)
• 6 Breathe in slowly while lifting the arms (p. 111)
• 7 The pressure cooker (p. 111)
• 8 Breathe in as quickly as possible (p. 111)
• 9 Breathe in as slowly as possible (p. 111)
• 10 Breathe in deeply through the mouth (p. 111)
• 11 Breathe in with clear definition and lots of energy (p. 111)
• 12 Two groups (p. 112)
• 13 Breathe out, standing in a circle (p. 112)
• 14 One actor pretends to pull the stopper out of another's body (p. 112)
• 15 A, E, I, O, U (p. 113)
• 16 All the actors, standing facing the wall (p. 113)
• 17 Two groups of actors, facing each other (p. 113)
• 18 With their bodies in maximum possible contact with the floor (p. 113)
• 19 Lying on their backs on tables (p. 114)
• Series 5 Internal rhythms (p. 114)
• 1 Rhythmic images (p. 114)
• III Dynamising Several Senses (p. 114)
• The blind series (p. 115)
• 1 The point of focus, the embrace and the handshake (p. 115)
• 2 Noises (p. 116)
• 3 The imaginary journey (p. 117)
• 4 The glass cobra (p. 118)
• 5 One blind line, one sighted line (p. 118)
• 6 The magnet--positive and negative (p. 119)
• 7 Swedish multiple sculpture (p. 120)
• 8 The vampire of Strasbourg (p. 120)
• 9 The blind car (p. 121)
• 10 What is the object? (p. 121)
• 11 The smell of hands (p. 122)
• 12 The figure-of-eight chicane (p. 122)
• 13 Goalkeeper (p. 122)
• 14 Friend and enemy (p. 122)
• 15 Draw your own body (p. 123)
• 16 Modelling clay (p. 124)
• 17 Touch the colour (p. 124)
• 18 The blind person and the bomb (p. 125)
• 19 Find the hand (p. 125)
• 20 The siren's song (p. 125)
• 21 Find a convenient back (p. 126)
• 22 The melodic hand (p. 126)
• 23 The sound of the seven doorways (p. 127)
• 24 Recognising the `Aaah!' (p. 127)
• The space series (p. 127)
• 1 Without leaving a single space in the room empty (p. 127)
• 2 Instead of simply saying 'Stop', the Joker says a number (p. 128)
• 3 The Joker says a number and a geometric figure (p. 128)
• 4 The Joker says a number and a part of the body (p. 128)
• 5 The Joker calls out a colour and an item of clothing (p. 128)
• 6 The participants run slowly (p. 128)
• 7 The participants touch each other (p. 129)
• IV Seeing What We Look at (p. 129)
• The mirrors sequence (p. 129)
• 1 The plain mirror (p. 130)
• 2 Subject and image swap roles (p. 130)
• 3 Subject-image, image-subject (p. 130)
• 4 Everyone joins hands (p. 131)
• 5 The two lines form a curve (p. 132)
• 6 Symmetrical groups (p. 132)
• 7 The mirror breaks (p. 133)
• 8 Changing partners (p. 133)
• 9 The distorting mirror (p. 134)
• 10 The narcissistic mirror (p. 134)
• 11 The rhythmic mirror (p. 135)
• 12 Unification (p. 135)
• The modelling sequence (p. 136)
• 1 The sculptor touches the model (p. 136)
• 2 The sculptor doesn't touch the model (p. 137)
• 3 The sculptors spread out around the room (p. 138)
• 4 The sculptors fashion a single sculpture together (p. 138)
• 5 Sculpture with four or five people (p. 138)
• The puppet sequence (p. 138)
• 1 String puppet (p. 139)
• 2 String puppet with rod (p. 139)
• Image games (p. 139)
• 1 Complete the image (p. 139)
• 2 Ball games (p. 140)
• 3 Boxing match (p. 141)
• 4 One person we fear, one person is our protector (p. 141)
• 5 Furnish the empty space (p. 142)
• 6 Atmosphere of snow (p. 142)
• 7 Building character relations (p. 143)
• 8 Characters in movement (p. 143)
• 9 Observation (p. 143)
• 10 Complementary activities (p. 143)
• 11 What has changed? (p. 144)
• 12 Tell your own story (p. 144)
• 13 The antiquated telephone exchange (p. 144)
• 14 Concentration (p. 144)
• 15 Animals (p. 145)
• 16 Professions (p. 146)
• 17 The balancing circle (p. 147)
• 18 The 'Indian' in the city, the city dweller in the forest (p. 148)
• Games of mask and ritual (p. 148)
• 1 Follow the master (p. 148)
• 2 Follow two masters--who metamorphose into each other (p. 149)
• 3 Rotation of masks (p. 149)
• 4 Unification of masks (p. 149)
• 5 Collective creation of a mask (p. 150)
• 6 Addition of masks (p. 150)
