Jana Natya Manch (Janam) spent an eventful few days in Calcutta. After two performances in schools, the group spent some time on 26 August with volunteers from the Share Stories Open Minds project and educators from the centres that the volunteers go to. They first performed Yeh Bhi Hinsa Hai—a play done in typical street…
In the previous session at the centre, we had done an activity based on the broad idea of stereotyping and gender roles. This was followed by a story on why we associate certain characteristics or objects with specific genders. In this session, the volunteers at the Bhowanipore centre, Priyanka and Apoorva took the discussion on…
We started the class with some fun exercises—which included imitating actions— which resulted in all sorts of hilarity. After much laughter and funny noises and faces, we started with storytelling. The games were an ideal warm-up and needed because sometimes the children are tired after long school hours. Paroma started with a story of brave…
As an intern with PeaceWorks—an initiative of The Seagull Foundation for the Arts, one of the projects I worked on was Share Stories Open Minds—the storytelling project for underprivileged children. I visited the centres and observed the sessions. This was done to assess critical thinking in the children— how much they have understood to live with difference and…
I remember wanting to join the circus as a young girl. It seemed like such a fantastical world. One where everything was possible. While I didn’t join the circus after all, I have had the opportunity to see the performance of a group of international artists who teach circus. Twice now! Performers Without Borders is…
