Community Based Theatre -Brings a Change

: Association of ten people at one place does not necessarily form a group if they did not shared an unifying idea , said Girija Choudhury , the spirit behind creating at least 20 Folk Theatre Groups(FTG) under the Community Based Theatre(CBT) programme being supported by UNICEF in the district . These groups, which were formed in Koraput, Kotpad, Jeypore, Pottangi , Semiliguda and Dasamantpur blocks by taking members from the respective villages were empowered to identify their problems and issues , discuss and think in the community , prepare a script , convert them to theatre form and present before their very own people in the village , he added. .

It was altogether a different experience for these performers, as majority of them were the first timers in the field of any form of theatre . The feeling of being trusted by the community gave them more strength to move forward . They were able to speak and act in front of the people who were eager to listen to them , Sekhar Gouda , one of the performers from Maliguda village said .

Drawing lines from the popular street theatres that were used for spreading the messages of change, CBTs have come a long way to stay , Prabir Bose , the fame in the field of people’s theatre from Ambernath in Mumbai said . He was at Koraput to take forward CBT in to the masses with a sustainable approach . While the street theatre or even the stage shows , which were used as one way of dissemination process to spread the desired messages , CBT used the many fold interaction approach to maximize the realization of messages by the public especially in the rural pockets , he added.

CBT was more effective in the tribal communities of the district as they themselves were involved in the process, starting from making the script to using the tools of performance to present effectively before the masses , Ramachandra Gouda another performer from the village said .

For Bhavani Gouda and Manima Gouda , the two little girls from the village, it was more than a fun to be among the spectators of the theatre , with their elder brothers and sisters performing the role of students in the school like them . The topic to face the challenge of dropouts was chosen in the village by the group and was interesting and was more acceptable as was performed in their own language . This form of learning the messages had offered new opportunities to develop added dimensions to the life and now after the task of playing the role was over , they were committed to become the role players in real life to see that there were no drop outs in the village, Sekhar said .

And here CBT had won the advantage over other forms of theatre as people from the community become the communicators during the process and were prepared to take any form of challenges in the life , Mr.Pravir said .
(EOM)