Street Theatre

A note on Street Theatre

Street theatre as a form of communication is well-rooted in the Indian tradition as noted in the presence of the ‘sutradhar’ in Indian puppetry and the existence of the narrator in Indian folk theatre.



The highlight of the street theatre form is that it breaks the formal barriers and approaches the people directly. This form has been used to propagate social and political messages and to create awareness amongst the people regarding social issues. There have been plays taking up issues of black marketing and corruption.



Street theatre has also been used as a political weapon during elections or to get across an ideology or use of political powers for pressurising people. It has also been successfully utilised as a vehicle for inducing a scientific outlook in some people by bringing to them news from the world of science.



Some trace the history of street theatre to the 19th century when labourers and party workers wrote and did plays during the Industrial Revolution in Europe. Women produced plays like "How the vote was won" during the suffragette movement in London in the 1900s. The Soviet Revolution spawned its own kind of street theatre to reach the unwashed masses. During World War II, street theatre played a role in fanning anti-war sentiments.


The history of 'modern' street theatre in India can be traced to Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), formed in 1943, the first organized body to adapt the form to a more political end, raising issues of imperialism and inequality. IPTA is regarded as the pioneer of the people's theatre movement in India.


Issues concerning women are an important theme in street plays. In 1980, the famous Mathura rape case instigated a lot of shows on the need to make the rape laws more stringent. ‘Om Swaha’ dealt with demands for dowry resulting in harassment and sometimes death. There have been several productions which give a short summary of the life of a woman in India and examine a woman’s needs and abilities.


Others highlight caste conflicts or ideas about hygiene and health. Street theatre is also used as a means to encourage literacy amongst villagers. There have been notable plays on environment projecting a beautiful relationship of trust and friendship between humans and their natural environment.


Habib Tanvir and Utpal Dutt used street theatre as a political catalyst in the 1940s and the 1950s. Street theatre was revived in the 1970s and the movement spread all over the country. There are about 50 groups in the country, mainly in cities and the immediate suburbs that are active in the genre of street theatre.


Indian street theatre developed as an art form to illustrate the feelings of common people; hence germinated a whole new theatre form. Common people, day-to-day life problems and the colours of daily life gained a dimension in Indian street theatre whilst making this particular genre of Indian natya stand apart. It was during and after the independence of India that Indian street theatre drastically developed as an artistic expression in illustrating the colour of daily life. Gradually

 Indian street theatre became a method of communicating the message to the people illustrating the realities of daily life. Breaking all the boundaries of orchestra, galleries, audience, music, songs and stage to reach the common people, street theatre is just not a form of entertainment but has evolved as a meaningful art form for creating social awareness.

 The street theatre is a much direct, brief and concise theatrical expression. The objective is to convey a particular idea or to portray a significant meaning—a direct, intimate and effective means of dramaturgy.

 One of the earliest streets plays in Calcutta (now, Kolkata) was Chargesheet (1949). Early street theatre seems to have mimicked the stage, with the action often taking place in front of a wall or some other backdrop, and actors entering from and exiting into makeshift wings. But plays like Utpal Dutt’s Din Badaler Pala (1967) were more elaborate.

 During the turbulent 1970s, hundreds of such performances were brought out by radical outfits. With the Emergency declared by the central government, repression unleashed against Communists and the revolutionary Naxalbari uprising in Bengal, street theatre entered a new phase. Performers were attacked, often by the police.

 Some names are prominent in the field of ‘street plays’ as a genre. Badal Sircar abadoned mainstream drama and took to open-air performance, communicating with the dissatisfied and uprooted urban working class. Many street theatre groups benefited from the workshops he held all over the country.

 In Bengal, a vibrant tradition is there with regular shows performed by veterans like Probir Guha. Safdar Hashmi’s Jana Natya Manch (or Janam), formed in 1973, led the movement of Indian street theatre. Till 2002, it had notched up about 7000 performances of fifty-eight street plays, many of them later translated or adapted across South Asia. Its first play was Machine (1978), and then came Aurat (1979), Hallabol (1988), and Scream (1996) on sexual abuse of children. The popular political theatre featured direct confrontation and energy as well as artistry.

