"Dramatic Space - Theatre as Transformation" A workshop for teachers/ facilitators/ activists/ students/individuals at Karuna Wellness, A 105, Defence Colony > 9:30am-6:30pm on 16th & 17th July 2011

Time : 9:30 am - 6:30 pm

Entry : by Registration, Fees : Rs. 3,000/-  (2,000/- for students).

This is inclusive of refreshments and course materials.

Contact : arka.mukhopadhyay@gmail.com/ 09831731422

Place : Karuna Wellness, A 105, Defence Colony, New Delhi

Venue Info : Map | Nearest Metro Station - 'Lajpat Nagar'

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Workshop Details : 'Dramatic Space - Theatre as Transformation' Worlds Within and Without
A workshop for teachers/ facilitators/ activists/ students/individuals
Facilitated by : Arka Mukhopadhyay
Theatre : What, Whose, Why?
There are as many different kinds of theatre as there are people. As Augusto Boal said, "We are all actors: Being a citizen is not living in society, it is changing it” . For some of us it's a profession, for some, a tool. For some, entertainment, for some others, a spiritual experience. For some, it is about mirth and having fun, games and icebreakers, while for others, it is about dedication, discipline, rigorous exercises of body and mind, and an absolute, monastic submission to craft. It is process, and it is product. It is an intellectual exercise, requiring written scripts, lights, sets, props, video projectors and more, and it is the dance of the Baul and the whirl of the Sufi, the deadly grace of the Kalari master, the drum-beat of the primal ritual, the excitement of the hunt, the detachment of Zen meditation, only breathing, only being, Buddhist chants resonating across high plateaus, Upanishadic hymns resonating in the forests, and the simple beauty of folk songs and dances - all this is theatre. It is the Way of the Warrior, and it is the Way of Love. Theatre is only beauty, only aesthetics, but by its very nature, theatre is an act of protest. Theatre is living in the world and transcending it.
Theatre is thus a place of paradoxes - a place of meeting. It is a place of conflict, and hence a place of change, of transformation. It is a liminal space where the human consciousness looks at the universe within and the world without.

Workshop context: This workshop is meant as a safe space for people from different vocations to come together to collectively engage with their own selves, with others, and with their professions. While it is open to actors and dancers, it is not restricted to them alone. It is also open to musicians, painters, writers, to teachers, facilitators, activists, and to young people - essentially to anybody above the age of 18 with a reasonably fit body and mind. It is not meant to teach any specific methods or techniques of acting, movement or performance. Rather, through and intense engagement with body and spirit, and through a process of ensemble based creation, it is designed to take us to a free, natural, creative state of being where we break free from our inhibitions and engage deeply with our selves.

Methodology: The workshop is firmly rooted and grounded in the principles of equality, connectedness and harmony. Of being present, wholly and organically, at a given space, of listening and and watching with one's whole organism, to be focussed on the other person, to be open and responsive, to explore the body - social, political, gendered, sexual, ecological, performative, primal, ancestral, spiritual, communal. Exploring the Otherness of Self and thus confronting one's own fears, biases, prejudices, inhibitions.

Approach: The workshop will be based on a principle of un-learning. While it draws upon traditions of spiritual and ritual performance, community theatre, music, art and more, there will be no attempt to teach a bag of tricks, or communication/presentation/presentation/leadership skills in a superficial sense. It is rather about removing layers of social conditioning which inhibit us and re-discovering a lost body, existing in a shared space where we go forward to 'meet' the other without fear or shame. This will be facilitated through breath, movement, voice, song, colour, self and group work, and silence.

About the facilitator: Arka Mukhopadhyay has been active in diverse fields such as theatre, poetry and performance poetry, education and more. As a performer, he has travelled all over India and has also performed abroad in festivals such as the Festival of Alternative Theatrical Expressions, Zagreb, and Lit Up, Singapore. He has also given workshops and masterclasses for professional performers in India, Europe and Singapore, as well as in schools, colleges, and universities. As a poet, his works have been published in various international journals, and he was the recipient of the Toto Funds the Arts Award for Creative Writing in 2008. His work in performance poetry has also taken him all over India and abroad, including festivals such as Kala Ghoda in Bombay, Delhi International Arts Festival and Delhi International Book Fair. He is also a recipient of the Inlaks India Theatre Awards grant for 2010. He has worked extensively on Shakespeare in Education, through workshops with teachers as well as students in schools, and workshops and lectures in universities such as JNU, Jamia Milia Islamia and others. He conducts workshops for educators on theatre in education, performance based approaches to teaching Shakespeare, and theatre as a tool for transformational practices in schools, and has worked both with mainstream schools as also schools in non-mainstream, peri-urban and non-urban spaces. He is trained in the South Indian martial art form of Kalaripayattu, and has worked with practitioners of various forms of traditional performance.

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