First Drop Theatre

First Drop Theatre We are here to weave magic with the said, the unsaid and the infinite layers that lie in between.

First Drop Theatre is a Bangalore-based Applied Theatre company that conducts customized workshops and training programs for corporates, health care institutes and educational institutions using the tools of Improv, Applied Theatre and Expressive Arts. We use the power of theatre and arts to help people tap in deeper to their inner strengths, develop stronger awareness of the self and surroundings, and discover their true potential.

First Drop Theatre brings to you - Feel. Experience. Design. - A Workshop on 'Design Thinking through Applied Theatre'An...
12/06/2026

First Drop Theatre brings to you - Feel. Experience. Design. - A Workshop on 'Design Thinking through Applied Theatre'

An experiential, full-day workshop where Design Thinking is not taught - it is lived. Step into the lives behind real-world problems through performance, movement, and live human interaction. Question assumptions. Build human-centred solutions. Test them live in the room.

No slides. No sticky notes.

* July 4th, 2026
* 9:00 am – 6:00 pm
* Atta Galatta, Indiranagar, Bangalore
* Limited to 15 participants

Register on Townscript - https://tinyurl.com/3469epna or contact +91 9886185008
Link in bio

Pricing:
Early Bird (first 5 seats) - ₹6,000
Regular - ₹7,500

More about the Workshop:
Design Thinking is a human-centred approach to problem-solving - one that starts not with solutions, but with genuine understanding of the people the problem affects. Originally developed in the world of product and service design, it is now used across industries, organisations, and social contexts to tackle everything from workplace culture to public policy.

The workshop takes participants through all five stages of Design Thinking - Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test - using the tools of Applied Theatre. Every stage is experienced in the body, not just understood in the mind.

Who is this for?
Professionals, practitioners, and curious thinkers who work with people, systems, or ideas - and want a deeper, more honest way of understanding the problems they solve. Useful for product managers, HR and L&D professionals, designers, consultants, educators, social sector workers, facilitators, and anyone who has sat through one too many sticky-note sessions and wanted something more real.
No prior knowledge of Design Thinking or theatre required. Curiosity is the only prerequisite.

About the Facilitator:
Bejoy Balagopal - Co-founder of First Drop Theatre. Part engineer, part storyteller, long-time theatre practitioner. 25 years navigating corporate and creative worlds. Holds a Professional Certificate in Design Thinking and Innovation with AI from IIM Kozhikode.

To know more:
[email protected]
+91 98861 85008

Bangalore. Mumbai. Delhi. Kolkata. Chennai.Five cities, five rooms - of sales teams, Regional Managers, and National Sa...
11/06/2026

Bangalore. Mumbai. Delhi. Kolkata. Chennai.

Five cities, five rooms - of sales teams, Regional Managers, and National Sales Managers - and a learning session that doesn't use a single slide.

Over the past few weeks, First Drop Theatre worked with PPG Asian Paints's Refinish business to bring an workshop to their teams across the country. The themes we explored together included decision-making and the courage it takes, without defensiveness, giving and receiving , trusting your , and being genuinely accepting of approaches and perspectives different from your own.

We didn't use frameworks to explore these. We used theatre. Scenes played out in front of the room; participants watched, discussed what they saw, and themselves became part of it.

It was wonderful to see the participants open up - to own their own patterns, identify opportunities for self-improvement, reflect on their own work and life situations, and above all, be ready to be vulnerable.

The feedback we received was generous. But what we carry with us is the quality of conversation in those rooms: the honesty, the moments of quiet recognition, and senior leaders reflecting openly alongside their teams. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens when an organisation genuinely wants its people to grow and creates the space for it.

Thank you PPG Asian Paints Refinish for the trust. And to every participant who showed up with openness - this work only works because of you.

On 14th May, we at First Drop Change Foundation were invited to perform 'Reunion' at the Disability Futures Conference a...
02/06/2026

On 14th May, we at First Drop Change Foundation were invited to perform 'Reunion' at the Disability Futures Conference at , Bangalore - a play built from the lived experiences of people with disabilities and performed by actors with disabilities - followed by a Playback Theatre based reflective intervention with conference participants.

What unfolded after the performance stayed with us deeply. Participants began sharing not only responses to the play, but also their own encounters with visibility, dependence, exclusion, care, access, discomfort, and dignity. The Playback Theatre space became a way of collectively reflecting rather than merely discussing disability awareness.

