Conversations in Drama
Conceptualized, supervised, and led by Maitri Gopalakrishna with the support of the Museum of Art & Photography
Conversations in Drama is a series of five drama-based community mental healthcare groups that were conducted in 2022. The premise of these groups was to offer promotive mental healthcare and support in the context of the arts and community to those who are in situations of stress/distress based on marginalised identities in intersection with alienating and isolating life circumstances.
While drama was the primary methodology in all the groups. The groups all integrated multiple art forms and creative expressions into their process based on the needs and the affinities of the participants and facilitators. The aim was to create a space for dialogue (in-action) around the stress/distress that the groups are dealing with, building networks and resources and helping participants connect with their own sense of agency. By doing this we also wanted to understand what it meant to set up and facilitate such groups, what partnerships needed to be built, how participants (and by extension those in their spheres of influence) benefitted and how care was experienced, expressed and languaged. We developed a research strand to look particularly at questions of experience, expression and language across these five communities.
'Kalaji Nagara' is the documentation of the project on film made by Debosmita Dam and Maitri Gopalakrishna.
Using the forms of contemporary shadow puppetry, stop motion animation and a rich sound design; this film explores the journey of five groups with particular stressors as they came together to care for each other’s well being through drama and the arts. Based on elements from the unique nature and processes of each of the groups, the film observes the nature of care and community, and how they are articulated and expressed. Through the film, we hope to interrogate these questions.
What does it mean to have care communities in the city?
What are the unique stressors and lived realities of individuals that make these spaces critical?
How can the arts offer a context for such communities to develop and support one another?
What does it mean to use the arts to let a language of care emerge?
How is such work intentionally facilitated?
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Kalaji Nagara will premier at the opening of the 'Mindcapes: In the company of others' on 20 April 2023 at the Museum of Art & Photography.
Led by Padmalatha Ravi and Sri Vamsi Matta, The Blue Line project combined drama, other art forms and literature to explore the lived experiences of caste-marginalised students in educational institutions and aimed to sustain the conversation by building a support network for the participants.
Suicide among teens and young adults has been on the rise. Caste-based alienation and discrimination as a cause for mental health distress and suicidality is rarely acknowledged but is very much a reality dalit students have to live with.
The Blue Line project used drama, other art forms and literature to explore the lived experiences of the students and respond to their emergent needs. The impetus was on finding and building connections and sustainable support systems within the caste-marginalised student community.
Facilitated by Aruna M and Yuthika Subramanyan, Banni, Seri was an arts-based project for neurodivergent children and their caregivers that attempted to unpack the theme of inclusivity in public spaces.
India is profoundly good at hiding away that which is different or non-normative. Neurodivergence is no different. Children go to “special” schools. Visits to parks or other public spaces are incredibly stressful and can also lead to microaggression and targeting from others.
Banni seri (‘Come gather’ in Kannada) was designed as an arts-based project focused on inclusivity in public spaces through storytelling, visual arts, puppets, songs, movement and theatre games. This was a group process for neurodivergent children and their caregivers, conducted over four months in Cubbon Park in Bengaluru from June through October, 2022.
Facilitated by Arjun Khera, Shilok Mukkati and Sannidhi Surop, Let's talk about sex baby! employed drama as a tool to enable queer folks to explore their bodies and desires in a safe and non-judgemental space.
The project aimed at taking conversations about sex out of clinics, counselling and other closed spaces into an open, supportive and creative community group. By facilitating supportive community spaces, the project attempted to create opportunities for queer people to explore themes of empathy, belonging and acceptance of our bodies and desires.
The project invited stories from queer people about their experiences with sex and sexual health. Stories were shared anonymously with facilitators, out of which twelve stories were chosen to be enacted in the drama group.
Facilitated by Pallavi Chander and Mohini Singh, Manasu Maathu (‘Heart Conversations’ in Kannada) was a closed-group workshop series conducted for families, friends and carers of loved ones with mental health concerns or mental illness who wished to use creative processes to help hold and unpack some of these aspects in a group.
Caring for someone challenged with a mental health condition or illness can be difficult at times. It can bring up a lot of emotions and physical reactions for the caregivers - excessive crying, guilt, shame, anger, melancholy and isolation. Sometimes it can be hard to find the right words to articulate the overwhelming feeling, especially when one has to hold it all in to stay calm and present in other areas of life.
Facilitated by Madhu Shukla and Vijji Chari, The Magic Shop was a psychodrama and storytelling-based process for caregivers of older adults and geriatric care which explored how listening to and the sharing of stories can re-source internal resources, deepen resilience, and become a safe space for regulating unexpressed emotions.
The increase in the number of nuclear families means that the older adults in the family are left home on their own, often without formal support and care. Few medical facilities are dedicated exclusively to geriatric care; creating pressure and stress on the caregivers staff and/or more often on the caregiving family members, who frequently themselves are above 60 years of age - leading to the caregiving burden.
In a series of sessions, participants had an opportunity to share and exchange personal stories around themes of resilience, strength, desires and resourcefulness.