evolving theatre definitions

Conceptually, the jam...

2010-03-30T14:13:00.000+05:30

Theatre jam, an initiative began more than a year back to address concerns of art and media practice within the city. It has turned into an open space not only for theatre, but music, art installations, canvass art, photography, media art- all of these to co-exist. It also forms an interesting interface for dialogue on "amateur and professional" art practice and content of exploration. We are hoping that the forum eventually will lead to skill building through sharing and artists to practice their art for communities.

Theatre jam rose out as a counter response to the general caging of art and art practice within confines of entertainment and commercialization. Through theatre jam, Maraa hoped to bring artists of all sorts together in public spaces, so they would meet, connect and collaborate more creatively. Theatre jam wanted to bring artists and communities together instead so that the distance and the mysticism that existed between the artist the audience could diminish. This way, diverse content and forms could reach people directly, and this could directly enrich and enliven urban spaces- which we also hoped would lead to renewed public sense of community and dialogue.
Theatre in Bangalore currently seems to exist on a culture-space pedestal for the practitioner and (more recently) in minds of the audiences. Rangashankara as a theatre space has managed to create a facelift for theatre as a legitimate, mainstream and popular cultural commodity to engage with. If one were to understand this as an artists’ movement that brought visibility to the form, the general hope was that other movements addressing content, form and practice would emerge. What seems to have followed is a series of unresolved debates on quality of performances, availability of performance spaces, infrastructural accessibility and a further branching off & politicization of space and resources.
Working with our artist selves and needs
To be able to conceive and contextualize content & form is, in our opinion an essential need for artists to develop their work. As a practitioner in the city one has various entry points into the “form” of theatre. Being called amateur artists is quite acceptable; with one often being subject to observations and critique: for example, theatre with unique content, refined in form could only be created as one worked towards acquiring a certain professional tag. And to acquire this function of being professional, one needed to shed and transcend through elaborate processes of a theatre education. As most worked within this paradigm, theatre activities started stemming around initiating this contact between expert facilitators and the amateur. Some of us artists observed that two factors stared us in the face (excuse us for being subjective and generalizing for all amateur practitioners here):
-Access to these collaborations weren’t happening often enough
-Content and form that stemmed from the “amateur-professional” collaborations didn’t seem to exhibit much of a shift.
Thus we concluded that the expectation from this process (of imparting learning) was to be able to create sustained and NEW art content and experiment with different art forms. The flaw inherent was that, quite often than not, a space that was required to capitalize on existent creativity wasn’t being created. Young performers with an imagination were unable to express themselves and create work with new content and context due to a lack of conceptual space that allowed expression and provided encouragement and motivation to follow those ideas up.
So we asked ourselves, what would be some realistic factors which could help implement this thought,- that of creating a safe, nurturing, non hierarchal space?
Some ideas we had…
-Create a context for short performances; and for varying “time-sizes” to co-exist (ranging from a minute to half hour).
- Create a (physical) space (and audience) context for all stages of a performance to co-exist: readings, sharing of an idea and inspiration, solos, work-in-progress and completely crafted performances.
-Explore the possibility of one art complementing the other and collaborative expressions across different art and media forms
New Frontiers
It is increasingly a challenge to create and sustain ever growing, dynamic art and media practitioner groups that stays together to draw from each other in terms of resources and practices. Work also needs to be done for newer artists and audiences to join in the process.
Since the jam began, in October 2008, artists have met, engaged with each others work and collaborated. And yet, a lot of contexts that were rich, ideas, performances, pieces, still remain in the realm of the undocumented and untraced. Keeping this in mind, we decided to channelise some of the experimental content to a wider range of audience perhaps through a medium like Television. A local cable network is keen on loaning us some of its air time and Maraa hopes to build newer audiences through these media presentations of content and form that rose in the jam space. Would be an exciting hybrid media space and a unique interface with newer kinds of audiences…

Deepak Srinivasan

february love

2010-02-05T13:42:00.002+05:30

Jamming & Gelling with Maraa

2009-11-26T11:57:00.005+05:30

click on the link to see the pictures Raktim took of Jamming through October

Love & Fresh Air

2009-11-26T11:52:00.000+05:30

I had been receiving regular invites to theater jam’s october fest and had been missing the events for either being busy or mostly being lazy. Having had met Deepak and his colleagues at an earlier occasion of a Hindi film music evening that I enjoyed, I surely wanted to show up for at least one event.I convinced a friend that going to theater jam would be a better option on the last Sunday of October. rather than sleeping in late. So, with our sandwiches packed we landed at the big-rock Cubbon Park. Had not been to big-rock since the days we would hang out there on Saturday nights for music gigs.

Met up with theater jammers under a shaded tree, got introduced to every one including Pritam [Chakravarty]. We were not familiar with her work, so we just chatted around and waited for events to unfold. A while later, Deepak suggested, why not begin with Pritam’s performance, and all of a sudden the petite lady came alive. Within seconds into her act she had ever one riveted…her story seemed real and in the face [Pritham performed Nirvanam]. The performance was in such informal and intimate setting that I remember feeling queasy as she continued to push hard and ahead with her act. And, what an act that was, to have squeezed in thirty minutes someone’s misery of a lifetime. Honestly, both me and my friend were later relieved to learn that, what we had just witnessed was a performance and not Pritam’s real life story.

We stayed on for another performance by regular theater jammers, a painting & artworks exhibit of talented Pallavi who had been also doing the publicity posters for the event and also saw photographs from an earlier photography event organized in shivajinagar and ulsoor.

I subsequently attended a Indie/Student films screening as part of oct. Jam. Again, a great intimate event, full of believers & do-gooders. So, this is to thank Pritam, regular and guest theater jammers, and the indie guys, who all do it, quite literally for love & fresh air. Also, thanks to big-rock for being there!

Small tech glitches on the day of screening were a non issue for me. It was organizational genius to have quickly shifted the venue and made the event a great success. Wish I had stayed for all screenings and perhaps also attended more events during the course of the month.

I sincerely wish to congratulate you, ekta, sukhmani, pallavi and all Maraa team mates to have pulled this off so wonderfully.

Ajay Gehlot

ajay.gehlot@gmail.com

poetry night

2009-10-26T11:34:00.000+05:30

I remember falling in love with poetry while reading ee cummings and Shakespeare and Keats over and over again, to really understand the poets and there poetry or just interpret it, over many chais with my teacher and friends. We spent days on one poem, digesting it. Spending hours sitting next to the river, mulling over each verse.

Before that, in school, words had just passed through me. They were just words, thrown at me in a strange language. I had no time to take them in slowly, I had to move over to the next one in my course, only to vomit out everything the next day in my exam.

Tonight took me back to such memories. I was excited to share all of my favourite poems, although, after a while, I felt like one of those people who like the sound of their own voices! I enjoyed sharing them with everyone, but I wish I had talked about them a little more. That I had shared the experiences that went with each one of them.

I enjoyed listening to other’s, too. But I did feel, again, that words were just thrown at me and I had no time to tie them and slowly take them in. I realize I was doing the same to others too.

Poetry, I now understand, is not about the recitation or the rhyming. It is about experiencing.

It was, however, heart warming to see a lot of enthusiasts turning up to share their verses. To find so many people could string their thoughts, so well, into poems. Even that few people generally hanging out at the café also decided to join in.

Still, tonight was important. For many met many new people, many got the space to voice themselves through their own words or another’s and we all transformed a “public” space into a very warm, intimate space, close enough for energies, thoughts and feelings to connect.

Sampath 's poetry

2009-10-22T15:56:00.002+05:30

A few Poems that i have written over the years, on various themes, often late in the night, racked by guilt, Loss, Love and all the other chips and dips issues of life.

Here are a Few of the poems i read out on our Poetry Night

Firefly

Gone saw you briefly
Like a firefly glowing

Seeking a thought in

all that darkness.

Who knows where your journey

takes you?
Is there an insect heaven?

What predators prey on you

firefly?

Will i see you again?

Dilip Sampath

x-cess
Whatever you and i do

is complete, replete with
streamers a party atmosphere
Balloons bursting, emotions extending

our minds expanding, like people

believing in expression a total sublime

immersion.
Without any inhibitions our sweat mingling,

close to your body, a sudden release

is all we need.
Tense and pretending we try to fit into

our social roles, playing our parts for the first time
and not knowing our lines, daring to cross to

the other side.
The creativity your expressing is beautiful
now,paint a picture of my life.
Alone and free at last to explore
our private past.

Dilip Sampath

Street Noises

It could have been different
another night maby...

Bright lights appear from

Lonely and absconding walkways

Houses i think among tree filled

avenues that surround me,

Enveloping and inhibiting me

Screaming for help, nobody

Nobody hear's me, I'm dying all
alone on the dirty streets.

Run over by a car, a manic driver

screeches to a halt beneath me.

