Partition of India (1947) is part of our lives – part of our psyche, our personalities. It is the defining moment for the two states – India and Pakistan – more so for Pakistan, because it was born as a result of partition.
Much has been written, and a lot more is being written (or would be written) from historical, and political perspectives on Partition, but very little is written, recorded, or shared from human perspective. Theatre Wallay, in collaboration with Ithaca College, is going to make one small attempt. We are not worried about being politically correct, but would try our best to bring out the varied human perspectives. Keep your fingers crossed.
‘Voices of Partition’ is an attempt to record without any bias as many human stories as possible about a very important period in our history. These stories would, then, be woven into a theatrical performance to be held in Islamabad, Lahore, and USA.
Following are the phases of the project:
1st Phase: Workshop for Theatre Wallay team is held to take them through the whole process of collecting stories, analyzing them, writing monologues, and giving a performance before selected audiences.
2nd Phase: Theatre Wallay team visits various universities and works with their students to collect stories
3rd Phase: A script for performance is developed after reading and thoroughly analyzing the collected stories.
4th Phase: The rehearsals are organized, and performances in Pakistan – Islamabad and Lahore – are held.
5th Phase: Theatre Wallay goes to USA to perform in Ithaca College.
Sub- Projects:
- Another team records all the above-mentioned activities, and produces a documentary covering all the stages of the project – from inception to final performance.
- All the collected stories are published in both Urdu and English*
*Note: Publication of book is not yet financially covered. We are looking for people/institutions who would be willing to finance the publication of the collected stories.