Circle in CP today to make a ‘difference’
3 Jan 2013 10:39 PM GMT
Prejudices pertaining to class, culture, religion, gender, and race have been the key features of our very secular society. We do celebrate the variety in our country and at the same time, abhor it. Who is to blame for the closed perceptions and fake synchronised lives that we live? Seems like the only way out of this cocoon is to question what actually controls our society. Is political expression the only expression left?
To address all these issues, Yellowcat Theatre Co., an independent theatre company, is organising a workshop. Aptly titled Sitting Around Difference, it has Rebecca Mwase — an award-winning theatre artiste based in New Orleans, LA, US — as the main speaker. The idea of this workshop is not only to discuss and talk about the intersections of race, gender, religion and class, but to use story circle methodology, congregational singing, individual-derived movement and writing to explore personal relationships and experiences as they relate to gender, race, religion and class.
Participants will be encouraged to search for connection points and discover if storytelling and performance can lead to liberation.
Rebecca’s work emerges from her own experiences as a woman, as an African-American woman, as a performer, and from the exploration of these multiple identities. ‘The story circle method is meant to encourage the broadening of perspectives by holding equitable space for people to share personal stories. By listening to and responding to the similarities and differences within experiences, we are able to get a more nuanced view of the issue or concept. Because race is tied to global perceptions of superiority and inferiority, listening to and exploring the themes communally should lead to greater insight,’ says Rebecca.
‘Even though we are a hugely diverse culture, we find it hard to deal with difference, to put it more specifically — we find it hard to negotiate difference. If we look at what has recently happened, and the effect it has had, then it stands to reason that there is an urgent need to engage with ‘difference’. As artistes, this is our pursuit — an imaginative response to the situations we find ourselves in. We know that one of the ways to respond is to protest, which even I was a part of, but we are forgetting that there is also an artistic response to the societal upheavals. As an artiste, I want to explore the artistic response to a situation as well. There cannot just be a political response. This workshop is for us to ponder about our response to the whole situation. It is action oriented which will hopefully make people question things that haven’t been considered for long now, to access areas of our own self to help us understand how to respond,’ says Sukesh Arora, Artistic Director, Yellowcat Theatre Co.
Keeping in mind the brutal gangrape, to which not just the Capital but the entire nation has finally awakened, an activity like this is not just another workshop, but a hopeful step forward to congregation and acceptance of useful and liberating responses and insights.
DETAIL
At: 36, The Attic, Regal Building, Connaught Place
When: 3 January
Timings: 9.30am to 5.30pm
To Register, Call: 9810026174
To address all these issues, Yellowcat Theatre Co., an independent theatre company, is organising a workshop. Aptly titled Sitting Around Difference, it has Rebecca Mwase — an award-winning theatre artiste based in New Orleans, LA, US — as the main speaker. The idea of this workshop is not only to discuss and talk about the intersections of race, gender, religion and class, but to use story circle methodology, congregational singing, individual-derived movement and writing to explore personal relationships and experiences as they relate to gender, race, religion and class.
Participants will be encouraged to search for connection points and discover if storytelling and performance can lead to liberation.
Rebecca’s work emerges from her own experiences as a woman, as an African-American woman, as a performer, and from the exploration of these multiple identities. ‘The story circle method is meant to encourage the broadening of perspectives by holding equitable space for people to share personal stories. By listening to and responding to the similarities and differences within experiences, we are able to get a more nuanced view of the issue or concept. Because race is tied to global perceptions of superiority and inferiority, listening to and exploring the themes communally should lead to greater insight,’ says Rebecca.
‘Even though we are a hugely diverse culture, we find it hard to deal with difference, to put it more specifically — we find it hard to negotiate difference. If we look at what has recently happened, and the effect it has had, then it stands to reason that there is an urgent need to engage with ‘difference’. As artistes, this is our pursuit — an imaginative response to the situations we find ourselves in. We know that one of the ways to respond is to protest, which even I was a part of, but we are forgetting that there is also an artistic response to the societal upheavals. As an artiste, I want to explore the artistic response to a situation as well. There cannot just be a political response. This workshop is for us to ponder about our response to the whole situation. It is action oriented which will hopefully make people question things that haven’t been considered for long now, to access areas of our own self to help us understand how to respond,’ says Sukesh Arora, Artistic Director, Yellowcat Theatre Co.
Keeping in mind the brutal gangrape, to which not just the Capital but the entire nation has finally awakened, an activity like this is not just another workshop, but a hopeful step forward to congregation and acceptance of useful and liberating responses and insights.
DETAIL
At: 36, The Attic, Regal Building, Connaught Place
When: 3 January
Timings: 9.30am to 5.30pm
To Register, Call: 9810026174
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