Praxis as developed by some Latin American collectives:

group theater as an aesthetic-political tactic of resistance

Resumen

This essay focuses on the characteristic praxis of group theater considering the works, creation processes and forms of organization of some collectives as aesthetic-political tactics for confronting so-called dictatorial cultures. When seeking to identify the roots of this type of organization and theatrical production, diverse ramifications are found, involving territorialities and common elements, such as the need to develop theatrical practices that promote dialogues, debates, reflections and social transformations. Aiming to break with the business and marketing options of art, collectives were formed with proposals for horizontal relationships around experimentation with creative procedures, theatrical forms and how to share productions and gauge public reception. One of the founding elements in this process is the development of epic forms related to the framework of dialectical epic theater. This epistemology encompasses historical subjects, social contradictions, as well as subjectivities, crossed by the geographical, historical, cultural, social and subjective crossroads that define territories. From the conception of the show as an aesthetic-historical-social experiment, in contexts considered dictatorial, the aim is to explain the ways in which some Latin American theater groups face times of oppression. To this end, the so-called collective-collaborative forms of production are reaffirmed as alternatives to the hegemonic capitalist mode of production. The study contemplates some roots of group theater; the concept of dramatics, the forms of collective-collaborative organization of theatrical work and epic theater as a way of confronting dictatorial contexts in the work of the groups Teatro El Galpón from Montevideo, Uruguay, and Coletivo Dolores Boca Aberta Mecatrônica de Artes from São Paulo, Brazil.