This post was written by Bedotroyee Bhattacharjee about here experience in the “Applied Theatre for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion” training with Aanchal Jain and Lucy Ferguson. Sign up for the next session of this course here.

The “Applied Theatre for Gender Equality and Social Inclusion” workshop holds a special place in my heart. What drew me in was the curiosity to find out how theatre practices could be used to advance my work around feminist practices.  

What was most significant about the training was that right from the beginning the training involved applied theatre techniques to introduce us to the program, each other, and the techniques. It was surprising how the facilitators enabled the conversations by giving concise instructions and encouraging us to play, act, and experiment with limited familiarity. Most of the time, I got into acting, or storytelling without hesitating even a bit with a group that I barely knew. The techniques were catalyzing a lot of conversations and reflections without jargon, or getting into serious discussion but through very personal experiences and sharing.  

In a recent workshop that I was a part of, I used some of the applied theatre practices that I learned in this course. Since the group was meeting for the first time, we used the object-storytelling technique to learn a bit more about the participants and also to break the personal-professional divide by encouraging them to bring a part of their persona beyond their professional identities to welcome a more wholesome person with multiple experiences into the workshop. At another point, we wanted to bring up the issue of intentional participation, which was being disrupted by the use of mobile phones. We introduced the forum theatre technique to surface it. It led to an enriching discussion and debate around the attention economy, politics of rest, and multitasking. Both instances played a significant role in shaping and re-designing the rest of the sessions as pivotal conversations emerged from them.  

For me, that’s a significant outcome of using applied theatre techniques because there’s always a possibility of unexpected but critical dimensions finding their way to the surface through these practices.  

A lot of transformative work begins with the self, the applied theatre techniques are centered around it. It helps challenge and surface unconscious biases, and preconceived notions, using personal experiences. A reflective moment, or an Aha! moment has a deeper impact than a theory or activity based on a hypothetical example. The training not only introduced me to applied theatre techniques, but also gave me insights and training on time management, organizing, working with a script, and giving and receiving critical feedback. I was surprised how much could be achieved in a week-long training if it is designed well. On delivering our online practice sessions, I realized the minute detailing and practice, keeping enough space for emergence, keeping an eye on the objectives at all times, and trusting ourselves to hold space for the conversations play pivotal roles in delivering an impactful workshop. 

~Bedotroyee Bhattacharjee