The Idea Lab’s second term resumes after a month long break during which participants conducted research for their projects and began drafting their scripts. Over our first term, the lab focused on the interconnected processes of research and ideation, and pushed participants to think deeply about their plays. In our second term, we will shift … Continue reading Term 2 Brief →

2nd July, 2019 Activities:  We began the second term with reflections on how each of our projects have progressed; we took turns to talk about the last month, what worked for us and what didn’t, and what had changed with each of our plays. Then, we began discussing the composition of plays, which is the larger … Continue reading Day 1 →

3rd July 2019 Activities: Yesterday, we’d been told to each prepare a presentation on three sources (audio, visual, text-based, etc.) in which we would share what our sources made us feel, and a short analysis of the sources. We began the day by sharing our presentations; the group presented a wide variety of source material, … Continue reading Day 2 →

4th July 2019 Activities: Today, we began by exploring the trajectory of writing a scene. This involves four parts, namely exposition, plot points, characters, and dialogue. Exposition leads to the development of plot points, after which we can insert characters who make up the scene, and finally, to bring them to life, we write their … Continue reading Day 3 →

5th July 2019 Activities:  We began the day with a conversation on exposition. We discussed how time and space can be understood in the context of exposition, with time being understood as when information is released in the course of a play, and space being understood as the different physical dislocations in the course of … Continue reading Day 4 →

6th July 2019 Activities:  We were joined by Iswar Lalitha, a theatre-maker, from Perch, a performance collective based in Chennai. Iswar spent the day with us and spoke extensively about his experiences in creating collaboratively, and pushed us to try our hand at collaborating with one another too. We took turns to introduce ourselves and tell … Continue reading Day 5 →

8th July 2019 Activities: We began the day by reading a draft of Abhimanyu's play. After the reading, we took turns to offer criticism on what was working and what was not, what could be fleshed out further in the coming scenes and what might benefit from revision. Chanakya noted the importance of setting down … Continue reading Day 6 →

10th July 2019 Activities: For today's class, we were joined by Abhishek Majumdar, founder of Indian Ensemble and artistic director of the Bhasha Centre, for a session on narrative and form. We began the day with the questions: when does a Yakshagana play stop being a Yakshagana play? What is the essence of a form … Continue reading Day 7 →

12th July 2019 Activities: Today's session was dedicated entirely to a workshop on Saudamini's play, which explores masculinity in India through an adaptation of Chuck Palahniuk's Fight Club and Uday Prakash's Paul Gomra ka Scooter. We began by reading a few scenes from the play and immediately after, jumped into improvising stagings of those scenes. … Continue reading Day 8 →

13th July 2019 Activities: Today, we were joined by Amitesh Grover for a session on theatrical form. Amitesh is a performance-based artist in New Delhi, India and his practice explores intimate performance. We began the day by discussing the difficult nature of adapting Shrilal Shukla's novel, Raag Darbari, for the stage. Amitesh described the journey … Continue reading Day 9 →