Jammu :Natrang- the premier professional performing arts institution of the state of Jammu & Kashmir brings a new concept Forum theatre to Jammu through an International Theatre workshop being conducted by Ms. Devika Ranjan who has come all way from Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA to conduct a theatre workshop at Natrang Studio Theatre Jammu. This workshop which is currently in progress in Natrang will conclude on Sunday 17th of July, 2016 where Natrang actors will perform forum plays about issues that are prevalent in Jammu. After viewing the plays, the audience will have the opportunity to offer and test their own ideas on how to solve the conflict. Giving details about this new concept being introduced in Jammu by Natrang, the Director Natrang Balwant Thakur informed that Forum theatre uses drama to create dialogue and conversation within a community. By presenting a play that depicts conflicts that are relevant to the society, forum theatre allows the audience to literally step into the play. Through this interactive environment, the audience turn from spectators into spect-actors, providing solutions to the problems that they see in their daily lives. Forum theatre is a part of Theatre of the Oppressed, an international dramatic tool founded by Augusto Boal in 1950s in Brazil. All such new experimental initiatives of Natrang are aimed at exposing the Natrang actors to the varied kinds of approaches the world theatre has devised and also to equip them with multiple devises of theatre.