What do they care, I'm just a street sleeper
without a home nobody to go to,
only hearing machine sounds.

Dilip Sampath

Dolls at play

When you think of dolls

the thing that comes to mind

are those shaped leggy sometimes

cottony things.
I'd like to think of them as people,
coming alive at the right moment

Playing with our minds, then

going back to their own

connecting thoughts

leaving us behind
Chalk that up to the rag doll
lessons of life.

We transfer or perceived warmth

on them unconditionally

She -he or of an amorphous gender

Play with me, abuse me, mutilate me

Like disturbed minds do

when given dolls to play!
Cottony dolls have memories too-

did you know?

Dilip Sampath

city specks - the story of Select Bookshop

2009-10-22T10:56:00.005+05:30

The amiable and witty Mr. K.K.S. Murthy, the face and voice of one of Bangalore’s oldest and iconic landmarks took around 20 of us down an enchanting memory lane on a pleasant Saturday evening earlier this month. It was part of the City Specks: Mapping Memories activity of the Jamming through October festival (http://theatresundays.blogspot.com/) organized by Maraa (www.maraa.in), a community media collective based in Bangalore.

Born in 1930 to a bibliophilic father practising as a lawyer in Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) who relocated with his family to Bangalore in 1944-’45, Mr. Murthy formally took over Select in 1977. However, he kept learning about the used book trade immensely while choosing, buying and shipping books from dealers and auctioneers in Paris and New York, (during his professional stints in nearby Spain and New Jersey) apart from those in Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai. (With a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Science, he worked as an aeronautical engineer in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and later with the Kirloskar group and private firms in the

“Father would visit Bangalore at the mere receipt of a post card from any acquaintance in Bangalore about the arrival/availability of some secondhand books. Katherine Mansfield was among his favourite authors. I have seen people from Kerala carrying and selling books in baskets here”, said Mr. Murthy. His father Mr. K.B.K. Rao (Rao, a suffix acquired for being an Andhraite) who started Select in 1945 in an Irishman’s garage on Museum Road catered to eminent Bangaloreans like Sir C.V. Raman who had specific tastes. “When I saw a hardcover with colour photographs of Jaichamarajendra Wodeyar in one of the street side Parisian bookstores, I sent it to my father to gift it to Sir C V Raman who was patronized by the Maharaja”.

After quitting his initial engineering job in New Jersey, Mr. Murthy joined Simon and Schuster, a book publisher and warehouse as an inventory controller (after completing a course in the subject). There he observed primarily Spanish speaking youngsters in the basement meticulously inspecting English and other books and LP records and rejecting those with the slightest defect. He admired their high standards and bought many of those with minor flaws for US $200 as there was no disposal process. “I used to sack mail books from New York and while I used the Indian Embassy’s help to parcel them from Paris. Concerned about the expenditure, my father advised me to send only 1-2 copies per book”.

He shared how Durga Book Stall in Russell Market with a stationery section on the ground floor had a fantastic used book collection on the first that was usually locked but was opened exclusively for them whenever required. Mr. Sait who still visits and supplies them ran a circulating library cum old books store near Coles Park but he primarily operates from his house now.

Suma Ponnamma, a friend and regular since 1969 missed going to the shop only for a month although that seemed a long duration to her. A Canadian who started buying from them during Mr. Murthy’s father’s time still goes there. Historian and writer Ramchandra Guha, The Hindu’s Editor-in-Chief, N. Ram and former Karnataka governor Mr. T.N. Chaturvedi are among his long time customers.

According to him, Select’s sales are declining probably because people are reading less, contrary to the common assumption that business is unaffected. Some of us wondered if digitization of books was another factor. “I only collect books and don’t read them. Also, I didn’t want to start a circulating library after seeing father’s challenges with it. But I always enjoyed watching movies like the Moon and Sixpence costing a few annas – most of the old the theatres are gone now!” Mr. Murthy added. When people asked his father how he could sustain his shop with only 3 assistants and also support his family, he would reply that he succeeded in educating and marrying his children off with just this business.

Sanjay, Mr. Murthy’s son joined him in 1999 and they expanded to the first floor in 2002. Due to various reasons the store’s location changed to Malleswaram, Ulsoor (beside Lakseside Hospital) and M.G. Road before moving to the current and permanent space on Brigade Road Cross in the late 1970’s. Mr. Murthy also has a publishing business and contributes articles to the Times group of publications too. “I would like to publish a book of quotations soon and I have been collecting sayings in various languages for that”, he said.

Select has acquired Coomaraswamy’s Rajput paintings from New York, 120 volumes of Asiatic Society’s publications from Kolkatta, Tamil works from Tiruchirapalli, red and green Penguins worth Rs. 750-1000. Some of the pictures adorning the walls are copies of Van Gogh's works. Apart from an annual sale of rare, out-of-print books in Bangalore, Select also participates in book fairs/exhibitions nationwide. When I merely mentioned possessing a few collections of literary and other masterpieces written by some of the world’s greatest and published by the Times of London, he delighted me by fetching a huge blue leather bound volume of the Times Literary Supplement and quickly narrated how he got hold of it.

When Mr. Murthy first said, “I think I should stop now and let you all ask me questions. Otherwise, I can go on for a lot longer”, we urged him to continue his spell binding anecdotes. After nearly an hour and a half, we reluctantly ended the session promising to return for more...

...Pushpa

coming soon!

2009-10-16T15:31:00.002+05:30

2009-10-15T16:30:00.000+05:30

arna's children

2009-10-12T17:52:00.002+05:30

don't miss these!

2009-10-07T14:48:00.000+05:30

jamming week 2

2009-10-07T14:40:00.002+05:30

october jam: Schedule for week one

2009-09-30T12:13:00.001+05:30

1st october
Meet, greet n perform (try in a group)
Stare at the sky for 5mins (try this in a group)
Sing a song loudly on a street corner (do it in a group)
Smile at a stranger
Carry placards with smiley on them (try in a group)
Event Scores, involve simple actions, ideas, and objects from everyday life recontexualized as performance. Event Scores are texts that can be seen as proposal pieces or instructions for actions. The idea of the score suggests musicality. Like a musical score, Event Scores can be realized by artists other than the original creator and are open to variation and interpretation.
Stare at the new constructions for 5mins….

2nd oct.

Nagara Chitra /SEEMPLY POSE MADDI SAAR

...click, pick and stick
meet up with fellow photographers, first timers n old timers
we're going into markets, streets n lanes of bangalore,
freeze a moment,
creating a story,
using your SLR's, Digi SLR's, just Digital, cellphones or even handy cameras..
choose pictures from the loot and display them back in the same markets, streets and lanes you clicked them on..

for further details
call - 98869 28582 / 9880755875 / 9986198228
mail - info@maraa.in

schedule
Ulsoor
meet to click - 3th to 4th Oct
pick n stick - 5th to 9th Oct

2nd Oct.

3rd oct.

4th oct.
Theatre Jam!
at rocks, cubbon park, near Queen Victoria Statue...
the original theatre jam: music, theatre, art, meeting, sharing, collaborating All are welcome. Perform, sing, dance, watch, listen, read, write, share, exchange, display, create… Activities so far: Pandies theatre, New Delhi Mashaal, Bangalore marriage performance installation- juliet's window (deepak)

5th Oct
Nagara chitara contd...

6th oct.
Nagara chitara contd...
Gandhi Class: film screening- Makkala Panchayat and Gram Sabha
6 pm, at Jagaa, Rhenius St Richmond Town, Bengaluru

7th Oct.
Nagara Chitara Contd...

look who's jammin!

2009-09-21T17:41:00.000+05:30

scroll down for info:

jammin through october

2009-09-14T12:53:00.000+05:30

theatre Jam turns one this october,
to celebrate the arts and build this movement
we are jamming, all through october
in public spaces of Bangalore.

theatre Jam is a space to affirm of individual expression.
a caravan of artists who meet every month to share, create and JAM.

make theatre jam, your space.
bring your story, art, medium, idea
dreams, memories, tricks…
install, improvise, perform, express
anyone can Participate in the jam activities.
pick a date in October and tell us what you want to do.

most activities will take place in public parks, streets, terraces, basements and markets.

spread the word and encourage more people to participate in the october jam.

BARE NECESSITIES

yes, indeed, we have some running costs! We roughly need about a lakh for travel for outstation artists, food, publicity, coordination, chai-pani. So if you pledged some donation to us, it would get a few things moving! Just mail us if you want to contribute at info@maraa.in or call us on 4148-8264, you could contribute online at http://bit.ly/Phh9p if u have a paypal account or a cridit card.

You could also offer spare rooms and couches for outstation artists. food, water, travel, coffee/tea will help cut costs. we need people to shoot, update, collate and coordinate. volunteer. Get in touch.

