PARTICIPANTS SALEEM ZAIDI

START DATE 14/06/2010

NUKKAD
NATAK: PADHNA
KITNA
RELATED LINKS
ZAROORI STREET THEATRE
PROJECT REPORT
WORKSHOP

VENUE KHOJ STUDIOS & KHIRKI VILLAGE

PARK, NEW DELHI
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The street theatre workshop was conducted in collaboration with a team of

professional actors, Mr. Saleem Zaidi IPTA (Indian Peoples Theatre Association)
Delhi, and Mr. Siddharth. The project involved a series of 2-3 hour workshops
held daily over the course of three weeks, at the Khoj Studios.
During the introductory session , I invited Mr. Zaidi to the park one evening
where he spoke about the concept of a Nukkad Natak and its various elements.
Mr. Zaidi also spoke about the importance of commitment and attendance to the
daily rehearsals to ensure the performance was a success. He ascertained the
childrens willingness to participate and inspired them to join the workshop.
The street theatre sessions began on the afternoon of 15th of July, at the KHOJ
Studios. On the first day, there was an overwhelming response of 35 children. The
workshop was defined as a space where the children could freely engage in
activities they were usually forbidden to do at home, at schools and in the public
sphere (e.g. to be loud, scream, make noise and express themselves freely and
fearlessly in voice and body). In the month-long workshop, the children were
taught about the intricacies of expression, dialogue delivery, posture and timing,
with the help of several games and role playing exercises conducted by Mr. Zaidi.
As time went by some children were unable to continue or dropped out and
eventually a core group of 16 remained up until the performance.
In the initial sessions, the children were given tasks to enact skits/one act plays on
dynamics within the family. They were asked to observe their parents and enact
interpersonal relationships where they could express their grievances,
displeasure, expectations and aspirations for their children. The final play was
scripted and developed based on one of the skits presented at one of the initial
sessions. The play was roughly based around the significance of education and
the desire of the children to learn. For the final performance the Nukkad
Natakwas titled, Padhna Kitna Zaroori, the children brought in their own ideas
and thematics while Mr. Zaidi and Mr. Siddharth fine tuned the script, structure
and direction.
In line with the Nukkad Natak tradition the children announced the venue,
duration, time and name of the play in the community one day prior to the final
performance. We also sort permission from the elderly women who were the
regulars at the Khirki Village Park for the final performance. On behalf of KHOJ,
we organised new costumes for the troupe.
The play attracted a lot of interest from the community from the elderly, to the
youth playing soccer in the park. The enthusiasm from the audience
demonstrated the growing need and demand for more community art activities
which bring people together.
Collaboration, Community Art, Community Engagement, Community
Outreach, Locality, Play, Public Art, Social Art, Social
Innovation, Space, Theatre,Urban Landscape, Urban Politics, Workshop
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