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Women Artists Group |
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Women Artists’ Group (WAG)
Women Artists’ Group was initiated in 1993 as a non-structured platform and support for writers, performers, artists, and others interested in feminist literature, criticism and theory. It was registered as a non-profit trust with Pattabhi Rama Reddy & Kirtana Kumar as trustees.
Over the years the group has included a range of people from academics, photographers, film-makers, dancers, musicians, actors and activists. Since it’s inception it has hosted a wide range of subterraneous activity. Some of them include:
v A theatre workshop on Childhood Sexual Abuse (CSA) for actors, activists and others facilitated by Kirtana Kumar. This culminated in the play “My Children who should be Running thru Vast, Open, Spaces…” Performances at The Space and Yavanika v A workshop on CSA facilitated by Dr.Shekar Sheshadri from NIMHANS v A documentary film based on “My Children who should be Running thru Vast, Open, Spaces…”, produced by MADHYAM v A workshop and sale by women Madhubani artists from Mithila v Performances of Dario Fo’s Medea in various formal and non-formal venues. v Workshop and sale by women weavers from Banyan, Tamil Nadu v Research and production of Guhya, a documentary film on feminine sexual symbols and rituals in four Indian states. v Theatre Workshops on Gender & Sexuality for NGOs and academic institutions in Bangalore including, ISST, Hengsara Hakkina Sangha, National law School, World Vision, United Theological College, Aditi Mallya etc v Research guidance and evaluation for Elizabeth Edmonds paper on the LGBT community in Bangalore in association with the Gender Studies program, Manasagangotri. v Theatre Workshops on Gender & Sexuality in association with IFSHA in Delhi and Katmandu. These workshops were held for community health workers and other women’s activists. v Research and production of Namma Cinema Talkies, a documentary film using participatory research methodologies, on adolescent sexuality & livelihoods in North Karnataka. In association with Samuha the University of California San Fransisco v Research and production of Chandri, a slice-of-life documentary film on 24 hours in the life of a young Lambani girl. v Production and performance of Jean Genet’s The Maids in formal and non-formal spaces in Bangalore as well as at the Bahuroopi Festival in Mysore. v An on-going activity of WAG is the facilitation of a Theatre Lab for children. Theatre Lab was born in 2000 and is housed currently at Centre For Film and Drama. It is run by Kirtana Kumar, Swar Thounaojam and Sheila Govindraj. The long term vision of the Lab is to provide an over all theatre experience for children with equal emphasis on process and production as on performance. Past Theatre Lab public activities include: Ø A Poetry Morning at Café Flamingo Ø Scenes from The Tempest & MSND Ø A Stanislavski & Kalidasa Exhibition & Walk Thru Ø An Evening of Macbeth around a bonfire Ø Sadako & a 1000 Cranes Ø Theatre Lab CD of Poetry Ø Naomi Wallace’s The Girl Who Fell Through a Hole in Her Sweater (in production)
v Under the aegis of Theatre Lab, we developed an 8 session experiential learning module on Shakespeare for vertical groups of school students. The module is currently being taught at Namma Shale, Bangalore. v In 2006, Kirtana was a National Theatre Consultant to PATH, India on a nation wide Magnet Theatre process on issues of HIV/AIDS services. She worked with four key populations – Men having Sex with Men (MSM), Truckers, Intra Venous Drug Users and Commercial Sex Workers. v Women Artists Group currently hosts an open and ongoing lab and reading group for fellow theatre practitioners who would like to improve movement, text and vocal skills. At present, we are working on movement with Brinda Jacob (of Rainbow Inc, Bangalore) using the textual framework of Attar’s The Conference of the Birds. v In March 2007 Kirtana presented a paper on Gender, Sexuality & Pleasure at Sthree Sharira, a conference organized by Prakriti Foundation in Chennai on March 16th ’07.
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