Theatre to fight discourses of fear
This TOMA 2025 we want to come together to combat the discourses of hate and fear that drive us into a state of permanent shock in which wars, abuses and loss of rights are naturalised and become a rule. So, all the activities of this #TOMA2025 will be focused on sharing and developing local actions to confront these paralysing narratives and weaving networks of support, inside and outside this Gathering, through the use of Theatre of the Oppressed techniques.
To do so, we will count on the participation of more than 10 organisations dedicated to Theatre of the Oppressed, from different parts of Europe such as: TdU Wien (Austria), Giolli coop. (Italy), Pele (Portugal), Evolving Cycles (Greece), Kuringa (Germany), Ziggurat project (Hungary), Casa per la pace (Italy), Avatuud mele instituut (Estonia), TENet-Gr (Greece), SalamandrA cía. Teatro Social (Seville), Forn de teatre Pa’tothom (Barcelona), as well as entities from Madrid such as La Rueda Teatro Social, CCIC La Tortuga, Teatro Sistémico, Meta-Comunica and Bajando al Sur. We will all rehearse and test, through these workshops, possible strategies to bring to the stage and open the debate around the rise of anti-rights discourses and the search for alternatives.
Join us
We will have up to 8 morning and afternoon workshops, to be held simultaneously on the 28th, 29th and 30th of May. Among the techniques that we will see in these workshops, Forum Theatre, Image Theatre, Rainbow of Desire or Newspaper Theatre will be very present. Combined, in some cases, with other disciplines such as Systemic Theatre, Process Oriented Psychology, Process Work, Community Development, and other artistic techniques such as dance or music.
* The languages used in these workshops will be English and Spanish, but body language will be our main channel of communication.
For those who want to live this experience to the fullest, there will be the possibility of signing up for a workshop each day (3 in total, through TOMA full pass). We will also offer the option of registering for a single workshop, for those who cannot attend the whole process.
Look at the programme and sign up!
Extended: inscriptions are open until the 22th May. Limited spots.
There will be 2 open itineraries, which will complement each other, the European pathway and the additional one. Both with 7-hour workshops and/or laboratories, which will be held at the El Horno Leisure Centre in Lavapiés.
- European Pathway: Workshops to share with TOMA 2025 partners (13 in total), experiences and strategies within the Theatre of the Oppressed to confront anti-human rights discourses.
- Additional Pathway: collective learning spaces to develop alternative narratives to anti-human rights discourses through Theatre of the Oppressed techniques.
28th May
7hr workshops, with a lunch break
Morning: 10:00 – 14:00 Afternoon: 15:30 – 18:30
El Horno de Lavapiés (Madrid)
Capacity: 20 people
How do we face a broken world?
- Workshop. European Pathway
- Language: English
Overview
The workshop will serve as a diagnosis of the violations of rights and oppressions related to the rise of the extreme right.
We will work in groups around the following questions: What is our role in this world that seems to be breaking down? What spaces for action are ours? How can a gathering serve to project hopeful alternatives?
Goals
* Identify the main elements of the oppressive narrative of the extreme right.
* Search for an alternative community narrative that responds to the current context from the perspective of inclusion, social justice, tolerance and plurality.
* Share TO techniques for the participants of the European Itinerary of TOMA Teatro.
*Contribute to the development of networks and collaborations at European level.
Techniques
Image Theater & Forum Theater
Structure
The workshop is divided into 4 blocks:
1 – Group building and introduction to image theatre
2 – Identification of social issues that the group wishes to address
3 – Creation of scenes using Theatre of the Oppressed
4- Final show and collective forum
Needs
Comfortable clothes, water and a notebook for personal notes.
Facilitated by:
Carlos Escaño & Zósimo Yubero
Facilitators, actors and forum theatre jokers with the association Bajando al Sur since 2010, trained in Theater of the Oppressed with great teachers such as Eva García, Julian Boal, José Soeiro, Patricia Trujillo (2015), Natalia Sanz (2017), la Xixa Teatre, Jana Sanskriti (2018) and Mariana Vilani (2019). Among their plays, the Legislative Theatre one: ‘Viva la ley Mordaza, ¡viva!’ was performed in the Congress of Deputies (2019).
