IAPAR’s play on violence as seen by children to be performed in Spain

International Association for Performing Arts and Research’s (IAPAR) play, ‘The Balancing Act’, will now be performed in Spain. They have been invited to be part of the 35th World Congress of International Theatre Institute (ITI), an affiliate NGO of UNESCO, in Segovia from 14th to 22nd July.  

This play is a part of an ongoing 'Performance As Research' project looking at violence and fear as experienced by young children. It has been designed and directed by Vidyanidhee Vanarase (Prasad), the founder of IAPAR.  The play focuses on violence as seen and experienced by young people.

The Congress will be attended by more than 80 member countries of the International Theatre Institute. The festival will feature performances from nine countries, namely Switzerland, China, Slovenia, Bangladesh, South Africa, Spain, Philippines, USA and India. IAPAR is the only Indian institution invited for the festival.   

“Children's creative urge has been nourished through different cultural activities to a large extent. As part of the festivities, they have access to different craft materials, handle forms and get to know the ideas. Children's fresh outlook, a sense of natural justice and a capacity for innovative improvisations provides a whole new dimension into learning the rational as well as emotive elements of culture, which are significant,” explains Vidyanidhee Vanarase. 

In India, children's activities are regarded incidental, but nobody grudges their joy while engaging in the seemingly silly activities. “If we use them as the handle for the new process, the fantasy may hold an invitation to grow and develop,” he said.  

“International Association for Performing Arts and Research is a network of Artists and Arts Professionals seeking to exchange ideas, increase opportunity within the arts community and connect the people within it. It is a primarily an important forum to interact with foreign artistes, with seminars, symposiums etc. 

Vidyanidhee attended this congress in 2014 and decided to set up India Centre. “My primary concern was that many things happen at a global level and the idea is to open the Indian performing arts to these kind of projects, disseminate the information and spread it across the country.” 

The play's original version was performed in March 2014, with a different ensemble of actors, which later was revived with the newer cast including Aditi Venkateshwaran, Anushka Vaze, Amrut Samak, Nikhil Gadgil and Tanmayee Ambekar.

“The Balancing Act is a play in gibberish. This play looks at violence as seen and experienced by young children. Today, young people see violence almost everywhere. It starts with their journey to school. Simple things like crossing the street has become a stressful activity and then they have to deal with studies, unfriendly pedagogies and peer pressure. With the pressures of ‘development’ and ‘modern life’, they live in a nuclear family. Most of the times, both the parents are working professionals and they don’t have sufficient time for their children,” explains Aditi Venkateshwaran, an actor in the play.  

“The questions raised in this play seem to apply to many of the struggles of a whole generation, no matter the age. With the play ’The Balancing Act', we are trying to explore violence and abuse as seen and experienced by children in their day to day life,” explains Amrut Samak.  

Till now, the play has been staged 22 times, including shows at prestigious festivals like the Colombo International Theatre Festival 2014, Kala Academy (Goa-2015) and Kala Ghoda Festival Mumbai 2017.