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SANJH – theatre for change and creation – Islamabad, Pakistan

SANJH is an experimental theatre group, with commitment to exploring creative possibilities in traditional, classical and post modernistic theatrical schools.

Established in 1985, by a handful of young, enterprising and ingenious individuals, who felt that an oppressive regime had plugged all societal ventilators, SANJH has championed the cause of portraying serious social issues in creative formats and heralded the revival of a thought provoking, original, local and people oriented theatre. With more than a dozen of plays and scores of national and international performances during the last fifteen years, SANJH is proud of their existence today.

Objectives

SANJH is a purely non-commercial and non-profit theatre group. Neither it is driven by popular demand, nor it caters to box office requirements. On social issues, SANJH does not ascribe to the exotic solutions. SANJH believes that local issues need local solutions.

SANJH believes that the evolution of contemporary world in the shape of a global village, liberalization, political, democratic, and media ascendancy has triggered complex social problems for transitional societies, where the pace of technological change is not in harmony with the rhythm of economic and social transformation. These developments have led to disturb the equilibrium of social relationships in such societies. The imbalance, in turn, has helped crop up a range of new social problems, while augmenting those that already existed.

SANJH recognize that our society is victim of trends that it does not understand. Feudally oriented economic structure has perpetuated fatalism and ignorance. To cotton it on, rampant illiteracy has restrained the proliferation of enlightenment and emancipation. In the midst of this scenario, SANJH is not an adversary advocate. It does not believe in destructive criticism and creating chaos and confusion.

SANJH maintains that ours is a unique society. Although in a state of decadence, yet this society has sustained some of its much-cherished social institutions. It is custodian of a value system that guarantees economic protection to family, respect and care for elders and with our masses are vibrant, dynamic and rational. SANJH believes in the inherent dynamism of its people, who can help change, the shape of things, provided they are educated and mobilized.

In this backdrop, SANJH aims at mobilizing people to rise from their indolence and change their outlook for creating a society in the image of social justice, equity, enlightenment and tolerance.

Artistic Philosophy

SANJH presents performances that involve those alienated from the theatrical process while exposing the cultural community to new possibilities. Simultaneously it aspires to expand the vocabulary of performance, to redefine the parameters of expression, and to skewer today’s most pressing issues while having a jolly good laugh at everyone’s expense.

SANJH challenges the assumption that “entertainment” is a passive activity. We believe that there is something spiritual in the art of live performance: a collective experience of performers and audience, and an interchange of human energy that cannot be found in other media. We seek to explore new modalities, challenge ourselves and our audience, question the unquestionable, flap the unflappable, speak the unspeakable, redefine the avant-garde, diversify DC culture, and provide an alternative to cultural constipation. We hope every one will journey with us as we fight for the survival and redefinition of performance in the twenty-first century.

In the conception and execution of each new work, SANJH seeks to invent, discover, and explore ways of involving a variety of artistic disciplines and new technologies in the theater experience. SANJH believes that a major strength of live performance and public art comes from interaction with the members of the community in which it is created and presented. As a result, sometime SANJH develops scripts from interviews with the public, and all productions involve audience participation. In the past fourteen years SANJH has pioneered the use of new theatrical formats involving walk-mans, infrared-transmitted sound, 3-D slides, fax machines, sensor-tripped animation, video projectors, slide projectors, interactive video, portable multi-channel radio transmission, and interactive public art projects. We receive input from every imaginable source, from gossip to media to original recordings. Our scripts are rooted in interviews with the public – from the world-renowned to your next-door neighbour. We transform this raw material through the creative process, and then transmit it back to you through a performance event.

SANJH presents work from the highly influential, largely overlooked traditions of avant-garde, post-modern and experimental theatre, and has found a new audience for a new era. SANJH productions have included original scripts, unseen and under-appreciated works, revivals from the avant-garde cannon, and post-modern works.

The SANJH experience can take the shape of a dance, a monologue, a stage play, a street performance, a slideshow, a play in circle, a pantomime, black comedy, or a musical feature.

In traditional theatres, you stay in one place while the scenery changes in front of you. SANJH turns this idea inside out by acting on the principle that “all the world’s a stage.” We have created theatrical adventures in such unlikely venues as high schools, factories, community centres, NGO offices, labour colonies, street corners, squares, and once before the parliament house. Our environment is our theatre.