 Theatre Union (1983-9), in Delhi did some excellent street productions, such as Toba Tek Singh, based on Saadat Hasan Manto’s short story. Nishant, a group in Delhi, and Gursharan Das in Punjab have been dedicated to street plays. In Gujarat, the groups Samvedan, Garage, Lok Kala Manch (all in Ahmedabad), and Parivartan (in Vadodara) perform street plays.

 It has some of the best exponents, starting with Samudaya which was formed in 1975. It has its units in Karnataka. Among Kannada dramatists, Chandrashekhar Patil used the form to satirise social evils and human follies.

 The revitalised Praja Natya Mandali in Andhra Pradesh, Nija Nataka Iyakkam (formed in 1978 in Madurai), an energetic Tamil street theatre, and the Marxist Chennai Kalai Kuzhu (formed in 1984 in Madras, now Chennai) were among the groups that became prominent. Kerala also has considerable street theatre.

 In 1984, the shocking death of thousands after a poison gas leak from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal sparked off protest theatre at street corners in many towns, some groups mobilising support and donations for survivors.

 A point was reached in street theatre after the murder of Safdar Hashmi during a show in 1989.

 The theatre movement has spread to all states over time.

 In Bihar, street theatre is very common and theatre troupes such as Hirawal, IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Assocation), etc, are well known. School and college students also practise this art form, though in most cases they do not actually perform on the street, but within the confines of their institutions.

  Non-governmental organisations have used street theatre in the 1990s, to promote ecological consciousness, awareness about HIV and AIDS, and family planning. Today, in India, street theatre continues to be a popular form of expression.

Is news a reflection or construction?

News, you may say, reflects reality.
But let's take a closer look.

It becomes clear that news does not reflect reality. Instead news is a construction by journalists.

No doubt news coverage is triggered by actual circumstances. Like a flood, or a plane disappearance or a church being set ablaze.

But the coverage of these occurrences is influenced by process and constraints in the same way as fiction is.

News is a creation resulting from the active selecting and interweaving of images into a 'processed' reality.

No doubt, in constructing stories, all of us journalists rely on the facts of the event being covered. But let us admit it: we are also strongly influenced by elements outside the event - such as deadline, space limitations, and our own 'news sense'

The construction process basically encompasses three tasks
[a] selecting what gets covered
[b] deciding what will become the focus of the story
[c] determining how the story gets told.

Think of all you did last week. No doubt your week must have been filed with all sorts of things that interested and excited you.  How many of these events were covered as news? Probably none. Why?
Journalists don't think of you as a newsworthy person.

But journalists will readily write about the suit that Narendra Modi wore, or the dinner that Arvind Kejriwal had on the night of his electoral win.

Remember, the journalist decides how the news should be presented

So, news is not something that happens, News is what gets presented.
We almost never see news events as they happen.
Instead we are shown the media's manufactured version of events.

Some Milestones in Indian TV

Milestones in Indian Television

September 15, 1959 – An experimental television T.V station started in New Delhi to train personnel and particularly to discover what T.V could achieve in community development and formal education. A UNESCO grant of 20,000 dollars and offer of equipment from United States and Phillips India make the experiment possible. The range oftransmitter was 40 Km Audience members of 180 T.V clubs.


1961 – Educational T.V programmes on Science for teachers were started.



August 1965 – Entertainment programme introduced under pressure from T.V manufactures and public.



January 1967 – Indian T.V goes rural KrishiDarshan programmes for farmers in 80 villages in U.P, Delhi and Haryana began.


October 1972 – Bombay centre inaugurated Transmitter range from 70 - 100 Km.


1973 – Srinagar and Amritsar centres started producing T.V programme Pune centre begins relaying programme from Bombay centre.


1975 – Calcutta, Madras and Lucknow are put on T.V map.


August 1975 – 1976 – Site (Satellite Instruction T.V Experiment) began beaming education programme to villages in 6 states.


January 1, 1976 – Commercial telecast for 1st time. T.V is separated from AIR(All India Radio) and given a new banner Doordarshan.


1977 – Terrestrial transmitter put up at Jaipur, Hyderabad, Raipur, Gulbarga, Sambhalpur and Muzaffarpur to extent T.V coverage to a population of 100 million people. Political party share T.V time for election broadcast.


