For instructors: what is the Illumination Project?
What is the Illumination Project?
The Illumination Project (IP) is Portland Community College’s innovative, nationally lauded student leadership, and social justice theater program. The IP is designed to address issues of equity and inclusion and to foster a climate of belonging, compassion, and respect for all people in the PCC community.
The plays produced by the IP are generated from situations the Student Educators have experienced in their own lives. Interactive theater, with its capacity to engage diverse learning styles and members of a community, is an ideal way to develop competencies in the principles of intercultural communication, address social inequities, and support culturally responsive practices.
How does interactive theater work?
The Illumination Project uses a style of theater known as Theater of the Oppressed/Forum Theater. Developed by Brazilian theater activist Augusto Boal, Theater of the Oppressed is used to promote community-centered problem solving.
Forum theater is interactive, with audience engagement acting as a key component. You are invited to not only observe these performances, but to take the place of someone on stage to see how your actions could change the outcome of our protagonists’ fates.
The actors will perform the show once without interruption, then perform the play again. During the second run through, an audience member can call or indicate “Stop!” when they notice a problem and take the place of the protagonist or other characters in order to create a different outcome. Two rules: No one may replace the antagonist, and the character you replace must share a common identity with you. There is no right or wrong way to go in these situations. Our goal is to improvise a new outcome with each new volunteer, illuminating the variety of ways we can work as a community toward a more inclusive campus, community and world.
(Note: while performing remotely the audience interaction will be more limited but still an integral part of our production.)