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MORE INFORMATION ON OUR USE OF THEATER IN THE LAW:

The Revelation Law Firm uses the techniques listed below to better demonstrate racial, sexual, sexual
orientation and other forms of harassment and discrimination cases of clients in court. This unique practice
is an effective way to thoroughly represent the clients’ unfortunate events and, more importantly, to allow
the firm and members of the courtroom to have a better understanding of the clients’ experiences.

Theatre of the Oppressed: The Theatre of the Oppressed is a collection of techniques (innovated by Augusto
Boal) that utilizes the theater to analyze and to understand the obstacles that individuals and communities
face. It is a practice filled with passion and new discoveries, evolving and adapting its methods according to
each given situation. In 1992, Boal (the creator of these techniques) devised a method in using the theater to
make popular legislation. He believed in using the theater as a tool to build our futures rather than simply to
wait for our futures to happen. The Revelation Law Firm uses these methods today as a means of
knowledge and understanding of our clients’ situations. It is an active and influential way for both the firm,
our clients, and the spectators to actively explore, analyze, and understand the reality our clients
experienced.

(1) Playback Theatre is one of the first forms of improvisational theater where a group of people tell stories
about personal events and observe these situations reenacted on the spot. Some consider Playback
Theater as a form of drama therapy. This firm uses Playback Theatre to reenact our clients’ unfortunate
events and to better display their stories to spectators.

(2) The Rainbow of Desire is a technique created to explore individual, internalized oppression and to
categorize them into a more general context. Rainbow of Desire begins with the description of a person’s
oppression in the first person. This situation is then evolved and grown into a bigger picture of collective
dynamics such as struggle, power imbalance, etc. All spectators who are present examine different
possibilities to break out of the oppression barrier. The strategy is to accumulate different points of view
and experiences rather than interpretation or explanation of the given situation.

(3) Forum Theatre is a technique where a problem is acted in an unresolved form. Then, the audience is
welcomed to offer and enact alternative solutions. The situation always shows signs of oppression.
Generally, the enactment involves obvious oppressors and the oppressed. All actors, whether the
oppressors or the oppressed, are now related to the oppression on a personal level; this is why they are
more able to offer solutions to the oppression. After the first enactment of the situation (referred to as “the
model”), the enactment is shown again, but slightly faster, until an audience member yells “STOP!”. After
this happens, the audience member replaces the oppressed in the scene and tries to peel off the layers of
oppression.

(4) Legislative Theater is a dynamic collaboration of popular theater and civic dialogue. A group creates and
acts mini-plays exhibiting oppressions faced in their every day lives. Then, this would be followed by the
same situation reenacted by audience members who replace the character and improvise solutions. Each
reenactment is followed by critical analysis and facilitated discussion (Forum Theater).