Alumni Update: Abhishek Kumar
Abhishek Kumar (aka Abhishek Dev Narayan), a 2007 Inlaks Theatre Awardee, is an education specialist, researcher and theatre practitioner at Humana People to People India. He was recently awarded a senior fellowship by the Ministry of Culture, India in the field of Folk, Traditional & Indigenous Arts. Earlier he received the Tagore National Scholarship and Ford Fellowship to study at the University of London. He spends considerable time working with teachers and teacher educators in training them on education policy and philosophy and pedagogical techniques of arts-integrated education. He has directed and acted in about 20 plays including the recent ones 'One End of a Broken Thread' and ‘Five Letters’, and is the author of
‘Expression of Cultural Identity through Arts: South Asians in Contemporary Britain’ and ‘Cultural Practices of Traditional Philosophical Knowledge in Mithila’
We spoke with him about his work, learnings, interests and future plans.
Read on to know more.
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What attracted you to theatre in the first place?
I belong to a family of educators and artists. My parents were one of the pioneers in educating the community. They applied theatre in education with a focus on developing creativity, self-development, multiple perspectives, and empathy among the students. Having learnt from them and other teachers and practitioners, I perceived arts as a strong medium of education and as pedagogy to spark meaningful discourses and actions. I experienced the spirit of theatre and its impact on connecting with people. Throughout the journey, I tried to develop my expertise through my academic experiences as well as what I learnt through the various fellowships which enabled me to do work related to theatrical expressions and creative pedagogy. I published related papers and books on education, arts and culture. Having worked with artists, children, teachers, educators, education functionaries and communities, my present quest is the application of Arts and Creative-Critical Pedagogy in Education as well as the development of discursive theatre.
What does your work at Humana People to People India entail?
Currently, I am associated with a multi-national organization Humana People to People India (HPPI) as an Education Specialist, and with Indira Gandhi National Center for the Arts, Ministry of Culture, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Nalandaway Foundation, Yatri and Achhinjal as an Educator, Researcher and Theatre Director.
HPPI is the India chapter of the Humana People to People association working in 46 countries across 5 continents. The core concept of the education programs being implemented by HPPI is to build the capacity of the stakeholders and beneficiaries as well as to support the state as a knowledge partner in achieving the goal of quality universal lifelong education as envisaged in National Education Policy 2020 and global sustainable development goal. The underlying notion is that a practitioner needs continuous professional development to update and enhance the knowledge, skills, values and disposition; work efficiently; understand the context of work and changing scenarios; learn new techniques and strategies; get exposed to similar best practices across the sector and beyond; and so on. I also lead the teacher education programs developing a range of capacity-building interventions to capacitate the pre-service and in-service teachers, teacher educators and education functionaries under various programs in 15 states of the country including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and others.
You train teachers on pedagogical techniques of arts (theatre) in education as seen in the video. Can you tell us a bit more about the idea, method and more?
Arts is applicable for lifelong learning! There are some core elements of arts like consciousness, imagination, creative expressions, design thinking and creativity which nurture life skills, empathy and multiple intelligences, and facilitate multiple perspectives while providing a breathing space for introspections and reflections. In a classroom, all the mediums of arts can be applied whether visual, performing or literary arts i.e. poetry, story-telling, music, drama, mime, dance, puppetry, painting/craft, photo/video, other media and digital arts, etc. Throughout the process, a range of skill-sets for a teacher can be enhanced like arts-based pedagogy for subject-teaching and for life skills, developing an inclusive classroom, improving the teacher-student relationships as well as perspective building, etc. The children can develop their cognitive, affective and psychomotor skills including expression and creativity, the art of empathy, communication and comprehension skills, the synergy between senses, perception and psycho-physical responses, and so on.
In a nutshell, arts can be applied variedly whether as innovative pedagogical techniques or in understanding psychological aspects, aiding sensory-motor and life-skills development, creating democratic and inclusive classrooms, facilitating artistic expression or aesthetic awareness or in developing teaching-learning material (TLM). A related video on one of the techniques of arts - storytelling in verbal, visual and dramatic ways can be referred on this video.