Major Performances

MACHINE In 1985, SANJH staged Safdar Hashmi’s play ‘Machine’. The play highlights the exploitative
nature of our oppressive industrial structure that instils a kind of docility and submissiveness among its workers, while prospering on their productivity and reducing them to the position of mechanical accessories. It was one of the first plays staged in Pakistan without relying on the traditional theatrical aids like set, props and a stage. Since its first presentation, the play has been staged on numerous occasions.

TAMASHA Evolved through a discussion and directed by Rana Fawad, this play was performed for the labors of Ittehad Chemicals Ltd on international Labour Day in 1987.

ANOKHI BAAT BI MUMKIN HAE (Exception of the Rule) Adapted from Brecht’s popular play ‘Exception of the Rule’, the play was directed by Rashid-Ur-Rehman AEKTA (Unity)

AEKTA is a story of the emotional and cultural commonalties among the people in the various regions in Pakistan. It reinforces the wisdom of collective struggle for progress.

BANDIWAN (The Prisoner) ‘Bandiwan’ based on a Punjabi novel, written by Fakhar Zaman, and banned during the military regime in 1980′s. This novel was adapted for stage by Ahmed Salim. The play depicts the struggle and defiance of those who dare to fight against the oppressive system.

Besides the defiance of political workers against tyranny the play shows how state operates i.e. police, judiciary and other institution succumb to the pressures of autocrat rulers and become tools of suppression.

The play also depicts how finer arts, voices of sanity and traditions in music are trampled by the dictators who use the name of religion to legitimise their actions. The play also highlights the role of clergy as a collaborator of despots. Since its first performance in 1989, Bandiwan has had ten performances, including the one at National Theatre Festival, Islamabad and another at the Eighth Cairo International Festival, Egypt.

BIWI BI KAM KURTI HAE (Wife Also Works) In Pakistan, as per the latest figures available, the economic activity rate for women was 19 percent, against 88 percent for men in 1993. At administrative and managerial position, women’s occupancy is 3 percent, while their share in the Parliament is 2 percent.

In Pakistan, the very definition of ‘economic activity’ is erratic. Consequently, the figures for women’s participation in total work force does not reflect a true picture of the on ground reality. This hidden dimension of the issue of the participation of women in labor force renders the statistics on the economic contribution of female youth in Pakistan irrelevant, as much of the work performed by women remains unrecognised and unvalued.

This play highlights what the female specific surveys and micro-studies report i.e. a high female participation rate but a restricted definition of economic activity down playing the work of women being counted towards economic activity. The intellectuals believe that economic empowerment of women is a catalytic factor in enhancing their social status. However, the very journey to economic empowerment is not very comfortable. There are disincentives encapsulated in social perceptions, attitudes and behaviour that deter women to even think of embarking upon this journey. But those women who have courage, drive and a will to endure and present a bold face to these disincentives prevail in the final analysis and achieve a honourable livelihood for them and their families.

MONTAGE Montage, as the title suggests, is an assemblage of various representative characters identified with contemporaneous time in local settings. MONTAGE has its substantive focus on betrayal. It is an elegy on the eclipse of innate creativity, a portrayal of dreams lost in the nasty city sounds. It is about the high wire dancers who kick and balance like silk horses stepped in time. Montage reflects how a loveless life can be, when shadows follow you and night does not set you free. The play agitates against the roller coaster that makes you dizzy and cotton candy that makes you sick. MONTAGE revolves around an interactive monologue with multi-media and clip art punctuated in between the sequences. The play is an avant garde production. It has sights and sounds that militate against the set pattern and forms.

MONTAGE is the harbinger of change in Pakistan’s theatre scene. It rebels against the stero-typedness, and monotony prevailing in para theatre. It consciously shuns cliché and creates its own idioms and similes.

MONTAGE was first staged in National Experimental Theatre Festival, June 1998, Islamabad. In August 1998, Pakistan National Council of the Arts sent a number of plays for participation in the 10th Cairo International Theatre Festival, 1998. We feel proud to mention that the cultural ministry of Egypt selected MONTAGE as the only play to represent Pakistan at the festival. The international audience at the 10th Cairo International Theatre Festival, 1998, widely appreciated the play for the novelty of its format, richness of its contents and experimentation in multi-media.

SANJH again presented this play for the participants of Safdar Hashmi Peace workshop organized by Journalist Resource Center, in January 1999 at Lahore. In March 1999, the play was staged during the Safdar Mir Theatre Festival.