Organisation
At Bajando al Sur we believe that social theatre is a channel of expression with great potential, capable of generating spaces of trust that provoke participation, dialogue and active listening. We use Theatre of the Oppressed to debate and build strategies for change or alternatives to the world we live in, as well as to denounce or criticise serious situations of injustice and human rights violations in today’s world. We are inspired by the theatrical work of Augusto Boal and Federico García Lorca as well as the pedagogy of Paulo Freire
Social Media & Web
https://www.instagram.com/bajandoslsur/
- Full, registration closed
Violence and hatred from a systemic perspective
- Workshop. Additional Pathway
- Language: Spanish
Overview
In this workshop we will investigate, from a systemic point of view, where violence is born at a structural and ancestral level. In a world that is built on exclusion and power struggles, we will search for the common gears of hate speech, recognising our own mechanisms of oppression and self-violence. We will seek to understand where we come from, as victims and oppressors in our systems (familial, social, cultural, structural) in order to address hate speech and foster conscious and caring social activism.
Goals
* Analyse the primary sources of violence from a systemic perspective
* Identify conflict as a mechanism of reaction from a paradigm of transformation
* Identify the internal gears that underpin our own hate speech
* Learn the keys to emotional management of hate
* Define a new path based on loving rage and opposed to violence
Techniques
* Systemic theatre (vector of violence vs. vector of love)
* Popular education and pedagogy of the oppressed by Paulo Freire
* Theatre of the oppressed by Augusto Boal
* Process work by Amy and Arnold Mindell
* Systemic therapy by Bert Hellinger
* Use of sound and the body from the shamanic point of view
Structure
The workshop is divided into 4 blocks:
1 – Family tree and political history of systemic violence
2 – The body as a resource for the internal understanding of violence
3 – The energetic work of systemic constellations as a mechanism of creation and social action
4 – Restoration of collective trauma from hate speech: is a new paradigm of love in social struggle possible?
It is possible that the creative work produced during the workshop will be shown on Saturday morning
Needs
Comfortable clothes, water and a notebook. No previous experience is required.
Facilitated by:
Emma Lucía Luque Pérez from Systemic Theater School.
Facilitator of group processes, systemic therapist. She directed the entity 3social. She coordinates social intervention projects in Spain. Collaborates as a trainer with national and international organisations.
Organisation
Training school on the methodology of systemic theatre, created from 15 years of practical experience with social intervention groups in 3social association.
Social Media & Web
https://www.youtube.com/-2TCFnAtJCs
29th May
7hr workshops, with a lunch break
Morning: 10:00 – 14:00
Afternoon: 15:30 – 18:30
El Horno de Lavapiés (Madrid)
Building utopic alternative narratives
- Workshop. European Pathway
- Language: English
Overview
In this workshop, we want to explore how we can stay strong together without copying the same systems of power we are trying to fight. During the day, we’ll use group games, Image theatre, Newspaper theatre and creative tools to look at how words and ideas shape the way we act. How can we build movements that feel free, safe, and connected? How can we support each other without repeating harmful patterns?
Goals
Reflect on how systems like patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism show up in our own activist or community spaces.
Explore how anti-rights agendas impact our lives and collective actions.
Co-create ideas and practices for building activism rooted in care and awareness.
Techniques
Newspaper Theater. Image Theater
Structure
The lab is divided into 4 blocks:
- Group Building
- Newspaper Theater and Iceberg Tool
- Image Theater and aware activism
- Closing
Needs
No previous experience in theatre or activism is needed—just an open mind and a willingness to participate.
Comfortable clothes that allow you to move freely.
If possible, please bring a newspaper article (printed or digital) that you find troubling, interesting, or powerful—especially one related to current political or social issues.
Facilitated by:
Almudena González de Pablos from Casa per la Pace (Italy)
George Petsas from Evolving Cycles (Greece).
Social Media & Web
https://www.casaperlapacemilano.it/
- Full, registration closed
Stage Resistance against Fascism Today
- Workshop. Additional Pathway
- Language: Spanish
Overview
This workshop invites us to reflect collectively on the forms of fighting against fascism in the current context, using the Theatre of the Oppressed as a political, artistic and transformative tool.
Today, we’re facing a global ethical crisis and the advance of totalitarian discourses. Therefore, it is urgent to consider its potential. The workshop proposes to review theatrical experiences born in similar times, re-reading key authors to build relevant theatrical proposals for our present.
