Workshop - Theatre for Development as Cultural Action

Feb 26 – Mar 3, 2009: Six-day Residential Workshop – Theatre for Development as Cultural Action

 

 

Dear Friends

 

Seasons' Greetings!

 

Its time once again for our annual workshop – "Theatre for Development as Cultural Action".

 

Even as we plan, we look back at our journey of having engaged in theatre-based activities with groups and communities… It was in 1996, that the coming together of a youth theatre group resulted in Chhi! – a one-act play in Hindi on the issue of solid waste management. A two-year long process and over 50 performances later, media matters formally came into being.

 

In 2009, theatre continues to be one of our core areas of intervention – trainings, workshops, working with groups and communities, performances, post-performance discussions… The performing media initiative of media matters now has a repertoire of plays being performed by its youth theatre groups.

 

Consolidating these experiences, we organize our annual six-day residential workshops – an opportunity to interact and work with both, 'development actors' and 'theatre activists'.

 

Our previous workshops have been attended by participants representing CBOs, NGOs, government departments, theatre groups and educational institutions from across states – Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The age-group of the participants ranged from 12 to 52 years. The issues deliberated upon include rights of women, children and young people; eradication of leprosy and TB, HIV & AIDS, disability, commercial sexual exploitation, water and sanitation, gender and life skills.

 

This year too, we eagerly look forward to yet another opportunity for sharing of experiences, demonstrating as well as exploring the scope and possibilities of theatre – in engaging, enabling and empowering groups and communities. Performances by groups practicing participatory theatre will add value to the learning process.

 

We look forward to participation from your organization and partners.

 

Please find below details of the workshop. For registration or any further queries, please feel free to contact us at info@mmindia.org or 91-251-2606929.

 

Warm regards

 

Seema Kurup

9881261094

 

 

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Theatre for Development as Cultural Action

 

Dates

February 26 – March 3, 2009

 

Duration

Six-day Residential Workshop.

The lodging & boarding facilities at the venue will be available from Feb 25 (evening) to Mar 3 (evening).

 

Venue

Environment Education Centre, Talegaon (near Lonavla), Maharashtra

 

Objective

By the end of the workshop, the participants will have explored, experimented and practiced facilitating participatory theatre processes.

 

Methodology

The effort will be towards creating a participant-centred environment for experiential learning. The facilitation will explore a wide range of participatory tools and methods to encourage learning from each other.

 

Language

Hindi and English will be the working language of the workshop. However, participants will be encouraged to interact/work in their regional languages.

 

Participants

The workshop is open to any person from CBOs, NGOs, government departments, theatre groups and educational institutions. The workshop will most benefit participants who have a background of working on community empowerment issues, with an interest/experience in exploring participatory theatre. Young people below 18 years of age will have to be accompanied by a chaperon.

 

Facilitating Team

·        Prabir Bose works in the area of development communication. He has over 20 years of theatre-related experience – training and facilitating processes with groups and communities across states. He also is a visiting faculty for theatre at the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, TISS, Mumbai since the last 10 years.

·        Seema Kurup has an experience of over 10 years of work in community projects and development communication processes on issues related to gender, women's empowerment, reproductive health & rights, youth for development, adolescent life skills and child rights. She is involved in capacity building processes - facilitating "participatory communication & action" with groups.

 

Participation fees

Rs.7,000/-

(Please note that the participation fee includes lodging, boarding, facilitation and workshop resources. Participants will have to make their own travel arrangements.)

 

Registration

To confirm your participation, please send the registration form/s (together with a demand draft favouring "media matters" payable at Ambernath or Mumbai) latest by February 6, 2009.

 

Organized & Facilitated by

media matters

 

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media matters
400 Sai Section, Ambernath 421501, Maharashtra, India
Tel. 91-251-2606929
Email: info@mmindia.org
Website: www.mmindia.org