Project Work
Third Eye Local Knowledge and Skills Activist Group
Batticaloa, Sri Lanka
Established in 2002, Third Eye practice the reformulation of the traditional Tamil theatre form of Kooththu, and engage in participatory, applied and street theatre forms with children and youth. As their name suggests, Third Eye Local Knowledge and Skills Activist Group employ theatre and arts as a medium for re-invigorating and celebrating the local knowledge, skills and traditions of villages in Batticaloa. The members include adults who are part of the kooththu theatre group and youth who are involved in creating performance pieces, facilitating children's drama and games workshops and organising children's performances. Different group members coordinate and specialise in different activities depending upon their skills and training. The group's methodology emphasises locally initiated and organized approaches to the community's own issues in response to the ethnic conflict and the 2004 tsunami. Within the context of the conflict and tsunami, Third Eye also write and publish poetry, and organise other events and workshops around issues like gender based violence and awareness training.
Jana Karaliya
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Jana Karaliya (Theatre of the People) is a group of Sinhalese and Tamil youth trained by Sinhalese actors from the south of Sri Lanka. The members live and travel together with a fully operational mobile theatre, performing devised and scripted plays in both languages. The performances incorporate folk and contemporary theatre forms and the group's plays range from Indian and Russian scripts to self-devised pieces. Jana Karaliya believe the impact of their work lies in people experiencing this example of an ethnically mixed theatre that collaboratively and successfully live, travel and perform together. As a group their primary objective is to share this example and bring high-quality performance theatre to the rural population in Sri Lanka. They have performed in areas across Sri Lanka including Jaffna, Pollonaruwa and Galle.
Jana Karaliya also conduct educational theatre workshops for children and teachers using participatory and applied theatre. They believe that through working in schools and, crucially, training teachers can develop peace and spirituality in the next generation. Jana Karaliya maintains that training one teacher in theatre in education is like working with hundreds of children.
Active Theatre Movement
Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Active Theatre Movement (ATM) is primarily a children's theatre organisation. Their members include young people from Jaffna trained as performers, and they showcase children's plays in schools and communities in Jaffna, as well as other parts of the island. ATM's work is focused on the touring children's plays around schools in the Jaffna district, with the primary objective of entertaining children. They consider theatre an important element of children's development and recreation, and their commitment to reach the children of Jaffna has been strengthened by the infrastructural and psychosocial impact of the war as well as the effects of the 2004 tsunami.
However, ATM does other social theatre work as well. They began as a smaller group in 2002 touring a landmine education awareness play sponsored by UNICEF to re-settled communities after the ceasefire. They also perform village-level street theatre productions related to social development, for example gender issues, and the ethnic conflict, such as internal displacement.
Centre for Performing Arts
Jaffna, Sri Lanka
Centre for Performing Arts (CPA) is an arts and theatre organisation that has a 40 year history of using a variety of theatre forms with children and youth. Their mission is to facilitate young peoples' sharing of their culture through theatre and art, as a way to build friendships and strengthen inter-community relationships. Working with both Tamil groups and Sinhala groups, CPA celebrate multi-religious and cultural festivals that seek to bring together members from different ethnic groups to develop friendships across communities. CPA further their goal of peace and reconciliation through arts and theatre peace camps that explore these issues using participatory theatre and games. In order to exhibit commonalities across language and community, CPA also create large scale 'mimed' plays that use epic stories and are performed by mixed ethnic groups to local audiences.
