Empathy and moral education, Theatre of the Oppressed, and The Laramie Project

ABSTRACT

Notable theorists have argued that theatre and drama play positive roles in the moral education of children and adults, including cultivating their capacity for empathy. Yet other theorists have expressed concerns that plays and educational practices involving improvisation might not lead to positive changes in real life, and might even have negative influences on actors and audiences. This paper focuses in particular on the dramatic methods employed by Theatre of the Oppressed, devised by Augusto Boal, and on the methods involved in the development of the play The Laramie Project, developed by Moisés Kaufman and the Tectonic Theatre Project. It argues that Theatre of the Oppressed and The Laramie Project cultivate actors’ and audiences’ empathetic capacities, while overcoming many theorists’ worries about the impact of drama.

KEYWORDS:

• Moral Education
• Empathy
• Theatre of the Oppressed
• The Laramie Project

Acknowledgments

I valued helpful conversations with Rachel Bewley, Zena Hinds, Justin Solonyka, Jan Labellarte Beatty, Molly Gilman, Susan Chase, Michelle Ellsworth, Meggan Gomez, Michael McFall, Shia LaBeouf, Greg Heller-LaBelle, Catherine Morrow, and students in my courses Filming Philosophy and Philosophy and the Performance Arts. I would also like to thank Mark Wilk, Tom Drayton, Michael Lewis, John Pickering, and anonymous referees for helpful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Winston (1999), Levy (1997), Verducci (2000), Basourakos (1999), Boal (1985, 2006), and Woodruff (2008). Stern (2014) discusses but does not expressly endorse similar arguments.

2. Verducci (2000), Goldstein (2009), Goldstein and Winner (2012), Levy (1997, p. 72), Winston (1999, pp. 466 & 469–470), and Woodruff (2008, p. 150).

3. For the contention that audiences empathize with characters, see: Woodruff (2008, Chapter 9), Boal (1985, pp. 34–36; 2006, pp. 23–25 & 72–74). For the contention that many actors empathize with their characters or experience broadly-similar affective states, see: Verducci (2000), Goldstein (2009, p. 7–8), and Goldstein and Winner (2012, p. 20).

4. Elsewhere, I discuss the relation between modern dance and empathy; see Corsa (2016).

5. This is related to one of the concerns that philosophers have raised about sentimentality in films. For example, Carl Plantinga writes that, when we respond emotionally to selfless, moral characters in a film, we might be inclined to ‘celebrate a gratifying image of ourselves as compassionate, righteous, and just’ (1997, p. 386).

6. See Freeman’s (2007) discussion of the ways that some productions of The Laramie Project cast the play as a morality tale (p. 118).

7. Also see Mulvey and Mandell’s (2007) discussion of the impact of The Laramie Project and a related educational campaign at a public university.

8. Also see Elsbree and Wong’s (2007) study, measuring the impact, on pre-service teachers, of watching a production of The Laramie Project and engaging in class discussions about homophobia and LGBTQ identity.

9. This was confirmed for me in 2019 in a correspondence with Zena Hinds, the Director of Development for the TTP.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Andrew J. Corsa

Andrew J. Corsa holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy and is an Assistant Professor in Lynn University’s Dialogues of Learning program.