Content Advisory
The project ran through a semester course at Azim Premji University. It resulted in a forum theatre and shadow puppetry production directed by Evan Hastings performed by the first and second year students. The students drew on their own experiences on the university campus and threw light on incidents of sexual harrassment that took place. I assisted in the writing, coaching and direction of the play over the course of 3-4 months. It was performed at Bangalore Design Week, Oxford College and Mandala Theatre at Nepal International Theatre Festival. The students and I saw the transformational journey and power of theatre and the deeper body work that was facilitated by Evan’s method of 'Shadow Liberation'.
From August 2022 to December 2022, students at Azim Premji University saw a different mode of intervention within their own realm of experiences. APU facilitates a course on Creative Expressions, through which "Shadow Liberation" was offered to them. The course saw different modes of accessing forum theatre, shadow puppetry work and other embodied processes.
That semester also saw multiple cases of sexual harrassment that was taking place on and around their campus. The theme of their production therefore emerged from their experience. Using that lens, Evan Hastings facilitated their reflections on the gaslighting, micro-aggressions and the subsequent harassment that they experienced.
They also, using Evan's previous resources and their own creative applications, engineered different metaphors through shadow puppetry that reflected the internal experiences of the characters in the production.
The final production saw the students enact sections of their experience and use movement and shadow puppetry. The production then saw multiple enactments, at their own campus and multiple public places. The interesting aspect was the forum theatre of it that involved members of the audience intervene and change the narrative as a participant of the play.
Insights received
Power of Relationships
The relationships developed through the process allowed for the power of drama therapy to reveal itself. The students internalised their character, and in the safety of the relationship express their own experiences through them.
Nuancing Narratives
A divisive theme such as sexual harrassment on a college campus allows for multiple narratives from students, professors and administration. The play that was divised, showed these different persepectives and the subsequent intervening also allowed for multiple voices in an otherwise black and white narrative.
Experience of Intervention
The art of Forum Theatre showed its potential in very strong ways. Multiple showings of the play had those multiple audiences moved. At all occassions the audience was offered opportunity to stop the play and change the narrative. It was empowering to watch and be a participant of. It gave voice to the unknown and shape to the unsolvable. It allowed for an imagination of a better circumstance. In embodying the characters themselves, the audience also built empathetic narratives that fit the situation that they were placed in.
