Creative Connections and The Mandala Theatre, in Nepal, will provide students with a better appreciation and understanding for their cultural heritage, while giving them innovative tools to critically examine their own connections to that heritage.
Hamro Sanskriti: Preserving Cultural Heritage through Participatory Theatre is the official name of this project, funded through a grant from World Learning.
About
Building on our previous work with the Communities Connecting Heritage Program (CCH), sponsored by the US Department of State, and World Learning, featuring student-led workshops, this project will involve CCH alumni students in Nepal facilitating a series of virtual workshops for ten local classrooms (250 students) in Connecticut using participatory theatre techniques.
Joining the Nepali student facilitators in these workshops will be experienced theatre trainers from both Creative Connections and Mandala Theatre.
Timeline
The project will take place in early 2021, whether in-school learning is possible or not, covering project planning, rehearsals for – and a production of – a model forum theatre piece, recruiting and preparing US classes, facilitating the workshops, and a thoughtful evaluation process.
Key Terms
Forum theatre is a type of theatre created by Augusto Boal, one of the techniques under the umbrella term of Theatre of the Oppressed. This relates to the engagement of spectators influencing and engaging with the performance as both spectators and actors, termed “spect-actors”, with the power to stop and change the performance.
Image theatre is a performance technique in which one person, acting as a sculptor, moulds one or more people acting as statues, using only touch and resisting the use of words or mirror-image modelling. The images presented in this form of theatre are a series of still-images that are brought to life via a variety of ways. Image theatre originated as a form of theatrical protest in the Theatre of the Oppressed created by Augusto Boal in the 1960s.
Participatory Theatre is a form of theatre in which the audience interacts with the performers or the presenters.
Project Manager & Facilitator
Tim Steckler is a Brooklyn-based Applied Theatre Educator and Facilitator. He has worked with students from the USA and around the world to put together interactive performances on social justice issues ranging from refugee resettlement, countering systemic racism, and preserving cultural heritage. Tim holds a Master’s of Education degree in International Education Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Principia College.
Learn more about the CCH program here.