HISTORYNIGHTMARE

2009-09-09T20:41:00.000+05:30

Whenever that i can
see the world
by dog's eye
Wherever that i have
depressed dog's wide eye's sight

I shall kid people
with their
funny laughing
and coming to beat
when i saw them
toward garbages
just running to eat

My sightseeing to world is dog's eyes
under tramples
of absurd minds
as a long journey to uplift
with sunshines
as wise as fly to high to sunrise

You will be the blind against dog
cause of noisy nervous round
you are proud of yourself
in developed machinism bond

But never mind
there is vagabond
who is human dog
other kind of animal
to watch lunatic mankind

In mass of them
lonely creature
in synthetic historical dark square
l o o k s:
they execute all root of nature.

inlandtourist.blogspot.com

Wet sounds

2009-09-06T21:18:00.000+05:30

"Sun, rain, sun, rain!
was the refrain
But from performing
we did not remain..."

said a Flower

pandies profile

2009-08-26T12:32:00.000+05:30

     pandies’ theatre
phone 65711312 telefax 26130761          81 sector A pocket C
e-mail - pandies@netscape.net           vasant kunj
      pandies93@rediffmail.com          new delhi 110070             india

pandies' theatre was registered (under the societies act 1860) in Sept. 1993. Committed to staging plays relevant to our ethos and time, it evolved as an activist and possibly the only feminist theatre group in north India in the 1990s itself. Our origins are humble. Started as a university movement in `87, we have a consistent strength over 70 members.

The group began as an English theatre movement performing the bulk of its plays in the proscenium and established its niche in that slot. From `96 we went activist, taking on projects on issues rather than simply plays and today apart from one or two productions in commercial auditoriums every year we cover diverse slums, bastis, schools and colleges. The issues revolve around women because the group believes if our society is to head anywhere, it has to become more women-oriented and woman-friendly. Every year the group picks a topic and works on it for at least one year. We have targeted rape, prostitution and HIV, Mental Health Act and its relation to women, institutions of love and marriage.

Post – 2002, while retaining our earlier focus, the group took a conscious decision to target anti-communal forces and work intensively with children and these have been the high points of recent years. The group has moved more and more into the margins, working specially with under-privileged children from diverse areas and groups.

The plays are directed by Sanjay Kumar, and essentially multi-lingual scripts evolve in workshops and through research and are written, at times collated, by the director in conjunction with Ms. Anuradha Marwah and Dr. Anand Prakash – creative writers and members of the group.

Productions `93 - `96

Macbeth Sept.'93

The group started its work with successful shows of the bard's classic - looked at from a 3rd world perspective. A Hindi epilogue and prologue were added. Our use of capital's social dregs as the witches and Kali-worship to show their transition provided talking points for the capital's theatregoers.

Womanscape Jan. '94

Scripted by members of the group and inspired the shorter fiction of Doris Lessing, this play focussed on the predicament of women in our city, our time. Presenting issues like molestation and incest, the play brought out issues hitherto in the closet for an open discussion

The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Aug. '94

Brecht's rollicking farce on the rise of Hitler. A Hitler is possible anywhere, is it possible to resist his rise? Brecht is the one to whom the group is indebted for many of its biases and theatre techniques. The play was contextualised in the context of the rise of right wing forces (and electoral victories) in the capital.

The Story of Meera Aug. '94

a play based on the story of Meera and Krishna. Scripted by members of the group, the play took a second look at Meera. For us she is not just a Hindu saint but a woman: her devotion and bond with Krishna is not just mystical religion but a rebellion against the ‘maleness’ that seeks to subsume her and prescribe codes for every aspect of her existence.

Ghosts Dec. '94 Arguably our most popular production of the only proscenium phase.

This production was a venture into an area practically uncharted at the level of Delhi theatre, we adapted Ibsen’s classic Ghosts and presented it as a play on AIDS set in the upper middle class of Delhi. As a socially aware and committed group we addressed ourselves to what constitutes the major scourge for our city, our world today. The first full-length commercial play on AIDS in Delhi, it highlighted the decadent masculinity of our world that has left us open to the onset of this scourge. Approved and supported by the WHO, this play was funded initially by NACO, it went through repeated adaptations and different sponsors from development sectors and the corporate world. It was taken to Bangalore by the NORAD. Large segments of the play were telecast on Doordarshan and STAR TV.

Beautiful Images June '95

Based on Simon de Beauvoir's Les Belles Images. Staged at the LTG, the play was hailed by all as a subtle, sophisticated presentation of some of Beauvoir's complex feministic ideas. The play was staged again in `96 at the Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi.

Call Her A Witch Nov. '96

This play marks a turning point for the group. The bulk of scripting was done by members of the group and the cause was in our immediate surroundings. Aroused by newspaper/magazine reports of witch burning, the group - helped by the women's group, SHAKTISHALINI, pursued many such cases and came up with this production dealing with the phenomenon of witch burning, women being burnt as witches to serve varying interests of patriarchal systems. To stress the universality of such exploitation we interacted with Dekker's (late Renaissance) The Witch of Edmonton. Shows at SRC apart, this play was taken to many colleges in agreement with them. The British Council too commissioned a show of this play on the 24th of Feb. '97.

Activist phase projects/productions from `96 onwards

We have been working with 20 slum/ basti areas in Delhi, have interaction with 100 schools and about 25 colleges. Minimum 100 presentations are held each year. The major issue till 2000 was gender-sensitisation and the group latches on to a different theme each year and after performing in the proscenium theatre takes adaptations of the same to diverse places. The group also works on issues related to environment. The adaptable, flexible, bilingual (at times multi-lingual) scripts are totally ours. The group is constantly exploring, searching for better modes to get its meaning across. Songs, dances, choreo sequences are all a part of its repertoire. One of the most successful modes is an extremely interactive discussion at the end where the activist even narrates relevant anecdotes to get its audience to talk. The group has evolved a mega network in and around Delhi consisting of women and HIV activists, environmentalists, school and college teachers and students, progressive women from various communities inc. slums, victims of rape, attempted murder.

1997 HIV and Prostitution

Our first nascent step into full time activism began with Mannequins : Sell a Woman, Buy a body. This production focuses on prostitution, on patriarchal orientation that creates the need for prostitution and the victimisation of the group that occurs in society especially after the outbreak of HIV.

The script focussed on both the kotha (brothel) in a ‘red light area’ and the upper middle class ‘call girl racket’. Through the lower class plot the project focuses on related themes of child prostitution, of commodification of the woman and of a life bonded to violence, violation and disease. The other plot focuses on themes of ignorance, deceit - here too the element of victimisation was stressed by showing a woman seeking to assert her sexuality and ending up, inexorably, in a no-win situation. The play was subsequently picked by NACO for spreading AIDS - awareness in colleges. With this also began the establishment of a network of women activists. We interacted with Elizabeth Vatsayan (AAG), Ms. Virdi, Dr. Promila Kapur and members of AIWC. Fruitful associations, interaction with whom continues.

1997 - `98 The Mental Health Act and Women

She's MAD! This production sought to explore the issue of madness in women. Does it mean the same for a man and a woman? In its interaction with various groups, we discovered that the label of madness has become the latest method of cruelty against women, to deprive them of their rights and let the husband be free to do what he likes. The play places us in a special category of theatre activists using theatre as a medium to seek legislative change. This production was with the support of Ford Foundation and in conjunction with SHAKTISHALINI. Apart from shows in SRC, the play was taken to slums, bastis and villages around Delhi. The play has been performed in courtyards of houses, streets, lawns and schools and women's homes. Over 50 performances were held and each followed by discussion sessions.

The play led to a panel discussion between members of the group and women lawyers on this issue on STAR TV.

1998-`99 Rape

Veils - has been arguably our most controversial high impact production. It prioritised the issue of rape. Why does a man commit rape? What sympathy, succour can you offer a rape victim. Does not the present structuring of society make rape easy, almost inevitable? A scathing critique of the male-orientedness of our society, the play seeks an attitudinal change and asks for a legislative reform. The project has been sponsored by the HRD Ministry, Govt. of India. The most polemical and probably the best received (at times certain sections of the male audience have been almost hostile to the play), apart from shows at the S R C, the play has been performed at umpteen schools and colleges and in bastis as street shows. The play was an activist's delight. In fact Dr. Mohini Giri tried to have the play performed at the floor of the parliament as part of the plea for legislative reform on the issue.

Pushta direct intervention programme beg. April `99

Following the success of the sensitisation against rape campaign HRD Ministry asked us to carry out an intensive theatre-based gender-sensitisation programme in Yamuna Pushta. Focussing solely on girl-children and women the programme includes awareness of women's rights, adult women and young girl children's literacy, health and sanitation, medical attention to women and emphasising of women's role in social development. the programme has been a mega-success story, with girls and women of the area picking cudgels against drug trafficking, sale of illicit liquor and above all child-prostitution. An entire feature on the group's work here was telecast by the STAR TV.