August 15, 1982 - National programme inaugurated Insat IA, India’s first domestic com. Satellite placed in geostationary orbit but fails to become operational. Colour T.V was introduced during ASIAD. National network established with the help of micro wave links and Doordarshan live coverage of ASIAD and NAM minister conference is applauded.


1983 – INSAT IB was placed in orbit by American shuttle challenger.

Can you add more dates?

 

Indian Society- an overview

How does one describe Indian Society?

 

India is a multi-cultural, multi-linguistic and multi-ethnic society. This multi-tier social set-up is vibrant and complex. The social and cultural layers of this nation have strong indigenous traditions. However, the society is also reflective of cultural and social evolution. Mass media including television, newspapers, radio, film and Internet have been an integral part of this evolution. In a society like India with so much diversity and differences, mass media have played a significant role in every phase of development.


Mass media facilitate dissemination of information and communication to a vast number of people. There is a strong heterogeneity of media audiences. And more often than not, the media content caters to different groups rather than to a homogenous set of audience.


Media performs four basic functions for society: surveying the environment to provide information; correlating response to this information (editorial function); entertaining the media user (diversion function); and transmitting the country's cultural heritage to future generations (socialization or educational function). In a developing country, mass media is also expected to play an additional role to mobilize public support for national development.


Media also performs a role in subtly shaping perceptions and moulding public opinion by means of this symbolism. The use of media effectively helps citizens to engage meaningfully with the media in an active and a critical manner.

Despite the diversity in cultures and traditions that prevails throughout India, there is an underlying similarity in the social structure. This contributes to a unity within this diversity.


Here is a brief explanation of the existing Indian social structure:


1. Caste system: The caste system forms the basic foundation of Indian society. According to this system, there are four major castes - the Brahmins, the Kshatriyas, the Vaishyas and the Sudras. The caste system started off as a division of labour. The Brahmins were the priests and teachers. In terms of hierarchy, Brahmins were considered the first caste. The Kshatriyas were the warriors, rulers and soldiers, Vaishyas included merchants and traders while the Sudras were responsible for all the menial labour in society. While it started off being merely an occupational division, the caste system assumed a hereditary nature resulting in discrimination and ill-treatment in the name of the lower castes. Untouchability is still practised in the Indian society, though the constitution does not permit it and has deemed it as a punishable offence. However, with growing literacy and economic progress such as urbanization there is an evident decline in the practice of the caste system.


2. Family: The family holds great importance in the Indian social structure. Joint families are a popular phenomenon in the Indian society. However with greater urbanization, and youth leaving home for better educational and employment opportunities, there is a growing trend towards nuclear family settings, especially in the cities.



3. Women: History shows that there have been many significant women figures in the social and political context of the country. However, there are several instances of atrocities against women including domestic violence and sexual abuse as by and large India has had a patriarchal set-up. The country also has an imbalanced sex ratio with relatively fewer girls as compared to boys. With an overtly male dominated structure, some parts of the country are infamous for female foeticide, infanticide and for denying the right to education to girls.


4. Men: Indian society is pre-dominantly patriarchal in nature. There is a strong desire prevalent in most families to have a male heir to carry forward the name of the family. Men are also officially designated as bread earners. However, there is an evolving trend towards women's active participation in the matters of the house and their financial independence because of progress and participation on the professional front.


This multi-tier Indian social set-up is both vibrant and complex. The social and cultural layers of this nation have strong indigenous traditions. However, the society is also reflective of cultural and social evolution. Mass media have been an integral part of this evolution.

Why media education?

Media rule our private sphere as much as our working life.

The technical facilities for multiplication, transfer and networking are gaining ever greater influence on the “natural” environment of young people and students; they are part of their reality, their world.

Education should accompany and encourage the children and adolescents in their relations to the world/reality.

Look at  how much we use media these days. See the way people are constantly communicating on their phones everywhere. You tweet. You send SMSes. You use your phone to get on facebook. there's what'sapp and pinterest. Yesterday I discovered my maid watching a video on her phone as she cut the vegetables in the kitchen!

It seems that we depend more and  more on the media to experience reality.

