See Something? Say Something!

“See Something? Say Something!” is a theatre project in four Indian cities – Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, and Jammu - that targets such anomalies in attitudes towards women’s entitlement to violence-free lives. Through the project we aim to throw the spotlight on existing issues of violence; affirm activist attempts to eliminate VAW in various parts of the world; and disseminate a “glocal” feminist approach in dealing with issues that sometimes get mired in communal or national chauvinism. We will employ various devices of participatory theatre to break down the hierarchy between actors and audiences and generate discussions. The larger objective is to buffer existing resistance to violence and encourage out of the box activist thinking.

The project is three pronged:

1. Gender/theater workshop: For twenty invited participants who would include seven

American center alumni and thirteen other change-makers. There would be the opportunity to discuss local issues of violence and, via role-play and forum, envision solutions.

2. Dramatized reading and enactment of the play SEVEN: Based on interviews conducted in 2007, the play SEVEN was created by seven award-winning playwrights:

Paula Cizmar, Catherine Filloux, Gail Kriegel, Carol K. Mack, Ruth Margraff, Anna Deveare Smith and Susan Yankowitz, in collaboration with Vital Voices Global

Partnership. Information about the international tour of SEVEN is available at www.sevenwomen.se. Pandies theatre performed SEVEN in Delhi in February 2013.

There will be a proscenium show of SEVEN in all four cities where alumni participants and trained actors from pandies’ theatre will read and perform life-stories of the seven activist women from Russia, Pakistan, Cambodia, Ireland, Nigeria, Afghanistan, and Guatemala. The show will be followed by a discussion on ways of acting against violence.

3. Street Play: A participatory play using local language and dialect in a public place on everyday violence women endure and ways of eliminating it.

The project is conceptualized and co-ordinated by Anuradha Marwah and directed by Sanjay Kumar from pandies theatre, New Delhi.

pandies’ theatre is in partnership with:

• Hedda Krausz Sjogren, an affiliate of the National Touring Theatre of Sweden and international producer of SEVEN

• Bilal Naqati, SPYM in New Delhi

• Ashima Kaul, Yakjah in Jammu

• Dr. V. Padma “Mangai” and her theater group in Chennai

• School of Cultural Studies and Media Media Studies, TISS, and pandies’ youth wing in Mumbai

The project is supported by American Center, New Delhi and The American Consulate, Chennai under the Alumni Program