Making Waves: Aarohan Street Theatre
Stories of Participatory Communication
for Social Change
TITLE: Aarohan Street Theatre
COUNTRY: Nepal
MAIN FOCUS: Health, environment
PLACE: Kathmandu
BENEFICIARIES: Urban and rural poor
PARTNERS: Network of 3 local drama groups
FUNDING: Ashoka, UNICEF, Plan International, Save the Children, United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA), Centre for International Studies and Cooperation, Canada (CECI), World Conservation Union (IUCN), Nepal Leprosy Trust, etc.
MEDIA: Street theatre
A village in the remote tarai, the plains of Nepal, an area most affected by leprosy. Two thousand men, women and children gather to see a street magician performing. People here love to see magicians; but, they don't know yet that this time the magician is an actor, and that a play on the topic of leprosy is about to start.
People hate and hide leprosy. If we told them before that what they are about to see is a play about leprosy, nobody would be there. They don't want to talk and see anything about leprosy. So, we used the character of a street magician to inform about the early symptoms of leprosy, and to tell people don't hide it, go to the health post, treat it. It is a disease that can be cured if you go to the health post and take the full course of treatment. It is a disease like any other disease.
The street magician walks into the village and announces his magic tours. The audience gathers immediately, they love to see the magic. Even women, who normally are not allowed to come out in public, take their places. The magician starts with simple tricks interacting with the audience.
Slowly another character is introduced in the show and the dramatic conflict begins. The whole story builds up around the street magician, but the message is gradually delivered throughout the play. At the end the magician's assistant finds a symptom of leprosy on himself. He tells the magician and both go to the health post. The magician speaks to the audience don't hide it, go to the health post. No magic can cure it, only medicine can.
The play ends but the audience doesn't leave. They embrace a long discussion about their situation in relation to leprosy. They have now realised that it was a play, and the actors inquire about their reactions. Believe me, 20 to 30 people in every performance showed white or brown patches on their body (or other symptoms) and wanted to know whether it was leprosy or not. Most of the audience wanted to learn more about symptoms and treatments.
The villagers offered tea and snacks to thank us. People approached and asked if we would perform in their nearby village. They wanted to make the arrangements; they would provide the food for the day of performance. They wouldn't take a no for an answer. Comments Sunil Pokharel, AAROHAN STREET THEATRE director.
In Nepalese language, aarohan means to climb, which is not surprising for a country that has a concentration of the highest mountains in the world. It also means to climb on a performing stage. Aarohan Street Theatre was established in 1982 though the street theatre activities really debuted in 1988. Before that, the group used to perform on-stage.
Their first street play about the problems of deaf people was called Aawaj (The Voice). A two-month workshop with deaf people was conducted; actors learned sign language, and some deaf people were invited in as actors. The first street play was performed in Dhulikhel, 3 kilometres outside of Kathmandu.
Many other plays were staged during the next years, among the most successful:
- Parcha (Pamphlet) A play about voting rights and democracy, calling the audience to participate in the first parliamentary elections.
- Sabadhan (Be Aware) A play about the relation of population and environment. It was performed over 350 times.
- Kalchakra (The Death Circle) A play about sanitation, based on a famous folk story of Nepal.
- Bishwas (The Faith) A play about leprosy with more than 450 performances so far.
Other topics include family planning, community development, health, poverty, forest conservation, drinking water, HIV/AIDS, education and human rights. Plays about corruption and political issues are more successful in the cities; while in the villages the plays about environment and leprosy are much more appreciated. Performances are usually staged for very large groups; as many as 2,500 to 3,000 people in the cities, 600 to 1,200 in hilly villages and around 1,000 to 2,000 in the tarai (the plains).
Aarohan performs street plays in more than 55 out of 75 districts of Nepal. The drama group has been more active in certain districts such as Dhanusha (mid tarai of Nepal), Kathmandu (capital city), Sunsari (eastern part of Nepal), Jumla (far western district)and Kaski (midwestern district).
For sometime the group also conducted a programme called Aarohan Shanibar (Shanibar means Saturday), which was addressed to the intellectual audience of Kathmandu. Performances took place every Saturday followed by discussions with the audience. Apart from staging plays at the community level, Aarohan Street Theatre has at times staged for television.
From 1988 to 1991, Sunil Pokharel, the Director of Aarohan, got a grant from Ashoka organisation to develop the project Social Use of Theatre. During three years, other than the regular theatre performances in Kathmandu he conducted drama workshops outside of the capital city, and developed his experiences in the social use of theatre.
Aarohan also provided training to NGOs so these institutions would use theatre for creation of awareness and for community participation. During these training sessions, villagers were involved. By 1990 Aarohan started to work with street children, familiarising them with the medium of theatre.
Workshops have been conducted in more than 40 districts, training local people, youth groups, children and community members, who select the subjects, and participate in the preparation of the plays, and participate as actors during the performances. After the workshop, the new community group remains established.