Education specialist. Researcher. Theatre practitioner. Author. You wear many hats. How do you juggle these roles and how do they enrich you?
For me, all these roles are connected. They are different levels and dimensions of my work. I consider myself an artist, who observes the world, introspects and reflects through various ways, an educator who facilitates the learners to explore the world, a researcher, who delves deep into the affairs of the world and finds out the context, rationale and methods of his work. Let us take these two quotes from the legends–
“An unexamined life is not worth living”- Socrates
“The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence”- Rabindranath Tagore
An unexamined life is not worth living and also it may be mere imitation or becoming puppets if it is not self-examined. In the process of such inquiries, education becomes a broad and life-long opportunity. It is not restricted to giving information but gives us ample space to understand our existence and harmonizes our life. I find myself as an artist who breaks the fourth wall and becomes part of his audience- the participants of his work. As Aurobindo, the philosopher says, ‘‘Nothing can be taught’’ and ‘‘Nobody can teach’’ unless the learner is prepared to learn. My art is to go beyond the external connection with the audience. It is about doing some action. As Auguto Boal, the exponent of Theatre of Oppressed pedagogy says, “Theatre is a form of knowledge; it should and can also be a means of transforming society.”
What have been some of the learnings, challenges and high points of your professional journey so far?
For me, theatre is my consciousness which helped me get over my limitations. Going further, as obvious to the artists in our country, especially talking about the situation that existed 25 years back, there was no clear pathway for an individual to become a professional artist. I grew up with the legacy of theatre but it was hard to think of a career. After initial theatre practices at my parents’ Gurukul, in my school and college and during local/community events, I joined Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA). There, I performed many street plays in different localities and locations. That was the first high point when I experienced the impact and vastness of theatre. Living a character while performing closely and straight to the audience, looking into their eyes was something extraordinary. Later, I joined the extension program of National School of Drama. That was the second milestone when I came to know the world of theatre and the theatre of the world. The challenges were manifold when my parents passed away. The emotional crisis was something I found difficult to recover from, but their blessings helped me find my way. Scholarships and fellowships helped me overcome financial constraints and also helped me gain a global perspective, new approaches and direction of my work.
What would you like to explore going forward?
My present quest is the application of arts and creative-critical pedagogy in education as well as the development of discursive theatre. I work with various stakeholders. I would like to continue my work with community folk artists with whom I have worked on their content, styles, motifs to tell their stories in a modern context. Some of them are traditional women artists who broke certain social barriers with the help of their art. A few related videos can be seen here on these links, here and here. I would like to explore the discursive theatre using the elements of forum theatre further with them and other like-minded groups. The journey of my work in education will be continued. I am trying to explore an arts-based constructive, creative and critical pedagogical system in education. I work with teachers, children, teacher educators and education officials. Looking at the scale and intensity of the work, I position my thoughts and experiments aligned with the mainstream debate of education and have adopted the context of education for my artistic work and tried to assimilate that with the need of hour.
What advice would you give to a young person interested in theatre in India?
Theatre in India has many shades. We do not have a well-organised professional theatre the way we found in certain era of our history like classical, folk or other existing traditional commercial theatre like Jatra, Nach and others or a few urban theatre activities etc. However, there are other aspects of theatre which have huge potential to create sustainable means for a budding theatre artist. Film, television and fashion industries are the biggest commercial employers for which an artist has to prepare based on the industry-specific norms. ‘Theatre in education’ or Arts-integrated learning is a progressive idea widespread in many countries, relatively new to formal education in India. It opens up a large scope for the artist who wants to contribute to society and thereby fulfils the needs of our educational goals of providing constructive life-long education to every citizen. The artist has to prepare him/herself accordingly and the state has to implement the related provisions of National Education Policy 2020. National School of Drama has established a few institutions to prepare theatre-in-education facilitators. Arts has another domain of work in development and other sectors, for instance art therapy implied in medical treatment, community theatre, discursive theatre like theatre of the oppressed to work on social issues or psychological healing through playback theatre, etc. A number of organisations in India have started implementing that. Various institutions across the world provide educational and financial support to avail that, and a few have emerged in India as well.
