Nisha Abdulla in conversation with Arvind Narrain.

Panel discussion, moderated by Timira Gupta. This panel discussion brings together representatives from AAGAAZ Theatre Trust (Delhi), WeLive Foundation (Bangalore), AASHIYANA (Mumbai), and individual art facilitators to explore the transformative power of Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) and other art modalities with children and young people from various distinct contexts. The panel will focus on how TO’s participatory techniques are used to empower, ignite and bring about action.

Session begins with Vellai Mozhi. A. Revathi enacts her life as a Tamil trans woman, stringing stories about finding community, navigating family relationships, encountering violence, building solidarities, finding and losing love, and discovering the joys of writing and performing.

Panel discussion follows, moderated by Ayush Gupta (Ayesha). Gender is one aspect by which society has been organised, especially around the idea that there are men and women, and there is a “real difference” between the two. Even as we feel the pressure to constantly align with man or woman in how we present, what we do, and how we live, we can also notice that fractures to this alignment exist in almost all lives. Our individual expression of gender is shaped, in part, by this push and pull of alignment and fractures. That is the performance of gender. Theatre also is shaped by these pushes and pulls, spotlighting alignments sometimes with the dominant performances of gender in life and sometimes subverting, challenging, and upturning the dominant performances. In this session, we will explore these aspects of how we wear our gender in theatre on stage and in the theatre of life.

Panel discussion continues.

Performance by Nisha Abdulla. wepushthesky is an interactive solo performance that weaves together food, song, story, myth, and history. Where personal stories meet community histories, survival stories of the Karbala entwine with songs of the Mappila Ramayana, and anecdotes from the past confront desires about the future.

Panel discussion, moderated by Dr Navjeevan Singh. “The three “experts” in this panel: Aqsa, Harshu, and Satendra have dared to forge their own paths in the face of persistent adversity that many thought insurmountable. If lived experience is given its due, besides their careers as physicians, these people have crammed several lives into the same time in which many of the rest of us struggle to live just one. They have broken many molds, inspired entire communities, and launched countless others’ lives into trajectories that have changed them for the better. They are activists in the true sense. I have often wondered what resulted in their awakening, the tipping points that triggered them to tread the paths they took, the actions they took and those they could not, the support they might have received and, importantly, the barriers they faced. I hope that they will share their stories of hope, of desire, of laughter, and of tears and show us the way forward.”

Panel discussion, moderated by Dr Nithya Poornima. Mental health is increasingly being recognized as an area that requires attention, engagement and action in various spheres of life, locally and globally. This panel will hear four accounts of how Theatre of the Oppressed and allied arts methods are being used in mental health contexts and in the provision of mental health care. The discussion intends to create an interactive space that offers a glimpse of the possibilities, discoveries, insights and challenges that have emerged when mental health care and TO meet and mingle!

Panel discussion, moderated by Benson Issac. We live in increasingly uncertain times with the threat of climate change, social, economic and political collapse. What does working for social change mean in these times? The practice of TO is centered around breaking the hegemony of single, clever, quick fix strategies. It builds on navigating our fragile egos to find democratic and complex solutions to complex problems. TO enables to be intersectional, collaborative and walk uncertain paths. How do we work with this invitation? How do we remain seekers and explorers on this path and how do we find more pathfinders to join us in this? Panelists are invited to speak, engage through TO techniques and respond in embodied ways that enable us to work with the complexity of Jokering Change.

Discussion continues.