This weekend will see the Courtyard host the Reading Room, presented by Anuja Ghosalkar as part of a documentary theatre experience. Anuja Ghosalkar is an actor, writer, director and founder of city-based theatre group Drama Queen.
At the Reading Room, participants will read out letters they’ve brought along — either ones they have written or received. According to Anuja, the purpose of reading letters aloud is to share the diverse worlds that unfold during narration.
“However, there is a bit of a twist — you don’t end up reading your own letter, but somebody else’s,” says Anuja. “The idea is to gather archive materials, personal narratives and little stories in order to challenge the state narrative.”
“I also thought it was a way for people to reach out to their parents, open old trunks and connect with loved ones in a search for letters,” she adds.
Anuja feels there’s too much hierarchy between performer and audience in conventional theatre, and this was a way to break it. She believes when participants read these letters aloud, they experience what it is to be a performer; it is a chance for the audience to participate.
“This is my form of documentary theatre. We work with letters and real people,” says Anuja.
Anuja has realized people today have forgotten how to listen, read and write. “I’ve noticed people have forgotten how to handle paper,” she chuckles, recalling a Reading Room session in Mumbai, where a participant struggled to handle a letter written on butter paper.
“Not only have our writing and language skills deteriorated, but our relationship with material like pen and paper, has also been affected,” she says.
While the tone of the letters may vary in content from the mundane to the intimate, they offer glimpses of life as their authors knew it.
The letters shared at one Reading Room become part of archives. Correspondence is not limited to the personal, but also includes letters that are now available to the public, like Karl Marx’s letters to his wife Jenny.
As part of her project and research, Anuja also wants to hear what happens when a letter is written for personal communication versus one that is written for the public eye. “There is an interesting contrast there — between letters written by a mother or a leader. It is also a study in language,” she says, adding that she also encourages emails complete with emojis, “because that’s our reality today.”
Open to all above the age of 16, entry is by registration with only 15 seats per session. To register or for more information on sessions email drama0912queen@gmail.com or call 09886741331.⠀
Regular tickets at ₹ 300 are available at InstaMojo. On November 3 at 11.30 am and 5.30pm at The Courtyard, 105 KH Double Road, Shanti Nagar.
