A special bus will set out from Mumbai, winding its way through the Khandala ghat, spending a few days at Kamshet and then heading to Pune — its final destination for this month. What’s so special about the bus? For one, its name is Natak Bus and it’s occupied by the team members of Gillo Repertory Theatre. The team members are bringing along ‘ The Story Quilt’ and ‘Mobile Library’, with which they hope to bond with children living in the rural and semi-urban areas of Pune. The Gillo Repertoy Theatre was founded in 2009-10 in Mumbai and over one decade they have been primarily working in Theatre for Young Audiences (TYA), including an audience of children between the ages of 1 and 18 years.
REACHING OUT
“We have been consciously trying to reach out to a wider audience and also make our shows more inclusive. Therefore, in 2012 we launched our initiative ‘Making Theatre Accessible’, inviting children from undeserved backgrounds into theatre. To widen the reach of our work to children in rural and semi-urban areas as well, in 2017 we went on a road trip in a bus — a Natak Bus, across Karnataka, taking plays and workshops to places outside of metros, especially rural areas. After a very fulfilling and enlightening tour, we expanded the Gillo on the Go project to two states in 2018-19, Maharashtra and Karnataka. We are now entering the third year of this project and our Natak Bus shall revisit most of the places that were a part of the project over the past two years,” says Shaili Sathyu, artistic director of Gillo.
In Pune, they have worked with Jidnyasa Learning Centre, Kothrud Vanasthali Rural Development Centre, Door Step School, Swadhar — Institute for Development of Women and Children.
“It’s always nice to go back to schools and meet the children with whom we interacted earlier. Even if the children don’t remember the exact play or the story they heard, the bond is there. It’s a lot more fun to develop that bond because these children have grown, advanced in their classes, and sometimes we feel that this exposure has given them a little more self-confidence. A new kind of collaboration occurs,” says Abir Patwardhan, Gillo trustee.
STORIES, BOOKS AND A LOT MORE
For the touring theatre, the Gillo team has lined up four elements — performances, workshops for kids and teachers, artists-in-dialogue sessions and a mobile library. Giving us more details, Patwardhan says, “Most of our plays are in more than one language. For this trip, we will be performing Captain Coconut and The Case of the Missing Bananas. The play is based on a book and this time we have translated it into Marathi. Other set of performances include The Story Quilt, where we have asked all our artists to develop solo pieces. These pieces are usually based on a story they have liked or they have improvised on. Some of them are silent, some are action with objects, with music. We have a total of six pieces and depending on the amount of time we have, we do two or three.”
The performances are followed by a workshop, where the students interact, talking about the play, what they feel, what they understand. “We would like to expose the children to the books that are written for them, just as we bring theatre, which has been created exclusively for them, at their doorstep. In our mobile library, we have many books in Hindi, Marathi and a few in English. Most of them are illustrated, so we tell the kids that even if they don’t understand the language, look at the pictures. Hopefully, when they grow up, they will look for a book,” he adds.
A NEW STAGE
Patwardhan, who does production design, believes that the travels, exchanges with local artists and theatre groups, is valuable learning for the Gillo team. “If we don’t travel, we will end up interacting with urban audiences and performing on a city stage. Out there, we are dealing with new faces, questions, insights. Our skills are sharpened,” he says.
Whenever the group collaborates with local artists, they work on different sets of exercises — getting the performers to share a memory, anecdote, story, poem. “Getting a book that you enjoyed reading or sharing a memory is the start of engagement. Everybody has something that they can start relating with and thus the ice is broken. We are enabling people and organisations to develop a regular calendar of theatre and arts-based activities round the year,” says Patwardhan.