by Shaili Sathyu – Artistic Director, Gillo Theatre Repertory, Mumbai, India Yes, the title of this essay may sound a bit preposterous! But before I continue, I would like to say that this project is more for the individual growth of each artist involved in the production, rather than some larger service to society or reference to the politics of the arts. Background For a few years now I have been thinking about what it means to be an ‘urban’ theatre practitioner. One is bombarded with accusations from within and without, regarding one’s identity, background, aesthetic core, training and traditions. Stuck …

by Radu Apostol The process of education by means of Educational Theater is an extension of the way education is conducted within the household. A classroom during a class of educational theater strongly resembles the floor in “the children’s room”; in fact, it resembles the floor in any room where there are children. There are no predetermined “better seats” or “worse seats”, there are no insecurities induced by “the front desk” or “the back desk”, because encounters leading to a performance scene can occur anywhere within this space, anywhere the imagination of the participants takes them. There is no teacher’s …

by Mihaela Michailov Janusz Korczak revolutionized 20th century pedagogy by laying the emphasis on personalized education – understanding the subjectivity of every child, who thus became the social creator of a world he/she had to be allowed to experience; without being judged, without having their tiniest of mistakes scrutinized, without having their opinions minimized, without being asked to “play nice” for the amusement of those around. The child is not a small, playful entertainer who does a balancing act on the high-wire of adult demands in order to satisfy the competitive ego of the latter. The child is not a …