1999-2000 Trafficking of women

Visitations was the name of the play and trafficking of the girl-child the theme. What does trafficking mean for the little girl-child who is sold for a pittance by her own relatives into a life of prostitution and bondage? Burning issues of legal reform, legalisation of prostitution are placed in the problematic. For the facts of trafficking the group has relied on its own experiences in slums and red-light areas around Delhi and also taken cognisance of all - India studies done by diverse pro-women organisations (UNIFEM, WCD-Govt. of India and the many NGOs that the group has been working with for many years). The play has been used as a tool for gender-sensitisation in slums, schools, colleges, women shelters and children's homes.

This year we also stepped into other areas of activism. The group took an extensive anti-firecracker campaign for the Dept. of Environment, Delhi Govt., covering 65 schools in 1999.

At the end of `99, at the behest of some of our friends at AAG, the group carried out a theatre cum AIDS cum gender sensitisation workshop in Delhi's Tihar Jail. pandies created a play with the inmates after a workshop lasting around 6 weeks (thrice a week). The project ended with a production where all the actors and scriptwriters were from among the convicts themselves.

2000-`01Love and Marriage relooked at from a woman' perspective

(K)nots, raises the question - can marriage be pro-woman? Is not this institution not only male-biased but also actively supportive of an anti-woman ethos? By retaining its male orientation, this institution seems to have put itself on a self-destruct mode. And love? Our notions of love are created out of cinema stereotypes. Are not all famous love sagas also male narratives that venerate the man at the cost of the woman? And is not love also a concept, conceived within our consumerist structures? And if it is consumerist, does it not further commodify the woman? Subjecting the most valorised emotion of love and the most cherished institution of marriage to a feminist intervention the questions both the validity and the viability of the two concepts. The play is not a solution-provider. Rather it seeks solutions from all of us, who know the male-orientation of our structures and turn our face away from them or simply accept them as given co-ordinates that have to be accepted by all.
We have also participated in the UNIFEM campaign against trafficking of women in South East Asia and done plays in colleges for the UNIFEM and WSDC in Nov. – Dec. 2000.
Work for Delhi's environment also continues, firecrackers apart, the group has done 100 shows in schools, marketplaces, office complexes and parks against the use of plastic polybags.
.
2001 – The year of the Child for pandies
The year 2001 was devoted to the child. As networking partner of the British Council(Delhi), pandies did an extensive programme on childrights covering Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu. The programme involved over 200 schools and NGOs and at least 5000 children. It had a theatre component and an arts component. The theatre component was under pandies. Spanning about 15 months this programme began with identifying groups and schools capable of creating plays related to child rights.
Orientation programmes were carried by me with the help of other members of the group, where guidelines were laid and paradigmatic skits shown. The schools were asked to prepare where everything from child rights to theatre techniques were assessed. Selected plays were put up for theatre festivals four of which were held in Jalandhar, Muktasar, Chandigarh and Jammu and the finale in New Delhi.
Children were selected from these plays for intensive two-day workshops where theatre skills and awareness of child rights were imparted. Four workshops were held, two in Delhi, one in Chandigarh and one in Jammu. A special leg of the programme was for children from juvenile homes and two-day workshop was held in the girls juvenile home next to Tihar jail.
The first three workshops were conducted by Adrian Jackson (Cardboard Citizens, London) and I with the help of other members from pandies. I conducted the Jammu workshop and the one in the juvenile girls’ home with members of the group.
The project culminated with a two-day plays festival in April 2002 where chosen plays from the diverse venues were performed.
2002 – CLEANSING
This play deals with making sense of contemporary polity in the post-Gujarat Scenario and presents a scathing attack on majoritarianism. The script of the above was culled from workshops where people who were present in towns of Gujarat when all this happened also participated. It was an effort both at script creating and re-enactment. Our impassioned reaction to what has happened in Gujarat at the beginning of the year, the play picks up and foregrounds images of violence from our ethos. Violence, destruction, state oppression – in a world fast losing sanity, the play to foregrounds conflict and conflict resolution (possible/difficult/impossible). Within this rather broad ambit we would work intensively in our reality. We move back and forth images of terror and oppression.
This play was first presented in Delhi’s Shri Ram Centre on July 3rd and 4^th. We followed this with participation in the Commonwealth Theatre festival at Manchester in July 2002. The festival, a result of feverish yearlong activity and testimony to the close relations that pandies has formed with friends/colleagues not only in the UK but also in several third world countries besides. The play was highly appreciated both by audiences in Delhi and Manchester.
Togetherness 2002 – 2003: child and communalism
      In November 2002 the group began a project focussing on sensitizing children to communal violence. It culminated in a theatre-festival cum interactive workshop in Delhi on the 2^nd and 3^rd of December 2003. A project dear to us all, it brought together the experience of the preceding two years – on the issues of child rights and communalism. Indian children are confused by the rhetoric of communalism. Should they believe the discourses of secularism and democracy or those that preach communal hatred? They are scared of the mindless violence of the adults around them.
      The first leg of this project was Delhi-centric and focused on schools and some slum areas and the second leg focuses on children of displaced communities (Hindu, Muslim and Sikh) from Jammu, Srinagar and Delhi. Work commenced in over 30 sectors. We used a variety of mediums apart from theatre; sketching, story telling and short story writing.
      We used interactive workshops to create theatre with children. Each workshop took 8–10 hours and at least three were held with each group over the course of a year. It is practically impossible to catalogue the work that took place in slums, schools and migrant camps of Delhi, the many visits to Jammu and the difficulty of working in Srinagar amid the hostilities and restrictions originating from working between the armed forces and the fundamentalist factions.
In what was a first for Pandies, we organized on the 2^nd and 3^rd of December 2003 a huge theatre festival cum interactive workshop at the open air auditorium at the Dilli Haat, New Delhi. Children (from Delhi, Jammu, and Srinagar; from slums, orphanages, and schools; rich and poor; Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist) got together to present their diverse work and interact with each other. It was the first time that boundaries of class, religion and geography had been broken in this manner. It was also the first time that Kashmiri Muslim and Kashmiri pandit children traveled and stayed together. There were in all about 280 children and 30 adults from around 20 sectors. The morning sessions of both days were devoted to interactive workshops. And the post-lunch sessions were for staging the plays. Over 20 plays were presented. The project was supported by Delhi Tourism.

2004 - Not Inside Us

We continued with our tirade against communalism into 2004. Avoiding the topicality of Cleansing we looked at the larger themes of communalism in the post-Gujarat and pre-general election scenario. Using a meta-narrative of a right wing “mind-washing of dissenters,” the play looks at the problem of mainstream majoritarianism from the points of view of the Hindu working class, Muslim middle class and Christian and scheduled caste perspectives to present a comprehensive indictment. Contemporary pre-general elections reality was engendered. An entire episode focussed on middle class Muslim women and their understanding and coping with majoritarian reality.
Three shows were presented at the Sri Ram Centre on the 9^th 10^th and 11^th of January. Adapted versions of the play are being performed in the slums where we work and in schools and colleges.
2004 – 2005: Partial Interest
Electoral changes inspire euphoria. But have destructive forces been really contained?
The play uses three inter-connected plots to explore our socio-political reality from where we stand today.
A liberal upper middle class family is used both for examining liberal upper middleclass values and as a point of entry to examine the predicament of those at the lower end of our structures. Three professionals, all of who had reacted to and condemned communal carnage of Gujarat look at the polity in the new dispensation. How secular are we? Are not religious biases running deep once the suave upper layer is scratched? The wife, who works for an NGO, moves away to question the religious roots of our middle class and its obsession with money. Her work provides the link with other two stories.
A Hindi subplot cataloguing the aspirations and disappointments of lower class people seeking to make it big in the city. The protagonist questions the motives behind such migration in his decision to return.
The Punjabi subplot constitutes the heart of the play and takes its facts from the suicides of small farmers in Punjab (Rajasthan and Andhra). Mainstream stories of the Green Revolution hide and distort the tales of small people, their indebtedness, and the sale of girl children to compensate the failure of rains, foeticide, infanticide, and caste politics. Hidden sagas waiting to emerge, waiting.
Three shows were presented at the Sri Ram Centre on the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th of December. Adapted versions of the play are being performed in the slums where we work and in schools and colleges

2005 – anti-communalism
The highlight of the year has been a six-day workshop in Gulmarg in June 2005. The group – fifty-five children between ten and sixteen years of age. An almost even split of Kashmiri pandit and Kashmiri Muslim children, of girls and boys. The pandit children were from migrant camps in Delhi and Jammu and areas around Jammu. A handful of them, five had worked with me before, the rest were new to the experience. The Muslim kids were from diverse parts of the valley, from camps, schools and orphanages in Brijbehara, Baramullah and areas around Srinagar. Most were poor and many had lost their parents. I had a target to have a production involving all the children ready for a performance in Srinagar on the seventh day. A unique experiment of putting the two communities together, literally in a 24 x 7 format, it was fraught with dangers. The situation was volatile as all the children carried baggage. A daunting creative task too made twice difficult by the physical hardship of its being a nature camp. The pandies’ methodology of individual followed by collective exercises, of short story writing, of creating twenty minute skits culminated this time in tying these short skits into a holistic mode of a final play of about ninety minutes duration.
The success emerged in the daunting display is Srinagar on the 1^st of July.