The share that the media have in our experience of the world or reality is constantly growing – a new dimension of reality has been created by the emergence of highly developed technologies.

Considering that a reflective encounter and discourse with realities is a fundamental part of the science of education, the conclusion is that media pedagogy should become a much more integrated part of pedagogy.

 Pedagogy must double as media pedagogy.


Media experience by way of language, images, drawings, books, theatre plays, etc. has indeed long contributed to shaping human reality.

 The sheer extent to which these media helped to form our reality/view of the world has, however, been virtually ignored in the teacher training system. The fact that and the means how “language” as a basic medium is instrumental in the establishment of reality, is only now entering subject-specific didactics. Similar considerations apply to the audio-visual media.


The process of mass communication through mass media has made it possible to transmit the same message to an infinite number of recipients over a geographical and/or temporal distance.
With this, the media open up opportunities for global communication, a cosmopolitan outlook and the on-going development of democracy, yet they also harbour the danger of greater manipulation.

The reality changed by and changing through the media is a challenge and an opportunity at the same time.

Within the meaning of media policy knowledge, media education is a discourse not only on the causes, effects and types of media communication, but also on the various interests which determine the choice and content of information and the method of its communication.

 So.....
Media Education is the process of teaching and learning about media.

It is about developing young people's critical and creative abilities when it comes to the media.

Media education should not be confused with educational technology or with educational media.

Being able to understand the media enables people to analyse, evaluate, and create messages in a wide variety of media, genres, and forms.

Education for media literacy often uses an inquiry-based pedagogic model that encourages people to ask questions about what they watch, hear, and read.

Media literacy education provides tools to help people critically analyse messages, offers opportunities for learners to broaden their experience of media, and helps them develop creative skills in making their own media messages.

So, Media education is about giving people the tools with which they can access, examine, and understand the ways in which media functions, and then enable them to participate in media, by constructing their own messages.

Critical analysis can include identifying author, purpose and point of view, examining construction techniques and genres, examining patterns of media representation, and detecting propaganda, censorship, and bias in news and public affairs programming (and the reasons for these). Media literacy education may explore how structural features—such as media ownership, or its funding model—affect the information presented.

Media education concerns all communication media and their combinations made possible by  what is called 'New Media'. These communication media are constituent parts of all texts, regardless of the technology:

 the word, printed/spoken, graphics, sound, stills and moving pictures.

 The New Media (including the Internet), being developments and combinations of the above modules, are essentially technologies that serve their distribution and have an effect on several social dimensions. Critical reflection on the possible effects is also included in media education.

What's Media Literacy?

You are literate. Right?
You are reading this blog, no?
That means you have the ability to recognise the English alphabet, form words, and know what these strings of words called sentences mean.

In other words, you are able to make sense of these strange shapes and derive meaning from them.

Today's information and entertainment technologies communicate to us through a powerful combination of words, images and sounds.
 As such we need to develop a wider set of literacy skills helping us to both comprehend the messages we receive, and to effectively utilize these tools to design and distribute our own messages.

Being literate in a media age requires critical thinking skills which empower us as we make decisions, whether in the classroom, the living room, the workplace, the board room or the voting booth.

In other words, in the world of today, you're not really literate if you cannot read the media.

Look at the world around you.
You are using a mobile phone. So does your sabzi-wallah, the tea-stall owner, and even the guy who comes to collect your garbage.
You surf the internet, watch movies, read newspapers, and books [hopefully], and use your thumbs to send and receive dozens of messages everyday.

Everyday, there seems to be new ways by which we access information and entertainment.

To become a successful student, responsible citizen, productive worker, or competent and conscientious consumer, individuals need to develop expertise with the increasingly sophisticated information and entertainment media that address us on a multi-sensory level, affecting the way we think, feel and behave.

Media literacy empowers people to be both critical thinkers and creative producers of an increasingly wide range of messages using image, language, and sound. It is the skilful application of literacy skills to media and technology messages. As communication technologies transform society, they impact our understanding of ourselves, our communities, and our diverse cultures, making media literacy an essential life skill for the 21st century.

This blog will help media students engage with certain aspects of their curriculum. Feel free to leave questions and comments, so that we can carry on this discussion.