BRENT BLAIR | PhD, Founder, Institute for Theatre & Social Change, USC School of Dramatic Arts
Brent Blair joined the USC faculty in 1994 and is founder of the USC/SDA Institute for Theatre & Social Change (ITSC). He founded the MA in Applied Theatre Arts (2010-2014), has created numerous undergraduate courses and a minor in Applied Theatre Arts focusing on the areas of therapy, education, and social change, and has designed community-based projects and professional development training programs in arts and social change both locally, nationally, and around the world. A designated Linklater voice teacher, he trained in Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) with the late Augusto Boal from 1996 until his death in 2009. His own work with ITSC is currently centered on local communities exploring artistic resistance in anti-democratic cultures, particularly in the area of criminal justice, immigrant rights, and prison reform. In 2022 he spent his sabbatical researching the intersection of healing and justice through interactive arts, spending extensive time in India, Rwanda, and Israel. He has written an article on TO and trauma for Theatre Topics (“We Cry on the Inside”, 2010 with Angus Fletcher), and has published chapters on TO in Youth and Theatre of the Oppressed (2010, Duffy and Vettraino); Come Closer: Critical Perspectives on Theatre of the Oppressed (2011, Emert and Friedland); Ensayando el Despertar (2019, Joffre-Eichhorn); and has published interviews or discussions in A Boal Companion: Dialogues on Theatre and Cultural Politics (2006, Cohen-Cruz and Schutzman) and The Routledge Companion to Theatre of the Oppressed (2019, Howe, Boal and Soeiro).