June 1998. Editor: Anjum Katyal
The 'believed-in' theatre Richard Schechner posits as a category emergent in international theatre is premised on the actual: the performers actually belonging to the community the theatre speaks about, the subject matter or content actually being part of the performer's reality and experience. The audience watching traditional theatre knows that it is being 'acted' by 'actors'. Those watching 'believed-in theatre', on the other hand, participate in another kind of sharing -they experience the power of testimony: this is my pain, my life, my history. This aspect of 'believed-in theatre' is also what makes it political and activist: yoking the politics of identity to performance, voicing experience from an 'authentic' position of belonging, challenging normative perceptions from an 'insider's' perspective, demanding a renegotiation of the accepted relationship with the audience. 'Believed-in' theatre in India exists, and has done so for a while, albeit without the label and the theorization. As a result of its being discussed within certain parameters, one begins to recognize its existence, its motivations, and its kinship with similar expressions nationally and internationally.
CONTENTS Believed-in-Theatre : An Excerpt Richard Schechner A World Where AND is more Important than OR A discussion with Richard Schechner Responses Makarand Sathe, Richard Schechner 'Coming out with Music': Building a Gay Community Vikram Iyengar Inside Gayland Rajesh Talwar The Mylaralinga Tradition S. A. Krishnaiah, M. N. Venkatesh Theatre in Politics/Politics in Theatre Bhaskar Chandavarkar 'We didn't have any other Life than the Theatre' B. Jayshree 'This is a Play that Kicks Society in the Guts' An interview with B. Jayshree A Space for Theatre: Prithvi Theatre festival Sameera Iyengar 'Making a Thinking Dancer' An interview with Narendra Sharma Theatre Log The Action Players' 25th year Asom Ranga Katha's Theatre Workshop Donga Satteiah: An adaption of Charandas Chor Theatre Workshop for the Tribals of Telengana Download the complete issue here