Day 10

14th July 2019 Activities: We spent the day workshopping Ankit's play, which follows the lives of two brothers in Bundelkhand and is set against mounting religious fervour and a growing obsession with the cow. Like with our workshop on Saudamini's play, we began by reading a few scenes from the play. Then, Ankit walked us … Continue reading Day 10 →

Days 11 and 12

16th and 17th July 2019 Activities: We spent two days with Anitha Santhanam, who is a seasoned actor, dancer, and director. She has trained in physical theatre based on Lecoq's pedagogy and in Bharatanatyam, Yoga, and Kalaripayattu as well. Over our two sessions with Ms. Santhanam, we explored the practice of embodied writing. On the … Continue reading Days 11 and 12 →

Day 13

20th July 2019 1. Today, we were joined by Sunil Shanbag for a session on the use of music in theatre. Sunil Shanbag is a Bombay based theatre director, screenwriter and documentary film-maker. He is well known for his innovative use of music and dance in his performances. We began the day by watching clips … Continue reading Day 13 →

Day 14

21st July 2019 1. Today was a continuation of the workshop with Sunil Shanbag. We began the day with a discussion of the various questions and thoughts provoked by the previous day’s class. A question raised was how one can escape the clichés when using music. Sunil answered this by stating that intent is key … Continue reading Day 14 →

Day 15

22nd July 2019 Activities: We spent the day workshopping Shatarupa's play, which interrogates caste and gender politics in Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's novel Debi Choudhurani. Unlike our last two workshops, where we used improvisation to explore the different possibilities within each scene, this time, we engaged the source text directly to see the ways in which … Continue reading Day 15 →

Day 16

24th July 2019 Activities: Today's session was dedicated to studying dialogue and thinking deeply about what dialogue does, and what good dialogue looks like. We began the day by discussing dialogue's role in theatre, and noted that dialogue facilitates the progression of story, the revelation of information, sets the context and the rhythm of the … Continue reading Day 16 →

Day 17 and 18: A Writing Marathon

26th and 27th July 2019 We spent both days at the Sandbox Collective's office on Millers Road, where we dedicated the hours of 9 AM to 6 PM to writing. The goal for these two days was to push ourselves to produce as many pages as we could, whilst reflecting on and drawing from this … Continue reading Day 17 and 18: A Writing Marathon →

Day 19

28th July 2019 We spent the day at a friend of the company's farmhouse in Magadi, where we relaxed, read poetry aloud, ate more than one should, and spent some time reflecting on this term as we neared the end. We discussed our key learnings and what we wish we'd spent more time on, and … Continue reading Day 19 →

Day 20

30th July 2019 Activities: Today was the last day of the Idea Lab's second term. We spent our last session discussing character development, beginning with a discussion on characters from different plays that we enjoyed. Each one of us name a character we've liked and offered a short explanation as to what about that character … Continue reading Day 20 →