2006 MARGINS: Yeh sab tadan ke adhikari

Gender, class, religion and caste, the mainstreaming Indian state has evolved in a manner that many are excluded, they lie on the margins. MARGINS is the coming together of three short scripts linked in their critique of the mainstream of our state and society from diverse peripheral “women” perspectives. The fourteenth proscenium production of pandies, the play is being directed by Sanjay Kumar. Sourced from workshop experiences and conversations with and readings from those involved, the plays have been scripted by Sanjay Kumar, Anuradha Marwah and Anand Prakash respectively. The production is being directed by Sanjay Kumar. It was staged at the Shri Ram Centre, Safdar Hashmi Marg on the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th of August 2006.
The first plot borrows a real life story from the files of a women’s organisation Shaktishalini. The story is based in Delhi, centring round a lower middle class case of a Muslim family. The script examines state constructions of justice for Muslims, women and Muslim women.
The second leaning on archetypal Dalit autobiographies reconstructs another real story though from a different perspective. It juxtaposes caste and gender. Hidden within a sceptical anti-brahminical cover is the question whether gender transcends caste? Is it possible for a Dalit man to exploit an upper caste woman? Who is in the margins?
The third set in the lower class, is a rollicking farce. Slicing hegemonic patriarchal structures from diverse marginal perspectives, the script juxtaposes constructions of masculinity with the spirit of football.
Extremely successful and sought after, these episodes (collectively and singularly) have since been staged at Oxford Bookstore, in over 20 colleges of the University of Delhi as part of WSDC offered gender-courses and also at Ajmer (Savitri College as part of Pathways seminar and in Sophia College) and in the village of Indirapuram. The play is still continuing.

Rajasthan: Sarvaar and Indirapuram (villages in Ajmer district) January 2007

A two and a half day workshop culminating in an in-house performance (parents and villagers). The workshop comprised of about 50 participants of the age group 15 to 25 (two older men too were there). This was part of a three-month literacy camp organised by another NGO (Ajmer Adult Education Association) for school dropouts in Sarvaar and the performance was held in Indirapuram.

Nithari village, Noida Uttar Pradesh 2006 May – 2007 May

pandies started theatre workshops with slum children in an informal school – Saksham, in Nithari village in May 2006, six months before nithari hit national headlines and became Nithari. Our workshops were geared along usual lines of sensitising children to issues of gender, religion and class through the medium of teaching them to make theatre. The discovery of carcasses and skeletons of children who had disappeared brought this somnolent village into limelight. The families of many of our participants were involved. Our first visit, after the discovery, was greeted with silence. I created a group of young people who had narrowly missed similar fate and those who had lost their siblings and started work. Articulation was difficult. We agreed to make a machine – gestures, movements, sounds (but no words). The machine that they created was repetitive acts comprising seduction, abuse, murder, cutting the body and then corruption and acquittal. Three workshops resulting in an oral narrative, one machine and two brief skits all dealing with the trauma and the participants had regained confidence to return with redoubled vigour to their workshops to make their contributions to issues of gender, class/caste and religion. The entire experience was staged at the Habitat Centre on the 10^th and 11^th of April 2007.
2007: Danger Zones

DANGER ZONES – 14, 15 AND 16 NOVEMBER 2007, SHRI RAM CENTRE

Our latest production is again culled from workshop experiences and original research. The scripts have been written by Anuradha Marwah, Sanjay Kumar and Anand Prakash respectively. The play consists of three episodes:
The first episode deals with the rights of marginalized children and draws on our years of experience of working with marginalized children and specially distils from our recent work in Nithari. The play uses Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin as a tying thread and reveals the callous hypocrisy of the adult world towards child desires.
The second deals with issues of alternate sexuality and draws on decades of experience of dealing with women’s issues. The play deals with a working class lesbian couple and examines its travails. The script has been built from repeated discussions with such couples in a workshop format.
The third moves into the future and re-examines the country’s negotiations with capitalism in the light of the phenomenon of the Special Economic Zones. Who progresses, where are we headed? A relocation of the economics of our country
The first two episodes of Danger Zones have been performed in Bangalore in the Centre for Film and Drama on the 22^nd of February 2008. The play was taken to Kanpur at the invitation of IIT Kanpur and a performance was held on the 30^th of March.

Workshops with platform children, Kota, Rajasthan December 2007

In what was a first, and a mind-blowing first, five of us did a four day workshop in Kota in a de-addiction cum home-placement camp organised jointly by Child care NGOs – Prayas and Sathi. The experience has left us shaken and the facilitators are still trying to cope. Over twenty children from the three platforms of Delhi, all of them victims of substance abuse and of sexual exploitation. We had reservations about the agenda – of placing them in home from where they had run away in the first place. Innocence and experience of the sort we do not want children to have. We put them through our workshop and four skits emerged one on home life and three on platform life. Travails and desires were highlighted. The conjoint play was staged at the Gandhi Peace Foundation on the 2^nd January 2008. Work has continued with platform children in Delhi. We have been having twice a month workshops in the Nabi Karim camp for platform children organised by Sathi. The work continues to pose a serious challenge as home-placement and de-addiction methodologies of NGOs and government sectors alike continue to dissatisfy facilitators from pandies.
if i look back at the brief wshop we did in kota and the four skits that emerged in the space of just three days. one wanted a restoration of (and not just into) a violence-free and alcohol-free family. he has to go back feeling empowered that he can be the agent of creating/bettering the family. second skit ended with children preferring a "home" albeit run by prayas or sathi to life on the platform. the brief dramatisation had enabled them to objectify and reject the harshness of platform life. the third ended in ominous silence, ominous but not disempowering because the creation of the skit was the breaking of that silence, in fact the silence was deafening. the children were articulating the harshness of the protectors and the callousness of the adult world as such, the empowering aspect of this enactment, that you can say what you cannot say isthe max and difficult to measure. it also tells all of us what we as care-givers are up against. fourth, the one that ended in boyish assertion of independence with the children creating a home of their own and a profession of their own. given a little more time it needed to be told to these kids that independence is not contrary to home

Badarpur Khadar, Delhi Border May 2008

A sleepy hamlet constituting four villages lying right next to Delhi’s Yamuna river next to the porous UP border. The religion and caste components of the village are interesting. One consists entirely of Muslims – low caste and low class, second lowest of the low caste Hindus – primarily those who we find begging in the name of “shani” on Saturdays. The other two villages also consist of diverse low caste Hindus. The topography of the villages is equally interesting. UP surrounds on three sides and the fourth side is Yamuna and that means no electricity, no water and above all, no education for the children. Till last year many of them were crossing the river to go to schools across the river and then in the monsoons more than twenty drowned and that put paid to all efforts. Pandies started there with its usual theatre format but realised that schooling and education had to be addressed. We are at the moment focussing on the Muslim village which has over 200 children. A usual workshop here begins with two hours of schooling, most of the kids do not know how to read or write, do not know the alphabet. Two classes focussing on the English alphabet and word formation are held and another for those who have gone to school some time (about twenty in all) who like to be taught mathematics. This is followed often by a presentation on topical issues, including gender and religion and then we make them perform. Pandies is toying with the idea of opening a more regular school here.

Rajasthan: Sarvaar (villages in Ajmer district) June 2008

Continuing with the work initiated in 2007 pandies’ organised a five-day workshop culminating in an open performance. The workshop comprised of over 60 participants of the age group 14 to 18. Again a part of a three-month literacy camp organised by Ajmer Adult Education Association for school dropouts in Sarvaar, the themes dealt took the issues further (for instance, while dealing with gender the children brought issues of same sex relationships and desire and fantasies were explored. A special module of a TOT programme was held for the eight children who had attended the earlier workshop enabling them to train children in a similar manner.