• 7 Pushing the mask to its extremity and nullifying it (p. 150)
• 8 Following the master in his own mask (p. 150)
• 9 Changing masks (p. 151)
• 10 Mask exchange (p. 151)
• 11 The masks of the actors themselves (p. 152)
• 12 Substitution of mask (p. 153)
• 13 Separation of mask, ritual and motivation (p. 153)
• 14 Changing a whole set of masks into a different social class (p. 154)
• 15 Making the mask all-encompassing (p. 155)
• 16 Changing actors mid-ritual (p. 156)
• 17 A round of masks in different circumstances (p. 156)
• 18 Natural and ridiculous (p. 156)
• 19 Several actors on stage (p. 156)
• 20 The game of complementary roles (p. 157)
• 21 The politicians game (p. 157)
• 22 Exchange of masks (p. 157)
• 23 Exchange of roles (p. 158)
• 24 Fainting at Frejus (p. 158)
• 25 The designated leader (p. 158)
• 26 The clown of Amsterdam (p. 159)
• 27 The animals of Vienna (p. 159)
• 28 Looking first at one another and then at the same spot (p. 159)
• 29 Cookies (p. 159)
• The image of the object (p. 160)
• 1 The found object (p. 160)
• 2 The object transformed (p. 161)
• 3 The object created out of simple things (p. 161)
• 4 Homage to Magritte--'This bottle is not a bottle' (p. 161)
• The invention of space and the spatial structures of power (p. 162)
• 1 Space and territory (p. 162)
• 2 Inventing the space in a room (p. 162)
• 3 The great game of power (p. 163)
• 4 Chairs in the empty space (p. 163)
• 5 Where is my place? (p. 163)
• 6 Six chairs (p. 164)
• 7 Photographing the image (p. 164)
• Games involving the creation of characters (p. 165)
• 1 Murder at the Hotel Agato (p. 165)
• 2 Cops and robbers (p. 165)
• 3 The embassy ball (p. 166)
• 4 The child's dream--what I wanted to be when I grew up (p. 166)
• 5 The child's fear (p. 167)
• 6 What grown-ups wanted me to be (p. 168)
• 7 The opposite of myself (p. 168)
• 8 The two revelations of Saint Teresa (p. 169)
• 9 The fighting cocks (p. 170)
• 10 Catchphrases (p. 170)
• 11 What am I? What do I want? (p. 170)
• 12 The blank character (p. 170)
• V The Memory of the Senses (p. 171)
• Reconnecting memory, emotion and imagination (p. 171)
• 1 Memory: remembering yesterday (p. 171)
• 2 Memory and emotion: remembering a day in the past (p. 172)
• 3 Memory and emotion and imagination (p. 172)
• 4 Remembering an actual oppression (p. 173)
• 5 Rehearsal on the stage of the imagination (p. 173)
• 6 Extrapolation (p. 174)
• Image Theatre (p. 174)
• Image techniques: models and dynamisations (p. 176)
• 1(a) Image of the word: illustrating a subject with your body (p. 176)
• 1(b) Image of the word: illustrating a subject using other people's bodies (p. 181)
• 2 Image of transition (p. 185)
• 3 Multiple image of oppression (p. 186)
• 4 Multiple image of happiness (p. 189)
• 5 Image of the group (p. 191)
• 6 Ritual gesture (p. 193)
• 7 Ritual (p. 198)
• 8 Rituals and masks (p. 201)
• 9 The image of the hour (p. 201)
• 10 The kinetic image (p. 202)
• 11 The merry-go-round of images (p. 202)
• Images of transition--the technique in action (p. 203)
• Examples from Europe (p. 203)
• New Image Theatre techniques: the cop in the head (p. 206)
• 1 Dissociation--thought, speech, action (p. 207)
• 2 The analytical image: the multiple mirror of how others see us (p. 208)
• 3 Somatisation (p. 211)
• 4 The circuit of rituals (p. 211)
• 5 The three wishes (p. 212)
• 6 The polyvalent image (p. 213)
• 7 The screen image (p. 213)
• 8 The image of the image (p. 214)
• Four very simple demonstrations of embryos of Forum Theatre pieces, based on projected images (p. 215)
• Rehearsal Exercises for any Kind of Play (p. 217)
• Exercises with or without script (p. 217)
• 1 Improvisation (p. 217)
• 2 The dark room (p. 219)
• 3 One story told by several people (p. 219)
• 4 Change the story (p. 219)
• 5 One line spoken by several actors (p. 220)
• Games of emotional dynamisation (p. 220)
• 1 Breaking the oppression (p. 220)
• 2 The oppressor's confession (p. 222)
• Emotional warm-up exercises (p. 222)
