About The Project
This research project focuses on investigating existing practices, patterns and problems, and lack thereof, in the context of safety in the performing arts from the lens of individual practitioners working with formal or quasi-formal theatre groups, collectives and institutions. It advocates for safety as a continuous, highly personalized practice that is neither a one-size-fits all approach nor a set of rigid never-evolving rules, but something that is contextual and personalized to the needs of the individual practitioner or the group.
We have made our agenda and area of research accessible and scalable at the same time so that it is practically feasible for us to survey, document, develop, implement and follow up with the subjects involved over the course of this project. Hence, we stick to personal (individual) safety only, and do not focus on infrastructural safety (as in the case of performing arts venues) or ecosystem safety (as in the case of regulatory bodies in the fields of arts and culture). We explore different aspects of safety for an individual practitioner in different scenarios and how theatre organisations (or the formal or quasi-formal workplaces of these practitioners) can build safety practices which incorporate different aspects around physical, mental, emotional, financial and legal safety of the individual.
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The Practice of Safety in the Performing Arts
A director's personal journey into understanding safety, consent and conduct in the rehearsal room, and by extension, for the performing arts in India.
Fill A Short Survey
We would appreciate 5 minutes of your time to tell us about safety in the context of your artistic practice through this short survey.
Research Objectives
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To investigate existing safety practices in urban contemporary theatre set up across 6 major state capitals taking theatre groups established post 1995 in each of these cities as case studies.
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To understand the extent of relevance and causation between taboo and hesitation around safety and the thread of guru-shishya relationship between directors and actors and/or theatre facilitators and participants in the Indian scenario.
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To explore tools, mechanisms and guidelines through which practitioners can assess, define and practice a culture of safety for their respective groups.
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The study relies on two modes of enquiry – firstly, documented case study interviews with contemporary theatre groups, collectives and institutions from 6 different cities and secondly, an in-depth questionnaire survey filled by 300 performing arts professionals across India – to inform the areas and scenarios of safety that are most critical to the real-world needs and functioning of the practitioners. With the help of extensive literature review of existing resources and research on the topic, we would also conduct safety sessions with controlled groups of practitioners to understand whether the above mechanisms to assess, define and implement safety in their respective groups are feasible or not.
The end outcome of this research supports the creation of a publicly accessible resource library containing safety checklists, guidelines, contracts and templates that can then be used by any practitioners and group in India to kickstart a conversation about safety for their practitioners and projects, as well as use these resources as a starting point to implement these practices in their immediate setting
Research Outcomes
The study should, ideally, have the immediate impact of removing the stigmatization around the conversation of having and maintaining safety standards in Indian performing arts. While the instituting of guidelines will take time and punitive measures against individuals or organizations who are found in violation of guidelines is not the remit of this study, the presence of a necessary conversation on consent and safety should be acknowledged and accepted. As the culture of this conversation grows and reaches more people it can be explored and discussed in more effective ways over time.
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The publishing of this research will encourage more companies to come forward with their specific cases to add to the study. More organizations will allow us to identify the most common patterns present in practice today. They could indicate what is most commonly neglected, which areas are being ignored completely, and which areas are being addressed.
Performers, especially female and other non cis-het male performers are woefully under-represented in the establishment of consent and safety rules. Yet, it is precisely their experiences with breaches in safety that warrant safety practices in most cases. This study hopes that more people will be encouraged to speak about their experiences, in order to bring awareness to their occurrence and the urgent need to bring practices and guidelines on consent and safety in the performing arts.
The primary goal of this study will remain to establish the idea of safety as a practice and a culture. It has to evolve and be re-evaluated at regular intervals. It has to be applied when entering any space of work, and its rules must remain engaged until the end of the performance period. These practices govern performance as an art form and encourage artists to explore their full potential. Artists should not feel like they are asking for too much when they seek safety at their workplace and neither should the figure in authority feel unequipped to provide that. By instituting safety as part of the routine of practice, artists can work without fear or anxiety and strive for excellence and greater reward from their practice.
Timeline of the Project
Get Involved with the Project
I. Dec 2020 - March 2021
Planning and Structure (Retrospective Phase)
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To research and document incidents where breaches of safety in the performing arts. Every effort will be taken to create a heterogenous sample that brings together theatre practitioners across different occupations (actors, designers, managers), gender identity, language, sexual orientation, level of experience and primary location of work through stratified sampling.
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II. April 2021 - October 2021
Case Studies and Documentation (Prospective Phase)
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During this time both interviews with practicing groups and institutions will be conducted and requests made to conduct safety sessions. Safety guidelines will be established by the groups themselves during these sessions. The researchers will follow up with the groups over the duration of the preliminary study to observe changes that occur over time since safety is a practice.
III. September - November 2021
Preliminary Analysis (Conspective Phase I)
Each recorded case study will be analyzed. Follow ups will be conducted with participating organizations.
