The profanation of school devices and the theatrical game

Abstract

The research introduces a theatrical practice performed with students from a public school in the city of Boituva in São Paulo State, Brazil, and arises from a concern regarding the presence of control devices in the school, particularly from a stairway and its rule that restricts the students’ access. The hypothesis is that the theater, specifically Spolin’s theater game (2003), has the potential of operating what Agamben (2007) states as “profanation”. The study involves the analysis of the concept of device in Foucault (1979; 2004) and Agamben (2009); the practice description, entitled “Theatrical Experience”; and the exposition of the student´s reports on the devices, which disclose a bond in relation to what was the first objective: to enable to reflect upon the existence of the devices in the school daily life, promoting a new use to them, by the profanation of the rule.