Long time back the famous educationist Paulo Freire said: "If the structure does not permit a dialogue the structure must be changed."

Based on this philosophy, Brazilian theatre practitioner Augusto Boal created the 'Theatre of the Oppressed' (TO) – a technique that uses theatre as a conduit to promote change, where the audience becomes active in exploring and transforming the reality that they live in.

Taking a leaf out of this philosophy, iHEAR TransCare MedEd is conducting a pre-conference workshop on 4th May. Our workshop will have NO hierarchy, and is meant to be a safe non-threatening learning environment where we respect each other’s views (be it on the opposite side).

In our quest to share our understanding of the medical humanities with queer community, we will use exercises and games from Boal’s arsenal of TO which is neither theatre as entertainment, nor theatre for propaganda. It is a creative tool for personal and social transformation.

TO is a set of theatre games and exercises which awaken the passive spectator, invite members of the audience on to the stage to act out their real-life problems - thus, turning them into "spect-actors" - and empower them to find strategies for personal and social change.

TO workshops provide an opportunity to re-humanise ourselves. The carefully designed and structured games enhance sensitivity in human communication, and start a process of dialogue, reflection and action.

In the process, we rediscover our potential for creating change - both for ourselves individually and in the contexts we live and work in.