Augusto Pinto Boal (Rio de Janeiro, March 16, 1931 – Rio de Janeiro, May 2, 2009) was a Brazilian theater director, playwright and essayist, one of the great figures of international contemporary theater. Founder of the Theater of the Oppressed, which combines theater with social action, his techniques and practices spread throughout the world, notably in the last three decades of the 20th century, being widely used not only by those who understand theater as an instrument of emancipation politics but also in the areas of education, mental health and the prison system.