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 […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #24 Repurposing the Theatre School
As we move through the pandemic, embracing a post-pandemic future, how can we reimagine theatre pedagogy for the 21st century? What does it mean to create a theatre school in response to the local community it is situated in? Can theatre play a more direct role in building a good society? Taking inspiration from Brazilian […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #23 Awake, Alive, Empowered: Towards a ‘Planetary’ Theatre of the Oppressed
The poetics of the oppressed is essentially the poetics of liberation: the spectator no longer delegates power to the characters either to think or to act in his place. The spectator frees himself; he thinks and acts for himself! Theatre is action! – Augusto Boal, theatre practitioner and founder of Theatre of the Oppressed Boal, […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #22 Patterns of Connection
Ever since the pandemic began, drama schools around the world have been plagued with the question of what they are now preparing students for in their education. A response to this also leads to the question: How is the pandemic changing the way in which arts organizations function today? At the 22nd conversation of Unrehearsed […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #21 Theatre Pedagogy: I’ll see you so far…
We’re back with an extended Season 2 for Unrehearsed Futures! At our 21st conversation, we had Lecoq pedagogue Norman Taylor and UK-based director, actor and teacher Dr. Ellie Nixon, deliberating on the differences between pedagogy, training, technique, system and curriculum. Nixon believes that part of pedagogy is about really listening and watching and being watchful […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #20 Manifestations: Your Stories of Change
It has been one and a half years since the pandemic changed our lives in unimaginable ways. It has changed the way we think about theatre and performance and the digital space. Unrehearsed Futures began with a view to understand how to disseminate theatre pedagogy through the online medium and has now grown into investigating […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #19 Collaborative Theatre-Making and/as Participatory Justice
Over the past one and a half years, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed numerous ruptures and disruptions within existing frameworks in society. It has highlighted complex problems that need immediate attention, such as climate change, racism, caste and religion-based violence. Moreover, it cast a sharper spotlight on the unequal society we live in. We see popular […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #18 We Have Been Here Before
Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we look at the world around us. It has highlighted existing ruptures, be it climate change, caste-based violence or racism, economic instability etc. In all this, what role does embodied creative practice perform in moments of resistance and rupture? How does the work of […]
Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) #17 Theatre Beyond The Show
For a while now, we’ve been exploring how the pandemic has affected theatre pedagogy and learning. But what does it entail for writers? What kind of theatre writing is expected of writers in and beyond this pandemic moment? What social responsibility do they bear? Discussing this and more, playwrights Abhishek Majumdar and Kamili Feelings shared […]