NIREEKSHA-WOMEN'S TECHNICAL THEATRE

[padmanabha]

“DO NOT CURSE THE DARKNESS, LIGHT A CANDLE” goes the saying. Similarly Nireeksha is like a lamp for women who want to find their space in theatre This is what one felt during the ten day long Women’s Technical Theatre Workshop held at Vylopilli Bhawan recently.
Nireeksha was formed in 1999, to create a niche for expression because there was a felt need for a segment where woman’s creative energies could be shaped. What prompted the C V Sudhi to form such a group?
Says C V Sudhi “It is understood from our experience that if we want women’s theatre to produce plays that highlight women’s issues and women’s voices, we need not only women script writers and actors but also stage setters, costume designers, etc. Take any art form. It is dominated by men. Only the acting part is left to women and the director would decide what should be presented. It is their attitude and approach that is conveyed. That is what we see today in the mainstream theatre. But I strongly felt that what the women had to convey was never given priority. That was the genesis of Nireeksha.”
On earlier occasions it was acting that was the focus of our workshops, but to get a total command over a production we need women trained in aspects other than acting, scripting or direction. There was need to train in lighting, set design and costumes. Hence this Workshop has paid attention to these inputs in the context of theatre.
In the National School of Drama, the technical aspects are part of the curriculum and the students work together. Once they are out of the Institution, only men chose the technical side. Women have no space to experiment. Aspiring women technicians have to work under men. Still for women mobility is a problem. She cannot work at odd hours though she is willing to. We cannot ignore the reality, she stressed, elaborating her point.
The work of Nireeksha is threefold. They are Performance, Expressions and Representations. In Performance we equip women for theatre. “Expressions” is the women’s platform for her innovations in various art forms like music and paintings. Through “Representations” we conduct workshops and seminars and our intention is to publish the results. In this particular workshop, we trained the women for lighting of the stage, designing of masks, costumes, and sets and we had the light designer of repute V Ramamurti leading the camp.
The. ten day workshop which concluded on 24 May had 15 participants, all of them with a genuiene interest in theatre. Three girls from Attapadi who were members of the earlier Nireeksha workshop in Attapadi had come for the present one too. “They belong to the Irular community and when it comes to giving a dynamism to physical aspects of theatre the participation of such groups can be extremely rewarding for all the participants, the synergy giving new meanings and modes of narration.

Having worked with Nadika a tribal group from Attappadi, and among the Tsunami-affected in Karunagapalli, Sudhi adds that the experience aided in improving their own understanding of performance possibilities.
“We were taught that “Body is the powerful medium.” We worked with the physically challenged at the Cheshire Home where the emotions of such characters were reflected in the movement of the wheel chairs,” so there was one more revelation and through it a major learning experience.
CV Sudhi and Rajarajeswari who have over the years taken Nireeksha to the remotest corners of the state and thereby taken performance spaces beyond the conventional have also imbibed a lot from each experience. A total theatre production by women is their dream project which will mean the coming of age for their group.