by Angela
My old college pal, P. Funmilayo dropped by this week after selling one of her paintings to a Dallas collector. I met her while majoring in Theater at the University of North Texas. She’s a globe trotter but for the moment lives in the North Texas hipster hotspot of Denton where she’s pursuing a Master’s Degree at Texas Women’s University in Invisible Theater. Yep, you read that correctly. Technically she’s pursuing a Master’s in Women’s Study using theatrical pedagogies such as Invisible Theater to “present social events in which individuals sculpt relationships and in the process promote ideas of social consideration, social awareness, and ignite true concern within the concept of Theater of the Oppressed“. The section in italics was taken directly from her personal statement.
Basically, she’s going to take Augusto Boal’s pedagogy to question issues that face women. If you saw Quentin’s post about the episode of “What Would You Do” in which Texans defend gay parents, you have a pretty decent idea of what Invisible Theater is. The major difference, Funmilayo will insist, is that in true Invisible Theater the audience will never know that it has just witnessed a work of improv social activism.
Since Gay Pride month is officially over here in the US, I thought that we queers could ride high on the marriage win in New York and start in with the business of demanding a federal mandate for marriage equality. So, here’s a video to get you introduced to Invisible Activism, wherever you may live. We don’t need to change the minds of a few key politicians; we need to change the minds and hearts of homophobes.
