International Women’s Day 2022: Inside My Dream Rehearsal Room
I have always been curious about the ways in which rehearsal rooms are created – by the individuals who make up the room, and the dynamics and interactions that exist in every group that we, in the theatre community, have learnt to negotiate. Ahead of International Women’s Day on 8 March, I had the privilege […]
Being a Feminist Theatre-Maker: A Conversation with Sharanya Ramprakash
How does someone become a feminist theatre-maker? For Sharanya Ramprakash, simply being a woman who makes theatre is enough to make the work feminist. When I told her that this article would be to spotlight her work on International Women’s Day, she was overjoyed. She believes that women need to wholly claim March 8th each […]
WATCH: In Conversation with the Women of Aagaaz Theatre Trust
The Aagaaz Theatre Trust are a truly unique bunch of theatre practitioners who have redefined community engagement in recent years. This month, we interviewed the women at Aagaaz – co-founder Sanyukta, actor/core team member Nagina and facilitator/core team member Subhadra about the various programs they run with members of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Basti (in […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 3) #1 Creating in the Chaosmos: Indeterminacy and Generative Incapacitation
For our first conversation for Season 3, we invited Dr. Báyò Akómoláfé, a Nigerian poet, writer and public intellectual to share his thoughts on our theme for this year – Off-Axis: Creating In The Chaosmos. Akómoláfé shared that when he received the invitation to talk about the chaosmos, it reminded him of something he has […]
Curated Conversations: On Harkat’s Virtual Interactive Stage with Karan Talwar
“The prelude to making theatre online shouldn’t be a compromise from doing theatre offline, but rather experimenting with something that cannot be done offline. There should be a reason for it to be on the internet and be live. There’s scope to experiment with this new language that is being developed.” – Karan Talwar. The […]
Theatre and Resistance: An Anti-Caste Perspective
What is the relationship between art and politics? Art, through creative impulse, builds bridges of expression and resonance of our shared truths. Politics provides the will to fight for these truths. The two share their roots and goals, striving toward them in their own ways. In its excess, however, art gets reduced to creation for […]
On The Other Side Of The Pandemic: Ideas, Practices We Take Ahead In Theatre
“The theater is the only institution in the world which has been dying for four thousand years and has never succumbed. It requires tough and devoted people to keep it alive.” ― John Steinbeck, Once There Was a War In March 2020, the global climate suddenly changed. It changed for the better or for worse […]
A Note From Irawati Karnik, DSM’s new Academic Head of School: ‘Hope to drive pedagogy towards a more multi-disciplinary approach’
Editor’s Note: DSM is thrilled to announce Irawati Karnik as the new Academic Head of School. Irawati has been closely associated with the school, its design, and its philosophy over the last many years. During the pandemic, she has been an amazing resource from whom we could all learn to keep the school going and […]
Curated Conversations #1 ‘Dramaturgy of Modern Resilience: Tech-o-lution’ with Amitesh Grover
Throughout history, theatre-makers have negotiated societal censure and state action when staging the political – from their content being controlled, their form and aesthetic choices being policed, their bodies in performance being monitored, and more. And yet – or may be in part because of this – theatre has always been a site of active resistance. […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #30 Never Going Back!
Did another year just go by? It seems like it was only yesterday that we were hit by unexpected lockdowns in the tumultuous year that 2020 was, and yet here we are, bidding adieu to another year of disruptions, love and loss. The last two years have changed the way we think about theatre and […]
Trans-ing The Theatrical Canon
“Gender-neutral language isn’t about replacing an old norm with a new one. People have the right to self-determine their gender whether it be a man, woman, or a nonbinary gender. The goal of gender-neutral language is to get rid of gender normativity, not everyone’s gender.” — Alok Vaid-Menon, Beyond the Gender Binary The future of […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #29 Moving Through These Times With Curiosity, Care, and Community
Going through this pandemic has been an isolating experience for many people around the world. As we emerge at the other side of the portal, there have been several conversations around creating communities of care and curiosity. At a recent Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) session with Bangalore-based director, playwright, and dramaturg, Nisha Abdulla, we discussed […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #28 ‘Fishbowl’: Performance Makers on their Experience of the Feminine
It felt unusual to have prolonged silence in the Zoom room at our 28th Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) conversation. For the first time, we experimented with a new format: ‘Fishbowl’. A term borrowed from Gestalt psychotherapy, it is a group process that involves people sharing first-person experiences. These testimonies are witnessed by the larger group […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #27 A Dangerous Position to Speak From: Practicing De-colonisation from the Global North
Over the last year, the pandemic exposed many fissures within our society – oppression, sexual harassment, questions of equity, inclusion, diversity and much more. Decolonization has been a major topic of discussion in theatre communities over performance and pedagogy. Even today, countries may be independent but colonial structures still stand in place in theatre organisations. […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #26 Naughty Stories for Consenting Adults — Making & Having Fun in Deadly Serious Times
“Once upon a time, long, long ago, on the steeps of a distant mountain, 100 miles from anywhere, in a little ramshackle hat, there lived a Zen master,” begins Jemma Kahn, while she deftly slides bright visually illustrated storyboards from what looks like a wooden television box. The Zen master was known for his wit, […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #25 Trauma and Drama: Intimate Public Remembering
What does it mean to reconstruct any life event through theatre? What might be some of the dangers or pitfalls of applying theatre to a therapeutic process? Answering these questions and more, theatre practitioners and therapists Clark Baim and Pablo Gershanik shared their practice and methods in a recent Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) conversation with […]