Goals
* Work on some aspects of critical thinking through TO to face the advance of fascism in the current context
* Analyse how totalitarian discourses manage to become mainstream and legitimised in societies that present themselves as democratic
* Collectively create a Forum Theatre play, based on Brecht’s play The Mother, updating its content to contemporary realities.
* Practice collaborative methodologies, overcoming individualistic and hierarchical dynamics.
Techniques
Theater of the Oppressed. Forum Theater
Structure
The workshop is divided into 3 blocks
1- Analysis of the mechanisms of totalitarian oppression present in Brecht’s text
2- Collective reflection on the role of joker/facilitator, especially in forums with audiences aligned with the dominant ideology
3- Collective creation of a Forum Theatre on the first 5 frames.
It is possible that a performance of the stage work elaborated during the workshop will be shown on Saturday morning.
Needs
Comfortable clothing. Previous reading of “The Mother” by Bertolt Brecht. Ask for a digital copy when doing your inscription).
Facilitated by:
Jordi Forcadas
Founder and artistic and project director of Forn de Teatre Pa’tothom, pioneer in the implementation of the Theatre of the Oppressed (Barcelona, 2000). Trained at the Institut del Teatre, he has developed his own approach to training the ‘social actor’, integrating the theories of Brecht, Boal and Stanislavski. He has led multiple projects that address social problems and promote social change, working on issues such as immigration, women’s rights, bullying, mental health and the prison context, among others. He also teaches courses and workshops internationally on social intervention through theatre.
Vanesa Camarda
Actress and theatre maker. She trained at CEIT in Mar del Plata, and in TO at Forn de teatre Pa’tothom, Barcelona. Starting with El Grito, in Mar del Plata, she carries out workshops in cultural centres, universities, penitentiary centres and neighbourhoods. In 2013 he formed the company Teatro Cualquiera, and later co-founded the CCIC La Tortuga, which hosts, among other projects, the Fábrica de Teatro y Arte Político. Today, she continues to carry out theatrical actions with different collectives: Migrapiés, Vivienda Lavapiés, Orgullo Loco Madrid, Red Solidaria de Acogida.
Organisation
Forn de teatre Pa’tothom is a Barcelona-based organization specialised in Theatre of the Oppressed (A. Boal). It implements projects for critical analysis and the end of practices that generate social exclusion and injustice, with the aim of seeking alternative social models.
The Center for Cultural Creation and Research (CCIC) La Tortuga is a self-managed space in Madrid that offers workshops and courses in the arts and humanities. It also programs performances and cultural events, and offers rehearsal and meeting rooms. Its philosophy focuses on making art and culture accessible to all, promoting participation and social transformation.
Social Media & Web
https://www.instagram.com/forn_de_teatre_patothom/
https://bsky.app/profile/patothom.bsky.social
Re-encountering my shadows through social theatre
- Workshop. Additional Pathway
- English and Spanish
Overview
In this workshop we invite participants to look inward to understand what affects us from the outside. The world around us confronts us with more and more discrimination and oppression. But do I recognise discriminatory voices also within myself? Together we look at these voices and the desires they hide in order to transform internalised oppressions. Throughout this process we are guided by introspective methods of the TO and Process Work.
Goals
* Travel together to confront the shadows that we’ve been unconsciously internalising throughout our lives.
* Confronting as a group the `cops in the head´ that we have internalised.
* Connecting with desires in creative ways to address the changes we would like to make in our lives.
Techniques
Theater of the Oppressed. Process Work.
Structure
The workshop is divided into two blocks:
1 – Búsqueda personal con métodos del Trabajo de Procesos.
2 – Collective deepening in two processes with methods of introspective theatre.
Needs
No previous experience is required but willigness of inner reflection. Comfortable clothing to move freely.
Facilitated by:
Caren Niemann:
Facilitator, self-defence trainer, psychologist, trained at TO in Germany, the school ‘La Dinamo’ in Madrid and with Héctor Aristizábal in Colombia. Facilitator of processes for 8 years, she combines TO with other theatrical games, self-defence or Process Work, among others.