THAR BASI (The Resident of Thar) No other desert in the world but Thar has the rare distinction of raring more than a dozen romantic tales, Momal Ranu, Dadu Chunaesur, Sassi Punnoo, Omar Marvi are a few to name. Thar is certainly one of the thickly populated deserts in the world. Thar is the only region with the largest number of religious minorities in Pakistan.

Thar Basi -a play in circle- touches upon the issues relating to the socio-economic issues faced by these minority groups in Thar. Knitted around a well-researched script, the play presents thoughtful analysis of issues of racial discrimination, feudalism, inter and intra-clan rivalry, gender and religious intolerance in Thar. 1996 the play was first staged in Islamabad.

GHAN CHAKKAR (Vicious Circle) Focussing on the issue of child abuse, Ghan Chakkar – a street play- highlights the hidden and unfolded issue of child sexual abuse. It unfolds the trauma, the insensitivity of law, the stigma associated with the victim, the apathetic role of the media and indifference of the society towards the crime.

Highlighting an issue of such grave importance becomes a doleful exercise in a society that does not find it decent to merely make mention about such a cardinal sin. To offset this constraint, where language falls short of supposedly decent diction, the play proceeds by employing a combination of gestures and movements. The play was staged before the Parliament House in Islamabad on international day of the Rights of Child in 1999.

KUB TUK (How Long) The play unveiled the issue of domestic violence against women. Recent public disclosure of violence against Pakistani women within the confines of their homes, have sent tremors in civil society. We understand that domestic violence is sanctioned neither by our religion nor by our socio-cultural values. However, frustration arising out of economic grievances and social perceptions borne out of contradictory behaviour patterns led to incidences of domestic violence. Nevertheless, certainly, this explanation does not justify domestic violence.

This a street play helped its audience understand the underlying causes of frustration in society and portrayed how the trauma of violence affects the spirit and personality of the abused women. The play carved out the social role of women as envisaged in our religion. It aimed at breaking the stereotyped conception of masculinity and manliness as something manifested in suppressing women

This street play knitted around a sensitive theme focused on mobilising the masses to understand the status of women and their rights. The play had a positive and encouraging tone. Instead of steering the story towards a meaningless, out of context and superficial critique of social conditions, the play catalysed advocacy for change.

For the first time, it was staged during the celebrations of International women’s day in Islamabad in 1998. The second performance of the play was made on the closing ceremony of South Asia Gender Training Network meeting held in Islamabad in March 1999.

Dance Performances

Since 1989 to date SANJH has performed folk dances at the Canadian High Commission, American center, French Cultural Center and Lok Virsa, Islamabad.

Theatre Workshops

In 1990-91, SANJH arranged training sessions for volunteers of BAEDARI- an Islamabad based NGO working for gender and development.

SANJH also helped BAEDARI in organizing its own theatre group
In 1995-98, SANJH in collaboration with Association for the Development of Human Resources organized theatre workshops for development workers and NGO’s activists.
In 1996, SANJH cooperated with Family planning Association of Pakistan, Islamabad office, in organizing a theatre workshop and an amateur performance.
In 1997-98, SANJH in collaboration with Association for the Development of Human Resources organized theatre workshops for development workers and NGO’s activists.

Training in the art of Street theatre

SANJH offers training in the following areas of street theatre:

Philosophy of theatre

What is theatre?

Various schools of theatre

Concept & meanings of street theatre

Origins of street theatre

Nature of street theatre

Street theatre- a tool for social mobilization

Advocacy in street theatre

Presentation formats in street theatre

Presentation techniques in street theatre

Development of script

Choosing a theme for a street play

Writing script for a street play

Collecting thought contents for scripts

Selection of language of performance

Principles of communication for street audience

Evolving a script around a presentation format/technique

Mechanising a script

Developing an innovative ‘set’ for street plays

Arranging set and props for street plays

Use of props in street plays

Make up requirements for street plays

Significance of movement in street plays

Body warming exercises

Body movement exercises

Use of choreography in theatre

Stage movements

Use of gestures

Role of lights & shadows on stage

Light effects

Determining lighting requirements

Placing lights on stage

Role of vocals in street plays

Vocal exercises

How to speak on stage

Dialogue delivery

Role of sound and silence

Role of folk music in street plays

Managing a street play

Developing a team for a street performance

Assigning responsibilities for a street responsibilities

Assessing budgetary requirements

Finding funding sources

How to find volunteers

Casting of performers

Script reading sessions

Rehearsals

Selection of audience

Selection of venue

Pre and post publicity for a street play

Contact SANJH by email.