Reunion has earlier been performed for public audiences at the Bangalore International Centre and at a conference in IIT Madras. One of the aspects we hold closely in the production is accessibility - the performance includes live audio description and ISL interpretation.

Then on 15th May, Uma Shankar Veeravalli and Radhika presented our paper: Playback Theatre as a Participatory Approach to Disability Awareness, documenting our journey of using Playback Theatre in disability awareness work over the last six years.

We came out of the presentation feeling genuinely energized by how thoughtfully the work was received. More than appreciation, it was the questions during the panel discussion - around participation, representation, access, and embodied dialogue - that stayed with us. They opened newer possibilities and pushed us to think deeper about where this work can continue to grow.

Grateful for spaces where theatre, research, dialogue, and lived experience can meet each other meaningfully.

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Over three days in Ranchi in early May, Radhika had the privilege of facilitating an Applied Theatre workshop with TB Ch...
26/05/2026

Over three days in Ranchi in early May, Radhika had the privilege of facilitating an Applied Theatre workshop with TB Champions and project teams as part of the TB-Samvaadam Project.

What stayed with her most was how quickly the space shifted from 'training' to collective reflection. Through Image Theatre, participants explored experiences of TB stigma not only through words, but through the body, gesture, silence, and shared images. Some of the strongest moments emerged from what could not easily be spoken.

A special moment was when participants named the process 'आकृति Theatre', making the methodology their own within their cultural context.
Watching TB Champions gradually step into facilitation themselves was deeply encouraging. It was a reminder that meaningful community engagement is not just about awareness, but about creating spaces where people can collectively see, feel, and reimagine their realities.
Grateful to collaborate with Dr. Meena Putturaj (Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru), Anuradha Panda (Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health (REACH), and the wider TB-Samvaadam team on this important process.


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is a friendship app for people with disabilities and their caregivers. We at First Drop Theatre had the opportunity to ...
28/04/2026

is a friendship app for people with disabilities and their caregivers. We at First Drop Theatre had the opportunity to partner with them for an online Playback Theatre performance around the theme Where You Belong.

The performance was held by First Drop Theatre’s Playback Theatre team of actors with disabilities, and the audience included app community members, caregivers, and allies. It turned out to be an unforgettable evening.
The room was virtual, but what unfolded felt deeply intimate.
People on the autism spectrum, people with disabilities, those living with ADHD, people navigating mental health struggles, and family caregivers came together to share stories of belonging and of being denied it.
Stories of wanting friendship deeply, but never quite being given the chance. Of standing at the edge of conversations and feeling the invisible wall that keeps you outside. Of people interacting more with your condition than with you. Of being included, but only performatively.

There were also stories of simple joys, of how one good friend can feel extraordinary, and of learning to live with loneliness while refusing to accept it as the only way.
Parents spoke of the early shock of abandonment that often follows diagnosis, and of the long journey of finding strength.

Playback Theatre held these stories with care. We need stronger systems of access, inclusion, and support but there is also something each of us can do right now: be a little kinder, a little less assumptive, a little more human.
Sometimes, belonging begins there.
We are grateful to Buddy Up, and to everyone who came, shared, trusted, and stayed.

ISL interpreter Maria Goretti

Last weekend, we at First Drop Theatre, held a Playback Theatre performance centered on the theme of 'Coming Out'.It was...
24/04/2026

Last weekend, we at First Drop Theatre, held a Playback Theatre performance centered on the theme of 'Coming Out'.

It was an evening of rage, relief, celebration, and belonging.

The rage over even the need to ‘come out’, the liberated feeling akin to the lifting off a veil. The relief after years of bottling up in some cases while for some others it’s the search for what relief really means in different contexts. The strange loneliness of feeling like you don’t belong anywhere: initially, because you feel different from everyone around you, and later, because you wonder if you are “different enough” to belong. Stories of gender, of roles inherited and performed for decades. Of Wanting to dance, but being held down by norms. Of receiving unfiltered love in unexpected ways.

Through Playback Theatre, we held these stories and gave them form - to breathe and be witnessed.

After we concluded the performance, the audience stayed behind...to talk to us and to each other, to share a smile and a tear. Each of us in that room reflected on how it was not just about being accepted by others but also about finally arriving home to oneself.