Laura Presa Fox, from La Rueda Teatro Social:
Facilitator, trainer, director and actress. Graduate in ‘Gestural Interpretation’ (La RESAD), and Diploma in Social Education (UVa). She specialises in Social Theatre with Julián Boal, Héctor Aristizábal, Mecca Burns, Chris Baldwin, Ricardo Talento and Moisés Mato. Since 2010 she co-directs the company ‘La Rueda Teatro Social’, she is part of the `Proyecto Mosaicos de Teatro Comunitario´ in different neighbourhoods of Madrid (2016) and co-directs the school of Social Theatre ‘La Dinamo’ (2005).
Organisations
Social Media
30th May
7hr long workshops, with a lunch break
Morning: 10:00 – 14:00
Afternoon: 15:30 – 18:30
El Horno de Lavapiés (Madrid)
From Forum Theatre to Action: Rehearsing resistance against authoritarianism
- Workshop. European Pathway
- Language: English
Overview
In a time of rising far-right agendas, shrinking democratic freedoms, and anti-rights governmental policies, how can communities organize creatively to resist?
This workshop uses Theatre of the Oppressed (TO)—particularly Forum Theatre and choral dramaturgy— and principles of community development to explore collective strategies against authoritarianism.
Goals
* Confront authoritarian narratives collectively
* Explore Choral/Ensemble Dramaturgies
* Explore extrapolation post-performance
* Reflect on challenges of collective action
Techniques
Theatre of the Oppressed. Forum Theater. Chorus techniques. Community development approach. Simulations
Structure
Part 1 – Framing the Struggle:
• Authoritarianism today & community resistance
• Devising choral/ensemble dramaturgies
• Forum theatre scenes
Part 2 – From Stage to Streets:
• Extrapolation and post-performance action plans
• Challenges of collective action
• Final reflections
Needs
Comfortable clothing, water and a notebook.
Facilitated by:
Co-facilitated by Christina from TENet-Gr (Greece) and Erica from Giolli Coop (Italy), two of the European partners of TOMA 2025.
Erica Raimondi: PhD in Sociology and Social Research. Trained in community development, since 2015 she has been working as a facilitator and social worker, promoting community empowerment and cohabitation among people from diverse cultural backgrounds. She developed a strong interest in Theatre of the Oppressed and began collaborating with the Giolli Cooperative in Parma, integrating TO with other approaches in group facilitation processes, training sessions, evaluations, and tailored consultations.
Christina Zoniou is a theatre researcher & practitioner, acting instructor, and applied theatre facilitator. A member of the Greek Theatre of the Oppressed groups network and a member of the Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr), she actively supports the use of emancipatory and community-based theatre practice as a tool for critical pedagogy and democratic participation. She holds a PhD in Intercultural Pedagogy & Performing Arts and since 20 years teaches Acting as a Faculty member at the Department of Theatre StudieS, Faculty of Arts, University of the Peloponnese.
Organisations
Giolli is a social cooperative, a research and experimentation centre that since 1992 has been using Augusto Boal’s method combined with Paulo Freire’s pedagogical thinking to raise awareness in society and to react to more or less explicit forms of oppression, marginalisation and exclusion.
Hellenic Theatre/Drama & Education Network (TENet-Gr) is a voluntary, non-profit association, a grassroots organization of teachers, youth workers, teacher trainers and artists in Greece, for the promotion of practice and research on theatre/drama and other performing arts in formal and non-formal education contexts. TENet-Gr started in 1998 and currently has approx. 300 active members and more than 2000 members in total in many Greek cities
Social Media & Web
https://www.instagram.com/giolli_coop/?hl=es
https://www.giollicoop.it/metodi/teatro-delloppresso-tdo/
- Full, registration closed
Theater of the Oppressed: Aesthetics of Solidarity
- Workshop. Additional Pathway
- English and Spanish
Overview
The Theatre of the Oppressed raises questions, develops images, explores different perspectives and celebrates the aesthetics of theatre as a space of encounter and transformation. This workshop proposes an aesthetic exercise that develops creative alternatives to transform reality. We will work with a repertoire of exercises, games and original techniques collected in the book THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED: Feminist Aesthetics for Political Poetics, written by the facilitator.
Goals
* Explore theatrical tools for the analysis of oppressions from a feminist, contextual and intersectional perspective.
* Stimulate critical thinking
* Create space for dialogue, expression and resistance through theatre.