Nepalese people are hard to reach, especially outside of the Kathmandu Valley. Only about 70,000 receive television in the whole country, and the circulation of newspapers is insignificant. Only radio has been growing steadily over the years, since a handful of community radio stations started their operations.
By 1988 when Aarohan Street Theatre started, it was the time of the old political system, the Panchayat system. Freedom of expression was largely restricted and human rights were ignored. Only one political party existed, the one in power. The government was sensitive about theatre performances that would touch upon social and political issues. Instead of words, Aarohan used symbols and gestures during performances to refer to social and contemporary issues.
Street theatre was still a very new concept in Nepal, though it was already powerful in India. Still today, there is no drama school in Nepal. Sunil Pokharel studied psychology at Nepal's Tribhuvan University and later graduated in drama from the National School of Drama, New Delhi, India (1984 87), specialising in direction. He was the founder and still is the director of Aarohan Street Theatre
Aarohan Street Theatre has generally contributed to creating awareness among the population on a number of issues relating to the social, cultural and political environment. Some of its interventions target long-term changes (health, education), and some have an immediate effect on behavioural change. Here are a few examples:
In the late 1990s the government prepared to pass a new law allowing the police to make arrests for 9 days without a warrant. Political leaders, writers and artists lead a movement against it. Aarohan and Sarwanam, another drama group, performed street plays in Kathmandu, with messages so powerful that they influenced public opinion and eventually the government refrained from passing the new law.
The training of eleven local groups from three districts in tarai which are the most affected by leprosy, had enormous impact. More than one thousand performances of the play about leprosy were staged during 1999. Many people turned to the hospital for check-ups and treatment. The majority of patients asserted that they were prompted by the play.
Ten years before, Aarohan had conducted a two-month training workshop for street children and prepared a play with them based on their situation and stories. The street children performed in this play, which influenced people to change their perceptions about street children. For the last two years, these same street children have built an organisation named Jagaran ("creating awareness") to provide help to other street children. They set their goals, their programmes, and have an office.
With support from UNICEF, Aarohan conducted a communication project about sanitation in the mid tarai area of Nepal, inducing villagers to use latrines. Four local drama groups were trained to perform a play in the local language. After one year, the demand of subsidised materials to build latrines had multiplied five times in the areas where the play was performed.
Near 3 drama groups trained over the years by Aarohan are still active and they constitute an informal network with enormous potential for social change.
Three important traits are prominent in Aarohan Theatre's methodology: training of new groups, research for new plays and interaction, during and after performances.
The foremost feature is training, which provides the means to expand the communication activity over hundreds of villages that other wise couldn't be reached. By regularly forming new groups and sharing the experience of the socially oriented street theatre, Aarohan multiplies the impact of this innovative grassroots communication tool. Groups of 1 to 3 participants are trained during approximately 10 days. All elements of drama technique and history of theatre are built-in, including physical exercises, games, yoga, and certainly all aspects concerning the research and development of a play. The training is generally addressed to youth groups that can concentrate on it full time.
In Nepal, there is a tradition of open-air performances. Folk dances and drama plays are performed with participation from the community; street plays are easily accepted by the people. Aarohan's research for new plays builds on that tradition; it is at the same time straight forward and innovative. Sunil Pokharel and his team travel to the selected areas and get a sense of both local concerns and whatever local music or dramatic customs exist. He writes a play incorporating the dramatic traditions and the contemporary social setting.
Last but not least, discussions taken place after every performance and are the keys to establishing if the communication process has been successful so far. This process ensures that the messages have been rightly conveyed.
Initially, when the Aarohan Theatre team used to perform by themselves in remote areas of the country, the differences of language, culture and lifestyle was a real problem. But with the strategy of training local people the difficulty was solved. Still, the challenge is to get the right style and content for each community. And the risk is always present that the play turns out to be superficial or too heavy on propaganda.
Sunil Pokharel considers that another important issue his drama group faces is that often the development agencies sponsoring a play would like to see numerous messages crammed into that single play. He thinks there should be a balance of entertainment and education in every play. On the other hand, some actors have a tendency to push too many entertainment elements during performances thus weakening the messages.
An important challenge is the follow-up after performances which is seldom carried out because of limited resources. This should be done regularly by the concerned agencies, but isn't.
Logistic problems often hamper the quality of the work. Nepal is a hilly country and transportation is very limited to reach remote locations which demands extra effort from actors forced to walk for many days. Moreover, restricted funds to pay actors have prompted them to leave and look for other jobs.
Information for this chapter provided by Sunil Pokharel, Director of Aarohan Street Theatre
Comments
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I am a member of this group. The role of culture in good governance being thrust area to find out practical models, I feel that "Aarohan" might fit into the context.
Dr.ramakrishnan
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