Theater of the Oppressed and training in Occupational Therapy: cartography of workshops with students

Abstract

Training in Occupational Therapy (OT) with expressive and body awareness activities has a significant presence in the history of this field, and one of these strategies is working with artistic approaches. The Theatre of the Oppressed appears among these methodologies, as it democratizes artistic production and encourages social transformation. Research on the confluence of the Theatre of the Oppressed and OT, based on the experience of an occupational therapist, highlights training experiences with undergraduate students. This fragment of the study focuses on workshop experiences in disciplines geared towards interfaces between art, culture, and health. Characterized as an exploratory study and based on the cartographic research method, retrospective records (written and audiovisual notes) were used as well as interviews with adults who participated in these groups, recapping experiences with theatrical workshops in therapeutic and training circumstances. In the fragment presented, the cartographic analysis considered historical and conceptual intersections, including studies from the fields of OT and the Theater of the Oppressed, with testimonies from students. The study highlights points of reciprocal contribution - sensitive openings, appreciation of everyday life, relations of resistance, art and politics - and emphasizes the potential of the expressive and body awareness practices in the Theatre of the Oppressed and the OT training and practice.