* Developing aesthetic and collective strategies to confront the oppressions performed
Techniques
Aesthetics of the Oppressed. Image Theater. Forum Theater
Structure
The workshop is divided into 4 blocks:
1 – Collective Body: between Me and We – games and interaction exercises
2 – Narratives of Oppression – image theatre
3 – Rehearsals of Liberation – forum theatre
4 – The exhibition of the stage work developed during the workshop, on Saturday morning (May 31st).
Needs
* No previous experience is required.
* Comfortable clothing that allows movements.
* Notebook and pen to take notes.
* Open attitude towards collective work.
Facilitated by:
Bárbara Santos: playwright, theatre and film director, actress, author and activist. Artistic Director of KURINGA Theatre in Berlin and founder of the International Ma(g)dalenas Network of Theatre of the Oppressed, a feminist-anti-racist network composed of groups from Latin America, Africa and Europe. Barbara has developed innovative aesthetic approaches that address the intersections between gender, race and class, and has written several books on the subject, such as `Roots and Wings´ and `THEATRE OF THE OPPRESSED: Feminist Aesthetics for Political Poetics´.
Organisation
KURINGA has become a training centre for Theatre of the Oppressed, a space for rehearsals and public performances of Forum Theatre groups, as well as a venue for other events related to theatre and the aesthetics of the oppressed. KURINGA was founded in 2011 by Bárbara Santos (artistic director), who previously coordinated Augusto Boal’s Theatre Centre in Rio de Janeiro for more than two decades, together with Christoph Leucht and Till Baumann, who have been working with Boal’s theatrical methodologies in Germany since the 1990s.
Social Media & Web
What does "putting life in the centre" mean?
- Workshop. Additional Pathway
- Language: Spanish and English
Overview
In this workshop we will focus on the practices of collective care and self-care, making visible the discourses that sustain these practices and also those that destroy them, make them impossible or difficult. We will also reflect on social transformation from the “micro”, from basic contact (virtual or face-to-face). We will focus on the relational, linking the rational and the intuitive. To do so, we will apply TO techniques, from the aesthetic sense, pleasure and, of course, care.
Goals
* Play, create, chat, put things in common.
* Experience a collective awareness of our care practices.
* Apply a critical, global, relational and gender perspective.
Techniques
Image Theater. Rainbow of Desire.
Structure
The workshop is divided into 4 blocks:
1 – Psychophysical warm-up to get to know each other, unite the group, relax and have fun.
2 – Stage play to explore the concepts of the workshop in a creative, corporal and experiential way
3 – Deepening with Rainbow of Desire dynamics on the experiences lived and shared.
4 – Selection of some interesting images that have emerged, in order to create a simple and gestural staging.
A performance of the stage work produced during the workshop may happen on Saturday morning, 31 May.
Needs
It is recommended to have a look at the book ‘La Vida en el Centro’ by Yayo Herrero and other authors (Ed. Libros en Acción, Madrid 2019) or read something about this proposal.
Comfortable clothing: sportswear and footwear, black, neutral (no logos, etc.).
To determine the attire we wear at the show: we will adapt to what is feasible.
Facilitated by:
Patricia Trujillo
Actress, director, author, playwright, teacher.
Patricia Trujillo (1976), actress and director of the company SalamandrA. Postgraduate in Social Anthropology, specialising in Forum Theatre and gender perspective. She also has extensive acting training.
Since 2014 she focuses on her own project, being producer, author, playwright and actress in all the productions of SalamandrA cía Teatro Social (Forum Theatre, Documentary Theatre, adaptations of stories, etc.)
As a teacher and disseminator of the branches of social theatre from a feminist perspective, she received the Sevilla Territorios De Igualdad / II Edición Award. Mujer E Investigación Award for her book ‘Actuando en el Templo de Vesta’
Organisation
SalamandrA cía. Teatro Social
Social and community Theater Andalousian company.
https://www.salamandraciateatro.social/patricia-trujillo/
Social Media & Web
The ‘TOMA 2025’ project is co-funded by the European Union. The opinions and views expressed on this website are solely those of the author(s) (Asociación Bajando al Sur) and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the Spanish Service for the Internationalisation of Education (SEPIE). Neither the European Union nor the SEPIE National Agency can be held responsible for them.
