Theatre for Change 1 Editorial ‘The very process of the workshop does so much for women. The process is an end in itself. For women who are not given to articulating their views, women who are not given to exploring their bodies in a creative way, for feeling good, for feeling fresh. Just doing physical and breathing exercises is a liberating experience for them. Then sharing experiences with each other and discovering that they are not insane, you know, discovering that every woman has dissatisfaction and negative feelings, touching other lives . When you come together in a space, you develop a trust, sharing with each other, enjoying just being in this space, enjoying singing and creating, out of your own experiences, your own plays’—Tripurari Sharma Theatre as process—workshopping—is an empowering activity. It encourages self- expression, develops self-confidence and communication skills, and promotes teamwork, cooperation, sharing. It is also therapeutic, helping individuals to probe within and express—share—deeply emotional experiences. Role-playing enables one to ‘enact’ something deeply personal that one is not otherwise able to express, displacing it and rendering it ‘safe’, supposedly ‘fictionalized’. In short, workshopping can be a liberatory experience. For women who, in our society especially, are not encouraged to develop an intimacy with their bodies, who are conditioned to be ashamed or uncomfortable about their physicality, the process of focusing on the body, on exercises which change one’s awareness of and relationship with and deployment of one’s body, offers an additional benefit, opening up a dimension of physicality which is normally out of bounds. For children, the workshop experience is invaluable. It is an activity that involves them from head to toe, a learning-by-doing process. They develop learning skills (concentration, memorization, vocabulary expansion, creative and imaginative development, language), communication skills (public speaking, effective and expressive delivery), social skills (cooperation, teamwork, functioning as part of a group, discipline, time management), and character development through values such as responsibility, sensitivity to others and sharing. Theatre as a medium of communication has proved its impact, especially in this country today. Immediate, direct, bypassing the barrier of illiteracy because of its oral and visual qualities, with the scope for being interactive, it is an effective method of spreading a message, provoking thought and triggering discussion. Recognizing the power of theatre both as process and medium, we at STQ have always valued the effectiveness of theatre in any movement for change, be it social, political or personal. During the course of our documentation of different activist theatre initiatives, especially the Kalighat sex workers’ theatre project (see STQ 9) the conviction began to grow that STQ should involve itself more directly in theatre activism. We realized that we were strategically positioned to develop linkages and programmes which fused arts resources and social activism. As we saw it, the situation usually is that groups involved in social activism of different kinds are often interested in exploring theatre as a tool or medium of communication, integrating it into their work. However, they have neither the funds, the time nor the expertise to introduce it in any systematic way into their already overcrowded and pressured work schedules. So they end up using it in an ad hoc or occasional way, which gives them an intriguing taste of its values and benefits without their being able to take advantage of a sustained and systematic 2 methodology which they could incorporate into the structure of their programme. On the other hand, theatre persons and theatre groups who have the necessary training, technique and skill which these activist groups could learn from, are also busy with their own priorities and lack the organizational resources, the knowledge, the contacts, or the finances to coordinate on their own with such groups and work out a mutual collaboration. This is where we saw STQ as having a role to play. Our strong interest in theatre as a social function and community communication form was the motivation; we wished to encourage, indeed promote, the use of theatre as both process and medium for development and activist work. Our links with the theatre world had, over the years, developed so that we were familiar with the different kinds of theatre people were doing. We could bring these two areas together, coordinate the collaboration, and document the entire process for further dissemination through the journal to be of use to others who might wish to undertake a similar project. Our observations during the documentation of the Kalighat sex workers’ workshop project underscored certain principles to keep in mind while planning this initiative. Sanlaap, the NGO holding the workshop, had built up a strong relationship with the sex workers of the Kalighat area through their fieldwork and support activities. They had won their trust and confidence; it was because of this relationship that the theatre resource persons were at all able to work in that environment, with the cooperation of the sex workers themselves. We felt that the theatre work had to go hand in hand with the goals and objectives of the activist work being undertaken already, it could and should not be either at cross purposes or just an ‘add on’ or one-off exercise designed to suit someone else’s agenda. It also needed to be reasonably sustained, with the capacity for follow up built in, because it was only then that the true benefits could be felt by the participants; there was a mental component, a shaping of values and attitudes, that could not be done adequately in a few short weeks. We also felt that the resource persons had to be carefully selected to suit the goals of the particular activist group, and to suit the composition of the participants, who could either be members of the group who would then develop into facilitators and conduct future workshops themselves; or members of the target group, the actual people the activists worked with. Very importantly, we felt that the goals of the workshop, which would necessarily inflect the workings of it, must be developed in conjunction with the collaborating NGO or activist group. They were the ones who had the experience, who had done the fieldwork, who had built links and relationships with the workshop participants. They had to decide what the goals of this workshop were to be. Did they want to build a strong team, do a production, concentrate on therapy, self-confidence, instil certain values? Each workshop had to be very carefully tailored to suit the specific needs and goals of the particular activist group. We had to keep in mind, also, that flexibility and interaction must be part of the whole process: no rigid rules and regulations that could or did not respond to the immediate situation. This was very much an experimental process, and thus the ability to adapt wherever necessary to the changing needs of the situation was essential. STQ applied for project funding to a UK based organization, the Network Foundation (or Network for Social Change), who support the use of the arts for social development. They found the project worthwhile, and we received funding for a year to pursue our Theatre for Change Initiative. Briefly, the project was as 3 follows: 1. STQ locates NGOs and developmental organizations who are keen on using theatre or performance of different kinds in their work. 2. We build, in conjunction with the collaborating NGO, a programme for a year-long workshop with goals identified through discussion. Resource persons who are specifically identified to suit the needs of the group, the goals they are working toward, and the profile of the participants, are brought in to work with them for a year, through workshops which include both actual physical training as well as education through the medium of lecture/demonstrations etc. STQ coordinates and supervises this year-long programme, working in tandem with the collaborating NGO and the resource persons. 3. This entire process is documented as completely as possible, including ongoing assessment and records by the participants, the resource persons and the STQ team. The documentation gets published and disseminated via STQ, so that other groups in different parts of the country can learn from the project and apply the same principles if they find them useful. Visual documentation in the form of photographs is undertaken. One set of photographs is gifted to the collaborating NGO for their files. We began the Theatre for Change Initiative by identifying two NGOs to collaborate with. We were looking for small groups which did not already have sufficient funds to undertake such a workshop on their own, but were keen on using theatre, and who would benefit from the kind of project we were visualizing. Almost immediately, two organizations came to our notice. The first was Swayam, a small Calcutta-based organization for women victims of violence. Swayam is a crisis centre; and their support group, consisting of women using Swayam’s services for one reason or another, mostly because they were in situations of violence and needed help, was ready to start working with theatre in a sustained and serious way. They used to meet once a week, and their sessions included different kinds of self-expression and self-development exercises; they had already done a play, performed at the International Women’s Day celebrations, 1997, which had evolved in a fairly impromptu manner out of an exercise done at one of these sessions. Even this brief exposure to theatre had convinced them that it was a path they wished to take. They were open to the idea of participating in the Theatre for Change initiative.