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…
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…
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…
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….
“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,…
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…
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…
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,…
Ever since the pandemic began last year, drama pedagogues have been attempting to understand what it means for theatre pedagogy. In the world of Zoom, what are they preparing their students for? While pedagogues have found unique solutions to this, we took the opportunity to look at how the pandemic can change how arts organizing…
After a short hiatus, Unrehearsed Futures (Season 2) is back for another 12 conversations. For the first session post the mid-season break, we had Lecoq pedagogue Norman Taylor and UK-based director, actor and teacher Dr. Ellie Nixon in conversation with our co-curator and pedagogic director of Embodied Poetics, Amy Russell. The three pedagogues engaged in…