Presenter: Mr. Aanand Chabukswar - a theater facilitator and therapist with 25 years of experience as a writer-actor-director. He has spent 19 years along with a group of senior practitioners under the aegis of WCCL Foundation, a Pune-based NGO that has pioneered action research and training of ABT (arts-based therapy) model in India. As a theater facilitator and therapist, Aanand has worked with a range of groups across India, Europe, and SE Asia. He has designed and teaches the Applied Theater module at the Center for Performing Arts, Savitribai Phule Pune University. He has been an expert faculty on ‘Arts in Education’ in Teachers’ Training for University Grants Commission (UGC). Aanand’s current production in performance, titled “Parting with Words”, explores world poetry to understand and reconcile with ‘death and dying’. His research and writings have been published internationally, with Routledge in the UK/USA and many other prestigious journals. He is trained in Dramatherapy (UK) and Commedia dell’Arte (Italian theater of masks and movement), besides degrees in Literature, Economics, and International Trade.
Hosted by: Center for Exchange at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Synopsis: This session traversed the creative and healing potential of theater, with a glance at its ‘applied’ possibilities. Theater/drama is a metaphor that can help us reflect and learn creativity. It is an accessible, easy, and joyous way to engage while finding solutions and alternatives. Often, the place and importance of art forms like theater in our daily life may not be apparent at all, but it indeed is very significant — as an aesthetic and functional endeavor that brings awareness and creative power when it is most needed.
The session also focussed on various aspects of creativity in theater and daily life through an informal, interactive, and contemplative design.
Webinar held on: 05 September 2020
