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The belief in the efficacy
of theatre as a tool for conscientization, for
critiquing social disparities and for self exploration
and expression is at the core of Voicing Silence's
activities with women.
For different groups of women, articulating through
theatre their perceptions, hopes, dreams and aspirations,
their ways of knowing and being, has been an unique
process-oriented path to enter unexplored territory.
A source of empowerment, it enables them to speak
out, "gives them voice", In an exploration
of women's own unique idiom - their songs and
forms, their language and ways of communication.
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| These workshops have culminated
in simple productions, sometimes performed for
audiences, sometimes not, but always for the participants
- theatre more for the actors, than the spectators. |
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| The communities of women worked
with through this methodology include women quarry
workers and beedi workers, rural Dalit women,
school teachers and adolescent school girls, political
activists, and members of rural women's self-help
groups. For four continuous years, a group of
women professional actors in traditional Tamil
theatre genres was one such community, for whom
the workshop also led to the production of finished
performances as well as, most recently, a group
of transsexuals. |
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| The workshop approach, of
collective improvisation, and group critiquing
leading to shared learning and mutual support
has been part of the process of playmaking, of
rehearsals, and in some cases of playwriting too.
This group has gone on to form an autonomous women's
theatre company, playing to the same rural audiences
in the same genre. The transsexuals have been
using the play developed in the workshop in an
advocacy campaign to draw attention to the nature
of social discrimination face in everyday life
and to demand their basic human rights as citizens.
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| Workshops conceptualized and
coordinated by Mina Swaminathan and A. Mangai. |
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