2008: THE CURSE CONQUERED

The Curse Conquered was focussed towards spreading awareness regarding cervical cancer, the highest killer cancer among women in India, possibly in the world today. Despite this it remains a hidden disease, seldom talked about and often detected when it is too late. The attempt is to put this disease on the forum and create awareness regarding symptoms, detection and cure. The available vaccine, though expensive, if followed by constant scanning and related tests also helps in mitigating its occurrence.
Highlighting a particular disease, the production used it as a point of entry into instigating a discussion on women’s health, specially reproductive health, a low priority zone in state and government policy because of the existing patriarchal bias. Social behavioural modes and masculinist constructions that put women and their health at risk are examined and critiqued, specially before the onslaught of the H P Virus that afflicts women, often making men the unharmed carriers of the disease.
Done in conjunction with MSD (Merck) the premier show at SRC on the 3^rd of December was followed by seven shows in colleges of DU and one in JNU.
2009: JAB WE ELECT – 23, 24 AND 25 February SHRI RAM CENTRE
JAB WE ELECT is not about who we elect but how we elect. Speaking from a progressive, feminist perspective the play looks at many topical issues in the ambit of globalisation and liberalisation, these include the nuclear deal, moral policing, religious fundamentals, economic troughs apart from others.
With an episodic plot that cuts across classes and regions, urban and rural scenes, the play uses a combination of forum theatre and alienating devices (songs and choreographed sequences) to engage with the audience and ask it to repeatedly interact with the cast. The endeavour is to collectively examine our polity and its mainstreaming, dominant elements.
The play does not provide answers, it does not raise questions, rather prompts the audience to think, respond and take the play further. Deviating from its usual English-hindi format pandies is doing this play primarily in Hindi (and diverse dialects).

Workshops with platform children, Ajmer, Rajasthan April 2009

Ongoing projects

Badarpur, Khadar.
Work of making the senior children at Nithari into facilitators to teach theatre techniques and issues of gender and religion continues.
Work with mentally challenged children at the PURTI, school continues.
Work with platform children continues – with divergent voices in the group, some seeking to broaden out and work with other NGOs as well and some wanting to create a shelter by pandies in 2009.

Pandies has started work on two new plays/projects. One an awareness campaign on Cervical Cancer zeroing in, for the while, on college students, is aimed for November and December. The other, our next major production focussing on election issues is headed for February 2009.

SANJAY KUMAR
Founding President
Mobile: 9811147241
MAY 2007

2009-08-25T02:14:00.000+05:30

down memory lane...

2009-08-25T01:44:00.000+05:30

Sounds of laughter shades of life
are ringing through my open ears
exciting and inviting me
Limitless undying love which
shines around me like a million suns
It calls me on and on across the universe

Nothing's gonna change my world
Nothing's gonna change my world

A friend sang as she spoke of a VHS circulating library disappearing in the early 90’s. I couldn’t help but get nostalgic about everything that has forced itself into my overflowing memory box from the city’s landscape I once knew.

Looking at the deformed structures disrupting and deviating traffic onto lanes above glass buildings and broken tree stumps, it is indeed an overwhelming sight to find the city stuck midst its forced makeover.

Day in and day out taking over another road, another building, yet another slipping into congested memory lanes…

The last jam brought back the many hours spent over zillion cups of coffee with scrambled eggs and toast as we chased various deadlines over random scripts and relationship dilemmas. Meeting interesting strangers or catching up with an old friend over yet another cup of coffee and masala dosa as we watched MG road at its different stages. ICH in its original avatar came alive for those few moments as Chandran spoke of place very close to me and a time that I could relate to.

‘jothe jotheyali’

Deepak’s stories fused with film songs reeled back matinee memories of bunking class, matinee memories, 25/- Gandhi class tickets, watching ‘Jurassic park’ for the fourth time with a stiff neck occasionally tackling with rats and cockroaches, plaza and galaxy.

Auntie and Uncle’s (yashu’s parents) Bangalore was a Bangalore I never knew. The stories of a young couple in the 80’s to getting used to the eruption of the many malls, apartment complexes, as simple as the buses turning blue from red. Luxurious auto rides with meters blinking from a min of Rs 2/- to 14/- now. I guess it had already begun its evolution long before we even knew.

Getting used to that change at it’s different phases was Harsha’s grandma as she sketched out the entire landscape of Bangalore in the 50’s to how she copes with the crowded city as it metamorphosed from a pensioner’s paradise to a youngsters quick ‘change’ lane.

Watching the K R Puram experience performed by the students from Srishti brings back one to reality. As the act of balancing out continues as we begin our journey if not to undo at least be aware of this mistaken modernity that is taking over the city.

The jam did bring in a wide range of stories that covered the City’s past at different times and different phases. But what does one do with this feeling of loss and nostalgia at the end of the day. Can be a frustrating one…but in my opinion it was a learning of the things that were and that could have been. Things change, people change, lifestyles change and we adapt. Why do we adapt and from what have we become. Becoming aware of the choices that we make in our dailiness.

she brought in a song, we clapped she danced... 'rab ne banadi jodi'...

Dusted knitted sweaters or broken cycles, whether in your closet or in an old trunk, take three random mental shots of people and places around. As the present now, will soon be past!

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2291359&id=517341138&comments&alert#/album.php?aid=305489&id=779050563

(facebook pictures courtesy Shrikar Marur)

pallavi

Come tell the city your thoughts!

2009-07-24T22:46:00.000+05:30

jamming at another park....

2009-06-26T23:33:00.000+05:30

Calling for stories, songs, dances, art work,

film, music, sound, solo pieces, poetry, improvisations...

and anything you feel like you have always wanted to share

but never knew where and when.

its time now, to bring it to Theatre Jam...

We're hopping away....

from Nanda Park..

To Sri Chamarajendra Park,

Meade's Park..

Some even call it Lover's Park,

for non-snozzers it's Jogger's Park,

for many others it was the toy train Park,

better known as Cubbon Park...

you know where it is...

Land up by the Victoria statue

Sunday 5th of July

by 12 noon

we'll move into the 100 acre green canoe...

come along... choose your spot,

it's July, let's give this space a shot!

under the trees or over a branch,

amongst the rocks with a puppet sock!!

Bring your Friends, Lovers, Mothers, Aunties and Uncles and Neighbours...for stories, music, dance or as audience to talk or just to hang and nod.

Spread the word....it's an open space for ANYONE to share ANYTHING they want to. Come fill up this space.. regulars,don't be lazy, it's our first jam at Cubbon Park, let's make it memorable..forward it to friends and others...

if you wanna know more or if you get lost...give us a call

9880755875/ 9343763497/9889628582

or mail us on theatrejam@gmail.com/ info@maraa.in

or blog us on www.theatresundays.blogspot.com

Theatre JAM in its 9th month

2009-06-03T15:59:00.000+05:30

kaeli kaeli kaeli…

AkkA Thangigale,

AnnA Thambigale!

It is time to theatre JAM once again!

7TH June 2009, 32rd Cross park space on Nanda Road, Jayanagar

Calling all PERFORMERS…

intensely light or dramatic floaty types,

gimmicks and mimics types,

sketch paint and music types,

scientist, motorist and cyclist types

Calling all AUDIENCES…

listeners and curious viewer types

Wah wah! Thoo thoo! types

jabbering thinker types

binoculars and spy glass holder types

innocent gossipy types...

Pack your backpacks with instruments, masks, handmade costumes, doodled scripts, scribbled notes, water, food, and candies fare...

And hike out with all of it to you know where!

Let us know if you have an idea or two

Call us on 9343763497 or 9880755875

Methinks you can blog too!

2009-04-30T10:59:00.000+05:30

3RD MAY – Theatre Jam Hits The Streets
33rd Street, Nanda/RV road, JAYANAGAR
12 PM onwards
Bangalore needs you to express yourself… and the time has never been this right!
Calling Grandsons, mothers, lovers, musical types, creative types, passionate types, etc…
All who found refuge under grand green giants when it rained, and who drove through golden green canopies when the sun shone…
A green impersonator monster with purple font that calls itself Namma Metro is out to get those green giants…
All this happeningright around the corner in Jayanagar…
Would you want to come and say you don’t like this much?
Would you like to do more than that and celebrate the trees with music, theatre and activities that you or others have in mind?
Send out a strong pink heart sign to your city’s green giants.
Stand to protect, and be protected!

THE METRO GUYS PLAN TO CUT 323 TREES ON NANDA ROAD
Want to express your outrage and ouch?

Ideas we have

The string thing…
String your hopes, memories, stories and togetherness together! Bring old pieces of cloth, bedsheets, colorful sarees you don’t want to use, lungis and dhotis…and tie shreds of these together around the trees on the street, to create your protective web.

Doodle Banners
Bring white or near white dhotis or bedsheets that you don’t mind painting on to express what Bangalore with trees meant for you and tie them up for display on the streets between trees

Growing up in Jayanagar, I befriended a tree…
Do you have a tree friend?
Does she have a name?
Did he talk to you on your way to school?
Would you like to reconnect to her?
Bring your own personal message and leave it on the tree on metal boards

www.theatresundays.blogspot.com
www.maraa.in

From the girl in a saree…

2009-04-13T01:08:00.000+05:30

For the past few months I’ve been contemplating the whole idea of public spaces and how we’ve been trying to look beyond the constructed usage of the term ‘public spaces’. The jam has inevitably become that space.

