Shades of a life, brought on stage

Color of Trans, a play by the Panmai Theatre Group about the life of a transgender person, is being staged this month

The group is crowdsourcing their entire production.

It is an unwritten rule among the transgender community that, while using a public toilet, they will not talk until they leave the premises.

“A trans-woman will have a masculine voice, and talking in a toilet would raise eyebrows and make people uncomfortable. This is one of the many nuances of our day-to-day life that we want people to understand,” says ‘Living Smile’ Vidya, a theatre artiste.

It is these nuances that make up ‘Color of Trans’, a theatre production by the Panmai Theatre Group, which they will perform at Spaces on September 27 and 28. It will feature seven different ‘episodes’ in the life of a transgender person.

Using this production, the team is hoping to inspire people from the transgender community to come together and express themselves through art. “In the U.K., there are a number of different outlets for people from the LGBT community to produce art that expresses how they feel. Right now, many transgender persons dabble in arts, whether it is theatre, photography, painting, music or dance; but very few take it up seriously,” she said.

To kickstart the project, Vidya and her roommate, Angel Glady, started the theatre group. Vidya has been trained in the U.K. in theatre and Angel has performed with the Tuida theatre group in South Korea. They both gave up regular jobs in order to take up acting as a career. For help with the third character, a trans-man, they have enrolled the help of theatre artiste Vinodhini Vaidynathan.

The entire production is being crowdsourced. “Since the production is taking place at Spaces, there is no rental for the auditorium, but we did not realise how expensive a production would be,” Angel said.

The team has received help from a few people for the design and printing of their invitations, the photography and music. Currently, they are looking for funds for the lighting, sets, sound and special effects. “We still need Rs. 40,000. We are selling tickets for our show to generate funds,” she said.

The Panmai theatre group can be reached at livsmile@gmail.com.