Abstract
The article examines the concept of participation in theater, challenging the traditional division between passive spectators and active actors. Participation may be physical, perceptual, or intellectual, fostering interaction between spectators and the dramatic action. Several historical theories and practices illustrate this concept.Categories of Participation include identification with the performance, first theorized by Aristotle, where spectators experience attraction or repulsion toward the action. Nietzsche and Stanislavski expand on this with the idea of transformative immersion between audience and actor. In the 20th century, Jean Vilar emphasizes collective communion between the audience and the performance, while Brecht introduces "distancing" to encourage intellectual and critical engagement.The 1960s-70s avant-garde movements, notably the Living Theatre, dissolve the stage-audience boundary through immersive and militant experiments. Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed takes this dynamic further. Techniques like forum theater transform spectators into active participants in social change.The article highlights a paradigm shift from traditional participation to "participatory" theater, where technological devices redefine engagement. Spectators become both operators and witnesses of the theatrical process. Concepts of interactivity and immersion enhance contemporary practices, integrating the spectator into sensory, tangible worldsIn education, initiatives like the School of Spectators or forum theater train "reader-spectators" to be active participants. Pedagogical approaches inspired by Freire promote critical and civic participation, transforming theater into an educational and political tool. Spectators become co-creators of meaning, contributing to shared values.