Meet, greet and perform…. And that’s what exactly what happened. To start of with Andrea’s exercises - What I found really amazing was how the group enthusiastically participated. I, for one, found the exercises very liberating. In the sense, that it started with movement and body first from the ‘self’ to subtly moving into sharing that space with another, especially the ‘fall – hold’ and the ‘roll-over’ exercise. We did gather some inquisitive gazes, at one point even a truck load!!

But there is some sort of a barrier…wish people would join us at some point..just jump in… or do we come across as an eccentric intimidating crowd? (Just been playing on my mind)

Vahid’s poem – I didn’t catch the name or the entire poem, but I did get bits of it…and that was enough to let my thoughts travel. The off-shot performance was interesting…would want to know what the poet thought of it? I decided to go with adding some kind of sound to it – because I felt the piece spoke a lot about ‘silence’ and how it magnifies thought to some extent (okie that’s a little something I got out off it), so picked a bottle and a twig to add to the movement enthusiasts …it became a piece in itself with the drummer adding his crazy chamaaks!

Songs in Bangla to folk to rock to quawaali…..was a very fascinating mix. From singing mosquitoes and sharing jackfruits!Personally for me, I’m at a state of understanding this crisis of religion, tolerance, violence, secular, non secular, faith, belief and culture. Feel like a juggler trying to find a ‘where’ to walk amidst this clutter, right now it seems to be on a painful fence. And I couldn’t help but enjoy these songs from that fence. (Got a bit surreal…dunno if it was the space, the songs or the theme behind or all of it)

And how could I forget the short piece Ekta read out from Sangamitra, remember ‘the black linen shirt’, I don’t know why it’s queer…it sounded so simple and regular to me.

Deepak’s autobiographical piece – ‘When someone asks me who I am, I don’t know what to say!’, I think someone mentioned this at the Q and A post the performance, but I felt I was stepping into something that had already started. I particularly liked the repetition of certain parts of the text; it put the emphases in ‘quotes’!

The form juxtaposes movements, text and fragments of songs, the method behind the autobiographical dramaturgy plays more on the impulse of movement and thus making it more abstract, yet I would think it is not that different. But I’m keen on understanding the process of decentralizing the individual’s story with spurts of disjoint body movements. Conceptually, as a viewer, I could still make some connections and somewhere draw a parallel with the content. But I wonder how 'fair' it would be to the actor and his story, that’s where I’m stuck in understanding the method itself..when one is directed….how far can you push it to being your own (autobiography), or does it even have to? However, I am interested to see how the piece evolves…

Masrah’s stories from a park bench – phew... glad to be ‘finally’ performing at the jam. I thoroughly enjoyed coming up with the piece over ice-cream and cigarettes at some 3am two nights before the jam. All of us were super excited about sharing our stories, but more anxious about opening the bench out for the audience- hoping someone will want to share their stories. It was rewarding to see so many of them willingly come forward. Thank you guys :0

Coming back to the form, it wasn’t too defined but we made sure it followed a certain conversational feel. But would personally want to see how and where we can take the piece from here.

Soumya and Andrea’s movement number –It was really cool to see how that space just transformed itself into this set for their piece. Hope you didn’t get a bump on your head Andrea?!

For the next Jam, was wondering if we can see how to get the locals from the area involved. Maybe put up a poster or two, Do some door-to-door pamphlet thing? What do you guys think?

Also found out today that they are going to chop some 300 trees around that area – Why…well because of the METRO…(duh) and it apparently happens during the night. Now…am not sure if anything we do CAN stop this mess. But it would be interesting to see how this spills into our performances next jam.

until next,

cheers,

pallavi

2009-02-27T16:43:00.000+05:30

The 6th theatre Jam is round the corner, and I was told that the facebook event post will get us some more audience and participation.
So I have created one on facebook
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=66534284179

Send the page around, become members, ask others to take a look

Theatre Jam went Public!!

2009-02-02T11:24:00.000+05:30

Jammers from the jam, post your response !

Yes, the 5th jam happened out there, in the public realm!! Here are some pictures from the jam that just passed us...was an incredible experience for many, many reasons

this beautiful park is one of the spaces off nanda talkies road, which is the big park flanked double road that cuts across Jayanagar. Very soon, this green area will be destroyed because of various modernisation and development actions, the metro being one of them. Please start using these parks for various activities other than just lovers and senior citizens hangout. Would end on a very dismal note, despite the jam being really lovely in this shelter space...citizens inititative may never be a possibility(I've given up on Bangalore's citizens coming together and making a landmark turnover of events. We just murmur. No new idea and strength remains) and the parks will soon be gone. Im almost sure. Use them so we have memories...as painful as the only realistic possibility of "just having memories of these parks that once existed" remains.
Deepak

Vimochana Space Interiors

2009-01-27T10:45:00.000+05:30

possible venue.
May the venue inspire the performer
in you...

and finally a JAM I don't mind being a part of!!

2009-01-16T15:06:00.000+05:30

The space has molded itself into an exciting visual exchange of colours, which to me signify tints and shades of various emotions. Looking back at the last four jams, what has kept me constantly engaged is the wide range of subjects or themes (if you would like to call it that) of every single performance and how it has been explored through the nuances of theatre, music or dance. The switch from one to another has been quite challenging for me. And I mean this in a very positive way. Because I have always considered myself as some one who cannot handle too many heavy discussions in one day…for this reason I can’t even watch two films in a day or attend talks with differing topics. I tend to space out into one thing…and just zone into a rather Alice-like conversation with myself. Theatre Jam has somewhat challenged that comfort spot and the space makes you want to share and understand the dynamics of the process of coming up with a piece of work.

And honestly it is more exciting to be the audience. Every other month has had such exciting performances or presentations…I get damn hungry to watch and take it all in (yah….a bit selfish I know…but can you blame me). It is what the city’s traffic jams do to you whether it is the honking voices of cars and people or the blinding lights of family, work and college, one yearns for that space to just get away but yet be constructively engaged. And I hope to get on the other side and perform more often. I sat down to just sketch out a visual of the jam…and this is what churned out.

Cheers,

Pallavi

4th theatre jam images- courtesy L Venkatesh

2009-01-15T20:12:00.000+05:30

The 4th Jam and still going strong!

2009-01-12T18:07:00.000+05:30

responses
------------------
sandeep shikhar
playwright, poet, artist

sabse pahle theatre jam ke liye aapko bahut bahut badhayi... aap logon ki ye koshish aane waale samay me zaroor aur bhi khoobsoorat roop legi isme koi shaq nahi.
agle theatre jam ke liye mujhe lagta hai mai play (Treadmill) reading ki jagah kuch kavitayen (poems) padhna chaunga... koynki play reading me time jyada lag jaayega... 40 minutes reading me aur uske baad discussion me 15-20 min. to almost 1 hour ho hi jaayega,shayad jyada bhi... poems me 15-20 min. kaafi ihai....sliye agle jam me play reading ka plan drop karte hain... phir kabhi aane waale dino me play reading ka plan karenge... aur waise bhi medium of expression chahe jo bhi ho, main maksad hai aapne thought ko baaki logon ke saath share karna... to isi maqsad ke saath agle theatre jam ke intzaar me hoon...
-------------------

ravivarma
senior theatre practitioner and lecturer, Pondicherry

I, Rajaravivarma, a Lecturer in Dept. of Performing Arts , Pondicherry University rehearsing a 35 minutes Play production on PRAHALADA- a story in VISHNU'S Thasavadhara.
It is an experimental play based on THERUKUTHU style . The centre message is "Every one has a pillar and if one wills the power will appear ( Narashimha ) to protect oneself " and " Every human beings are equal to one another " .
And also wants to share the knowledge of this experiment.

With Regards,
Ravivarma

FrAMeS FroM 3Rd JaM

2009-01-12T15:06:00.000+05:30

exploring dis-'connects'

2008-11-16T13:54:00.000+05:30

somewhere art has become a lonely word. It is not complete.. like broken columns, the forms co-exist. Is art a kind of disciplines or is it interdisciplinary? Can art be purist? who is an artist then - one who can perform, express, create, communicate. Who is a good artist then? What is quality of art? Can a dancer, sing? A poet, act? An actor, paint? A sculptor, dance? Can they work with each other?

In the days of company natak, one couldn't do without the other. The stage would be be blank without the painted curtains, the play would not be complete without the 'complemenents' of scientists and artists. Did they do it just because they had no choice and they were dependent on the other? Or, only when you had a little of everything could there be entertainment? Or, it was a conceptual, conscious decision? What happened to the collective spirit today?
We don't need the "other" today. Art has turned out to be competitive, comparative, caught in rigid compartments to achieve moving targets. There are differences, distances and disconnects between the arts and amidst one art form.

