You and me theatre: the joy of theatre

We set out to discover what it means to live in the moment and explore our potentials and possibilities as human beings when we decided to head to a unique experience on 6th March 2021. This was our first ever experiment of integrating theatre in the life of a software organisation. At Kuliza (a software company founded in 2006 with the purpose to collaborate on building value for society and community through technology innovation), we have always believed in value creation through collaboration and what better medium then theatre to understand self and others and get better at teamwork.

The workshop was organised by Youandme theatre at Vyoma Art Space in J. P. Nagar, Bangalore by Rajashree SR, a seasoned actress on stage and screen in collaboration with Sharath Parvathavani, who is a Playwright, Screenwriter (NYFA) and Director. You can find more about them at the following link : http://youandmetheatre.com/

To Live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all. It was only in the theatre that I lived. — Oscar Wilde

The workshop explored different dimensions of our life starting from the space that we live in, personalities that surround us and at the same time building awareness of our voice and body through fun interactive games, drama and role play.

Space Awareness

As soon as we entered Vyoma, we were transported to a different world, leaving the city traffic and our day to day worries behind us. We got an immersive experience which started with exploration of the space with a treasure hunt. It got us out of our comfort zone and we ended up exploring every single nook, corner and crevice of the space.

Empathy Walk

After we had explored the outer world through treasure hunt, we were then taken on an inner journey through an Empathy Walk conducted by Rajashree in her mesmerising voice. Aided by her powerful voice and our own imagination we were transported into the different stages of our life, our childhood, memories of our vacations, walking on pebbles, thorns and cloud. This was meditative and it helped quieten our minds and ready to explore our inner self.

Personality Traits

We came to the next phase of the program where we started exploration of the emotional world of people by understanding the DISC theory, which centers on four personality types of Dominant, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. The whole concept was enacted through drama where different characters played the role of Dom, Infi, Stead and Comp. It was easy to understand the role of behaviour in our daily interactions when it was beautifully enacted through real life situations. This left us with much food for thought on how to get better at understanding the psychological world of people around us. This is a good start in the direction of understanding people.

Voice and Body Awareness

We were made to do some exercises to open up our voice and played games that taught us to communicate through body language. We were being prepared to role play and showcase our understanding of the concept of DISC on stage. I would say this was not an easy part because I believe that to enact something means that we have truly understood it.

In the end we were divided into four different teams and we created a five-minute skit where we showcased on stage the different personality types and their interaction in a real-life situation. This was our tribute to human endeavour since time immemorial to understand why we do what we do.

I would like to sum up the learning from the theatre workshop in the words of C.G. Jung:

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”