Pictures by studios

queerstories community belonging

First Drop Theatre was invited to perform Playback Theatre as part of the Dances of Universal Peace Retreat at Fireflies...
20/04/2026

First Drop Theatre was invited to perform Playback Theatre as part of the Dances of Universal Peace Retreat at Fireflies Intercultural Centre. The beautiful retreat was a perfect setting for a show themed on Inner Exploration & Transformations along Life’s journey.

Finding the strength for a complete personal and professional reset at life’s lowest ebb, emerging wiser from a burst bubble, using a crisis to discover one’s risk-taking capacity, adopting simple advice as a mantra to change one’s response to situations, making a major lifestyle decision for the love of a four-legged joy, shifting from bravado to acknowledging one’s own worry - these were some of the life nuggets the audience shared. Peeling back layers of their personality, ready to connect with their vulnerability, the stories journeyed and carried everyone in the room along.

When does that shift happen deep down? What do we transform into? Is there an end to this journey of change? Whom do we want as a witness? These are beautiful questions that beckon deeply etched emotions.
..We reflect on a day filled with warmth, joy, tears, and smiles - a day of journeys deep within and beyond.

Last weekend, we at First Drop Theatre, performed Playback Theatre inside a residential society. For the people who live...
06/04/2026

Last weekend, we at First Drop Theatre, performed Playback Theatre inside a residential society. For the people who live there. Neighbours.
The theme we held was simple, and quietly enormous: reaching out.

When did you reach out to someone, and what made you do it? When did someone reach out to you and what did it mean? What stops us from knocking on a door we've walked past a hundred times?

What followed was one of those evenings that reminds you why this work matters.
The mishap in the building that shook everyone and the ache afterwards. The wish that someone had knocked sooner. The wish that they themselves had knocked. The person you love, really love, and the distance that somehow lives between you anyway. Not the distance of cities or years. The distance of the same house, the same corridor, the same life. The words you rehearse and swallow. I am here. I am right here. The hands that almost met.

People who share walls, elevators, parking lots, festival sounds, cooking smells. Who are, in some deep sense, already woven into each other's lives and yet carry things alone that they needn't carry alone.

Playback Theatre did what it does. It held these stories, gave them form, gave them witness, gave them back. And something in the room shifted. Quietly. The way things shift when people realise they are not the only ones carrying something.

After the performance, some of the residents didn't leave.
They stayed. For chai. And in that unhurried space - no stage, no cloths, just people - we found ourselves knowing each other a little more. Seamlessly. The way you do when the performance has already done the work of opening something.

Community is not a building. It's not a gate or a society name or a WhatsApp group. It's what happens when people decide - even once, even briefly - to turn toward each other.
We are grateful to everyone who came, who shared, who stayed.
And to the stories that were waiting to be told.

First Drop Theatre presents 'Coming Out' - A Playback Theatre performance on 18th April, 5:30 pm at AttaGalatta, Indiran...
04/04/2026

First Drop Theatre presents 'Coming Out' - A Playback Theatre performance on 18th April, 5:30 pm at AttaGalatta, Indiranagar.

Tickets - https://shorturl.at/BQGoQ or UPI pay to 9886185008@ptsbi
Ticket link in bio

About the show:
"To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Coming out is not about a single door we walk through; it is a series of thresholds. It is the quiet whisper to a mirror, the trembling phone call to a parent, the first time we hold a hand in public, or the constant negotiation of safety and pride. Whether your story is one of liberation, ongoing struggle, or the beautiful "chosen family" you found along the way - we are here to hold it.

Come share your lived experiences of identity, gender, and sexuality. Watch as our actors transform your courage and your truth into a living, breathing performance, on-the-spot.

Playback Theatre - Magical, creative, thought-provoking, reflective, unscripted...just like life A format of improvisational, interactive theatre where the actors use their creativity and skill, to present an engaging and sensitive retelling of the audience member`s story, on-the-spot.
Poster Description - Features a vibrant rainbow path winding through an open, off-white space. A small silhouette of a person stands on a sharp cliff edge, looking out toward the path as it bridges the void. The bold title "COMING OUT" curves along the rainbow.

Address

2nd Floor, 18 Davis Road, Richards Town/ Cooke Town
Bangalore
560084

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