One fine day we arrived at theatre jam. It redefines itself frequently. The idea is to explore connections between various art forms, to create a space for dialogue and expression, to learn from new art forms, to colloborate and improvise. It is a bit like playing hide and seek.
Our familiarity with theatre drove us to start with it. It need not be only a 'theatre' jam. The space will slowly open out to explore other forms like dance, song, fine arts, installations, discussions, writings, readings... The observer, the audience, the participants, play a key role as this process meanders. In Bangalore, after episodes of shedding tears, drowning in sympathy, complaining and experiences other disorders, we decided to just do something on our own. What's important is to ensure regularity, and collectively deciding plans and actions.

The last two jams, has been magical, as we saw the process unfold.. from states of mind, to stories, experiences, feelings.. together and alone, a dialogue with oneself and others. There have been glitches and concerns, highs and lows, confusions and melodies.. but it is slowly getting rooted.

some of the things we need to address in our next meeting are:
a. Why only, theatre? Can we open the space now to different art forms?
b. Is Nelamanagala too 'far'?
c. How can we focus on bringing in new audiences?
d. Are we trying to build a community? Will that homogenise the diversity within the group? Do we all have the same goal, ideas of this process?
e. Should there be a facilitator?
f. How do we follow up on critique and appreciation that is discussed within the space?
g. What does this space mean to us?
h. How do we address the fragmentation between theatre and music within the space?

sounds like a boring questionnaire, but I see these as questions that we need to arrive at eventually at least.

for me, personally, I see that there is a need to bring people from different backgrounds together, in this 'one' space to explore if they can connect, if so what connects them, what happens after this connections and how can these connections be shared with a larger group.
It seems like there is a need to relook at the perceptions of art and reclaim access to art through different routes for more people.

maraa, has attempted to initiate this process, and all it's participants play an important role in leading this process and re'forming' it.

ekta

The Observer

2008-11-15T00:05:00.000+05:30

So far I have been, like the title, an observer for the first two theatre jams, and must say that despite my nervous apprehensions, have been pleasantly surprised by the response. Which obviously means that we're on to something here!

Moving on to specifics, I thought the first one was kind of intense, and yet a nervous entry, which was natural I suppose, because it was the first time this was happening. I think we all got a bit carried away by the "this is happening right now" of it, that we focused on the performances, and there was very little discussions.

The second one had definitely more balance between the theatre and the jamming :)

These are some of the thoughts roaming inside my head when we talk/think about the event:

1) We should somehow get Kannada speaking performers/audiences to be a part of it. Come to think of it, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and all other languages also will be great.

2) What happens when the day comes when there are too many performances lined up? Who decides what theatre gets a chance and what gets left out? Questions of censorship..

3) It is free but not actually, because there are food costs, and certainly some coordinating costs, and hopefully we'll be able to sustain it in some way

4) There are some interesting discussions on what constitutes a performance? Is it a reading, or a song? or perhaps the question is what is theatre then? Both the form and the time question are being challenged subconsciously at this event, and we wait eagerly for more such challenges in hopes of finding some answers

5) It would be great to have more musicians coming in to collaborate with the performers. Gopal from Guruskool did a spontaneous jam with Deepak's performance last time, and I hope this spurs on to more collaborations

6) I wish there was some way of keeping alive or documenting some discussions which take place at the event. Last jam had some really good ones about the Engish language, and the ghost of shakespeare still haunting us, and our approach to his work. There are also some really neat technical performance specific points which are being discussed, which may be useful to practitioners...we shoud think about keeping those some place/space accessible and distributable

7) From a purely selfish point of view, I'm itching to see the day when we get to see some forum theatre...been waiting to be a part of one..since i've heard so much about it

8) The most interesting part has been the intersection of the place and the space. While the theatre jam is a mental construct, a hopeful project about some of our dreams of collaborations and open spaces, I think the actual farm house place also plays a part. I some how want to figure out how much of a role the actual place plays in this event. Would the audience and performers see Theatre jam as an event in Nelamangala, or does the place not matter? This is of huge interest to me

9) It would be good to get some of the more conventional and heard practitioners to enter the space and engage with the Theatre Jam crowd...like folks at Ranga Shankara, and proscenium theatre groups, of which there are many in Bangalore

10) It will be good to dovetail this event into other debates we've been having at Maraa, concerning nature and approach to development, issues, public spaces, sexuality etc. Theatre has a long history (her-story) of being a people's medium/space..and be good to revive some of those stories, and see how we can rewrite some of those stories for the contemporary!

Now that I've come up with at least ten things to say, I will end the diatribe, with a final point of how good this whole thing has been to engage with, to the point that one day, I hope to cross the line from being a lurking observer to a performer!

cheers
ram

Space to Breathe

2008-11-13T12:33:00.000+05:30

Two theatre jam sessions... and I've loved them both.
For me its been a simple and enjoyable journey where I could meet up with my friends, travel together to this lovely location and then be a theatre artist in the way I choose.

I fearfully performed on the first jam session, scared of revealing myself... but once I did it was an exhilarating experience.. I felt free and happy.

The second one was unique in a way that its got me thinking.. about theatre - and my stand as a performer and more importantly as a person...

I have this space in my life.
Oh yes, like Gayatri said, I don't have to wait to be an actor :)

Soumya

Opening out dramatic spaces

2008-11-06T10:20:00.000+05:30

Hi,

The challenge of finding alternative spaces and places for dramatic work is being well met by the Sunday jam. Here's a bunch of reasons for why I liked it.

1) As Ekta said its creating spaces for short performance work that does not have space in traditional auditorium spaces.

2) The openess of the space allows for so much experimentation and playing around. So potential artists are not paralysed by form and structure and can keep coming out with work. I know the burden of coming out with a 60-90 minute production of good quality can be such a task that you wind up never doing anything. Using the forum keeps your creative practice alive.

3) Its free.

4) The post-performance discussion is an excellent space to think through our work and allow others to engage with the issues brought up. The performance then is not only about aesthetic form, but also about ideological and creative content which is open to debate and discussion.

5) It allows for collaborations to happen both spontaneously and through negotiation between different artists. This is interesting because so much of the work is 'solo' and moving outwards into collaborations. You see something that you might like to work with and in this open forum can negotiate a collaboration.

5)And most importantly people have a space to do theatre and be actors. Its not a long term dream that needs to be shelved until... until... until. There's a space every month for you to go up and own as your own stage!

Thank you guys for making this happen!

Love

Gai3

theatre sundays

2008-11-03T11:50:00.000+05:30

hello all,
before all the excitement frizzles out, I thought it best to talk a bit about the afternoon well spent at Guruskool farm yesterday... Nov 2nd 08 that is

i used "well spent" and I hope that isnt too irritating to some of us who have to share not so well spent moments and times...but please bear with me. I don't, for one see the not-so-well-spent moments as negative. I think dialoging about them will make it an evening well spent :)
a dialog that continues in to and through out theatre lives, theatre selves and as theatre artists.

Lets briefly recapitulate.
November 2nd saw three activities around which our attention and time was centered. A reading of a scene from Shakespeare's Hamlet, a short sketch with voices of personal and universal feminism by Gayatri and yet another short "religious" song based theatrical sharing by Deepak (thats me).

This time, hopefully some better time was utilised (than the previous jam) in sharing and talking about the process of (reading or performing). The reading brought in debates about what a reading should constitute (in terms of "how an actor reads") , why are Shakespeare's works performed/read/ "learnt" and how does one relate to him-as literature or theatre, poetry or life's realities. The performances also had their share of audience prodding and participation.

We had also wanted theatre collaborations within music and music to work in theatre. In some ways, there was nascent amalgamation in the area and we hope this can be deepened. Gopal played his mandolin for my song piece and we then went on to jam a bit with flute, song and strings...I loved the experience of my idea of the song changing form and moving into different spheres...

this jam was different from the previous ones for various reasons, a number of things coming up along the way. ill wait for others to add in this area...

one of the things about why maraa (a collective that we are) wanted to work with theatre this way was because of our individual experiences within theatre spheres... and how we did or didnt want theatre to be a "certain" authoritatively defined way. Open space is what we called it.

I write this blog not as a part of maraa but as a part of a theatre community because just yesterday, i realised that there could be the danger of collapsing into being just one role- that of coming from maraa and being an "organiser". Of course Im part of maraa but i need to shift to the threatre self in me to voice anything pertaining to theatre as an art, and theatre as a evolving performer.
So i'll write about theatre on maraa's webpage too but Ive created this blog so we can dialog here about the art, content and evolutions of theatre, things we can share as performers or theatre enthusiasts. And we can do it ourselves beginning with logging in personally and posting directly.

Do post your views on theatre jam that just passed. Content, understandings, theatre...
plus the process. this is our space to write, challenge, concur, express dissent, celebrate, collate learnings, etc.

Deepak