DramaQueen

09/12/2022

Drama Queen is SEVEN today. It’s a sombre-at -seven type of year. This year was marked by going deeper rather than further. But anchoring those deep roots also takes you the distance, OVER TIME.
Drama Queen made a MASSIVE show with the students of Srishti School of Art Design and Technology at their NEW UNDER CONSTRUCTION BUILDING. From digital work straight into the DUST and concrete.

And an INTIMATE show at NCBS ARCHIVES with two lovely interns. [Yes DQ had interns!]
LONELY HEARTS CLUB had its closing shows and received the love that it deserves.
Performing and producing for GOBSQUAD was all kinds of joyous. As was playing a HAMLET soliloquy in Marathi for Science Gallery.

We chartered into new pedagogic territories— designing a course on digital documentary theatre — WOULD I LIE TO YOU? Where 20 liars graduated with great aplomb.

Today we finished a new Manual for the Archives (meant to be performed.🤞🏾)which we will RELEASE soon. NO it’s not YET another artist book, its a self critical text written by an archive user.

The last few months of this year have been devoted to reflection and writing and consolidating the work made over the last many years.

It’s hard to ignore the cacophony all around, but the quiet is a necessity, especially if you want to listen carefully to murmurs and whispers, to delicate practices.
Drama Queen’s practice now more than ever needs silences, without the chatter and for you to CAREFULLY LISTEN, only then will you find our work.
To STILLNESS and LISTENING—Drama Queen’s seventh is here.

28/09/2021

15/09/2021

Posted • In the last year and half of isolation and social distancing, we have been inspired by our friends at to think about desire and distance and knowing ourselves through the Zoom lens.

We're so excited to announce our upcoming collaboration with our partner Anuja Ghosalkar and Drama Queen, in the shape of a live online show about erotica, intimacy and desire. A unique performance, carrying the vulnerabilities and strengths of our non-performers - who share their journeys of intimacy for the first time. This show furthers our excursions into Documentary Theatre, becoming our first production within the format.

.behaveing .inc

15/09/2021

October 1st Lonely Hearts Club—directing 9 interdisciplinary artists sharing their stories of the erotic, pleasure & desire.
When do we stop peering at online personas? What are the lines of pleasure? What if a camera if left on all the time? Will you continue to watch? If the person doesn’t know you are watching?

28/06/2021

Speaking of theatre and digitality with Reema Gowalla on the inauguration of her online journal, Theatre Room Talks. I speak of a need to create an ecosystem of theatre writers, journalists, academics, funders and audiences to understand theatre and digitality and it cannot be the responsibility of a performance maker alone. And how we cannot go back to the theatre unchanged. The collective trauma and grief has altered us forever.

The Bengaluru-based documentary theatre-maker features in chapter one of TheatreRoom’s talk series on ‘theatre and digitality’

07/06/2021

Presenting my work on *Artists & Archives* the closing panel of the International Archives Week 2021 organised by .link with two other wonderful artists (Afrah Shafiq)& Pallavi Paul. Moderated by (Arnika Ahldag)

••The archival community is incredibly accepting & supportive of my practice. For much of my performances, I think of as an archival gestures. One of the mainstays of Documentary Theatre for me, is the archive. ••
[To provoke someone I playfully said, “I think archives are sexy”. I do believe that! ]

••Looking forward to this conversation••
June 13th | 6 pm | Registration link https://www.milli.link/iaw2021/

20/05/2021

Since March I’ve been teaching an extended arts program independently to children between 6 & 15. It’s not just a performance course but we work with writing (specially humour), technology, sound. (This is NOT a pitch with 11 children it’s full)——
Yesterday my collaborators over the last few years & spoke to the children about analogue formats AND a virtual reality project I had co-conceived & co-curated in December 2020 with Kai Tuchmann. Ali & Gavati designed that space.

The dissemination of this Virtual Reality project was cut short for several reasons.

But it lives on in quiet, intimate ways. The resistance that adults show towards digital performances, children certainly embrace it and show us what it means to be open, to jump into spaces that we don’t truly understand, to even enjoy ambiguity and feel your way through things—so much to learn from them. Virtual Reality in many forms is here to stay, because the younger people enjoy it, understand it.

P.S. a lot or them say they prefer online school but miss outdoor sports. They say that the teachers don’t get tech so it’s easy to fool them and eat or sleep during class. *Try Alt F-4 during a zoom meeting*🤭

P.P.S. Working with this age group is the most satisfying and they’ve been feeling the stress of the past few weeks immensely. 💜

15/04/2021

Listen, the photos speak~my ONLINE children's workshop for Ranga Shankara's annual Summer Express.

*I embraced the digital language for performance making early last year~as a means of survival.

** I am excited to see institutions like engaging with it. It doesn't replace the "live" but the debates have to go beyond the easy binaries of "live" “or” digital. I've been thinking and reflecting on this over a year now. There is an in-between space that can be explored and it is exciting, specially with children.

DM me to enrol your children now--it will be enjoyable, I promise.

06/02/2021

The archive is an integral aspect of documentary theatre practice. And we are thrilled to be invited to be part of this critical and fresh new archival endeavour. A brief note framing the projects~~Stories Wandering Out!

The session is on February 28th 5 p.m. on Google Meets as part of Constructing Personal Archives: Finale

Do consider supporting this vital new initiative by Curating for Culture

Donate here: https://www.ketto.org/fundraiser/constructing-personal-archives-finale-publication?utm_medium=whatsappShare&utm_content=eb5ccfbdbc424ae5be7451187ef17f98&shby=1&utm_source=external_Ketto&utm_campaign=constructing-personal-archives-finale-publication