• 1 Abstract emotion (p. 222)
• 2 Abstract emotion with animals (p. 223)
• 3 Abstract emotion, following the master (p. 223)
• 4 Animals or vegetables in emotional situations! (p. 223)
• 5 Ritual in which everyone becomes an animal (p. 224)
• 6 Stimulation of the dormant parts of ourselves (p. 224)
• Ideological warm-up (p. 225)
• 1 Dedication (p. 225)
• 2 Reading newspapers (p. 225)
• 3 The evocation of historic events (p. 226)
• 4 Lessons (p. 226)
• Exercises for the preparation of a Forum Theatre model or for the rehearsal of other kinds of theatre (p. 226)
• 1 Play to the deaf (p. 226)
• 2 Stop! Think! (p. 227)
• 3 Interrogation (p. 227)
• 4 The reconstruction of the crime (p. 228)
• 5 Analytical rehearsal of motivation (p. 228)
• 6 Analytical rehearsal of emotion (p. 229)
• 7 Analytical rehearsal of style (p. 229)
• 8 Opposite circumstances (p. 229)
• 9 Artificial pause (p. 230)
• 10 Self-interrogation (p. 230)
• 11 Opposite thought (p. 230)
• 12 Rehearsal of the cue (p. 231)
• 13 Two touches (p. 231)
• 14 Silence on set--Action! (p. 232)
• 15 Invisible characters (p. 232)
• 16 Before and after (p. 232)
• 17 Transference of emotion (p. 232)
• 18 Slow motion (p. 233)
• 19 Sensory focus (p. 233)
• 20 Low volume (p. 233)
• 21 Exaggeration (p. 234)
• 22 Free-style rehearsal (p. 234)
• 23 Reconnaissance (p. 234)
• 24 Caricature (p. 235)
• 25 Swapping characters (p. 235)
• 26 Need versus will (p. 235)
• 27 The rhythm of scenes (p. 236)
• 28 Rashomon (p. 236)
• 29 Keep talking (p. 237)
• 30 The ceremony (p. 237)
• 31 Secret whispers (p. 237)
• 32 I don't believe you (p. 238)
• 33 Long Beach telegram (p. 238)
• 34 Holy theatre (p. 238)
• 35 Analogy (p. 238)
• 36 The tick-tock sequence (p. 238)
• 4 The Early Forms of Forum Theatre (p. 241)
• Introduction (p. 241)
• The rules of the game (p. 242)
• Dramaturgy (p. 242)
• Staging (p. 243)
• The performance game (p. 243)
• Examples of Forum Theatre (p. 245)
• 1 Agrarian reform seen from a public bench (p. 245)
• 2 The people judge a secret policeman (p. 247)
• 3 Leader at work, slave in the home (p. 248)
• 4 The return to work at the Credit Lyonnais (p. 249)
• 5 The nuclear power station (p. 249)
• 5 Forum Theatre: Doubts and Certainties: Incorporating a New Method of Rehearsing and Devising a Forum Theatre Model (p. 253)
• Twenty fundamental topics (p. 254)
• 1 Oppression or aggression? (p. 254)
• 2 The style of the model (p. 256)
• 3 Do the problems have to be urgent or not? Should they be simple or complex? (p. 258)
• 4 Do we have to arrive at a solution or not? (p. 259)
• 5 Does the model of the future action need to be depicted or not? (p. 260)
• 6 Model or anti-model? Error or doubt? (p. 260)
• 7 The conduct of the Joker (p. 260)
• 8 Theatricality or reflection? (p. 262)
• 9 The staging (p. 263)
• 10 The function of the warm-up (p. 264)
• 11 The function of the actor (p. 265)
• 12 The repeated scene (p. 266)
• 13 Macrocosm and microcosm (p. 266)
• 14 How to replace a character without transforming it into another (p. 267)
• 15 What is a 'good' oppression? (p. 268)
• 16 Who can replace whom? (p. 269)
• 17 How should a 'model' be rehearsed? (p. 271)
• 18 Can a forum change themes? (p. 273)
• 19 Can people remain 'spectators' in a Forum Theatre session? (p. 274)
• 20 When does a session of Theatre of the Oppressed end? (p. 275)
• 6 First Experiences with Invisible Theatre (p. 277)
• Examples of Invisible Theatre (p. 277)
• 1 Sexual harassment (p. 277)
• 2 Queen Silvia's baby (p. 280)
• 3 Racism I: the Greek (p. 282)
• 4 Racism II: the black woman (p. 283)
• 5 Picnic in the streets of Stockholm (p. 285)
• 6 The audience's children (p. 287)
• 7 Artistic Creation and Divine Madness: a Meditation on Art and the Miraculous (p. 289)
• Passion and art (p. 293)
• The mad artist and the artist madman (p. 296)
• Postscript: the Pedagogy of Fear--Theatre and the Twin Towers: an Essay After 11 September, 2001 (p. 298)

Author notes provided by Syndetics