For 15 years Yours Truly Theater has not only gone beyond the confines of proscenium theatre to experiment with different formats such as interactive, improv, and playback theatre, but also used the stage to effect social change. Their performance venues have been unique, ranging from Bangalore central prison, labour camps to inside a dry well, a moving train, blind schools and Karnataka Spastic society, among others. Yours Truly has won a number of accolades, including being rated as the top 20 groups in India by Broadway World.
Therefore, their theatre festival Truly 15, which celebrates the fifteenth year of Yours Truly, is different from other festivals as they focus on the importance of theatre as a tool of change in the social and corporate sectors.
Nandini Rao, award-winning artistic director of Yours Truly Theater, says: “I completed my fine arts from Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath. I know the power of art. I have also worked in advertising in which being creative is as important as being able to connect to what the audience wants. All this has informed my work. We make theatre entertaining so that the audience will be able to relate. We found interactive theatre creative. It also talks about the here and now without compromising on the quality of theatre.”
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Nandini stresses that theatre is not a niche art form, but one that reaches out to people of all sections of society.
“We often get to hear that we want more people to come to theatre. The moot question, however, is what are we as theatre practitioners offering that people should come to us? As an artiste, I have a responsibility to make theatre more relevant and accessible and to innovate,” says Nandini who has been featured as Young Artists Changing the Course of Theatre in India and winner of Innovation in Training & Development - Asia’s Excellence Award in Leadership
Truly 15 features a range of informative sessions and panel discussions. “In the first session, we have theatre for change and cause, theatre for children, theatre in education, and theatre in therapy. Yours Truly has performed 30 to 35 shows in hospitals, hospices, and in prison. I was initially excited to do theatre for a cause and felt we were giving back to the community. But I soon realised that was a myth. We learnt much more from the community. I think for actors performing in theatre for cause is a great training because it grounds the actor, and they understand human values,” says Nandini.
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The session from 3 pm to 5 pm is Life Unscripted (LifeU) and there will be theatre-based training and performances, role-playing for learning and development, leadership training, human resource and compliance, and gender and diversity.
The sessions are relevant for professionals interested in learning how theatre can be applied as a communication and training tool within HR, L&D, Diversity & Inclusion, POSH, Compliance, Marketing and Communication. “Our corporate clients include Volvo, Bosch, Nokia, Infosys, Wipro, and many more,” says Nandini.
The festival will conclude with a gala evening event, which features performances such as Kannada Kavya Nataka Chilume , Mushaira theatre, playback theatre, and many more.
Truly 15 will be held on December 16 at the Indiranagar Sangeeth Sabha. Tickets on bookmyshow.com.