IV. December 2021
Preliminary Presentation of Results (Conspective Phase II)
The intention will be to be able to present and publish preliminary universal safety and consent guidelines for the performing arts community, a comprehensive national list of organizations to mediate incidents, and broad observations on the practice of safety at different institutions. But the study will remain ongoing with follow-ups programmed with a view to publish more comprehensive understanding on the practice of safety.
Case Study
Invite us to undertake an in-depth interview with your organization to help you identify, formulate and institute your safety practice, as well as contribute to the final research outcomes.
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Workshops
Invite us to conduct a personalized workshop for your organization around building safe spaces, having difficult conversations, and creating safety protocols, among other focus areas.
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Outreach
Collaborate with us to disseminate this research project across the length and breadth of the Indian performing arts community, to diversify the scope of this research and its outcomes.
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If you would like to be part of the project as an individual the best place to start is by filling up the survey HERE.
If you are an organization that believes it could benefit from Kaivalya Plays conducting sessions and developing safety practices you can write to contact@kaivalyaplays.org
If you want to write to us anonymously you can submit a message HERE.
Donate To The Project
We believe this work is important and invite you to support this project through a donation. Your contribution will go towards the payment of logistical, material, academic, laboUr, and possibly travel costs associated with the project
About Kaivalya Plays
Kaivalya Plays is an indian performing arts company led by Varoon P. Anand as its Artistic Director and Gaurav Singh as General Manager.
In 2018, we received a grant to create a theatrical production that studied the therapeutic effects of improv games (as pioneered by Viola Spolin) on mental health conditions. In the creation of that production, in order to protect the performers, we were compelled to bring in a drama therapist to help us ensure the safety of the cast members. The unique "safe space" practice we created through the production Unravel gave us tools and rituals for the space, the performers and the audience. This experience made us realise the acute scarcity of, and need for, conversations and systems in place around safety in theatre and, by extension, the performing arts.
This research project is led by:
Varoon P. Anand
Actor, Director, Applied Improv Trainer
Artistic Director, Kaivalya Plays
Varoon P. Anand is Delhi’s most experienced Improv trainer and performer. Beginning his career under the guidance of Danielle Miles, of Fortetheatre UK, he co-founded Improv8 at Panama’s renowned Theatre Guild of Ancón in 2008. In Delhi, Varoon began teaching Improv in 2012 through Kaivalya Plays, the theatre company he founded, and in 2014 formed CueLess Improv, the capital’s most prolific team of short-form improv performers. Varoon continued training in improv with many teachers including Saif Ali, of Batlahouse theatre, learning and collaborating from 2015-16. In 2018, in collaboration with the Goethe Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan and medical practitioners, Varoon created Unravel, an improv show about mental health. Along with being the Artistic Director of Kaivalya Plays, CueLess Improv, and El Clavileño (India’s only Spanish language theatre group), he was also the former artistic director of the Little Theatre Group (LTG) Repertory 2019. For the last 3 years, Varoon has been developing work that applies his broad experience in theatre towards mental wellness. He regularly facilitates workshops that incorporate principles of improvisation, support groups and drama therapy.
To this research project, he brings the experience of developing an arts-based approach to mental wellness through the world of spontaneous improvisation with the help of mental health practitioners, as well as being the lead facilitator of Headspace, an improv for mental health initiative with Oddbird Theatre & Foundation that has been in place since July 2019 and has seen participation from 600+ individuals across India, US, UK, Spain, and Germany.
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Nuhar Bansal
Arts Manager, Law Graduate
Consulting Project Manager, Kaivalya Plays
Nuhar is a performing arts manager by profession and a lawyer by qualification. She rediscovered her passion for the theatre during law school and took the plunge into full-time theatre & arts management immediately after graduation. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of independent productions, stage management, and more. Most recently, she managed events at The Courtyard which is a unique hub of art, culture, food, and community in the heart of Bangalore. As somebody without a formal or familial background in the arts, the last 3 years have been a gratifying experience for her, both in process and performance. This has led to a curiosity in her about how the industry can be organized and managed better, especially in terms of structured training, opportunity creation, financial management, mentorship, and assessment. She hopes to hone her perspective and skills in theatre management so that she can help build a community that is more secure, intersectional, and not afraid to maximize its potential.
Nuhar worked on the initial phase of this research project, where she leveraged her arts management experience with a variety of theatre groups and organisations in multiple cities to bring a grass-root perspective on the practical limitations and possibilities of the research, supported by legal objectivity.
Ankita Mathur
Research Consultant
Ankita Mathur is a product data scientist at Sundial, automating product analytics and giving it to the user as a visual narrative. She has been working in the data and tech ecosystem for the last six years and currently lives and works in Bengaluru. She graduated in Economics and did her master's from Kings College London after getting selected for Kings India master scholarship, specializing in research on emerging economies. For joy - she loves to practice data art, write about things that amuse her, and practice Kathak. Since childhood, she has been passionate about learning the Indian classical dance form Kathak. In 2019, she joined 'Kalashram' - the school of Late Pt. Birju Maharaj. She practiced directly under Vidushi Saswati Sen - one of India's most acclaimed Kathak dancers of India who masters the forte of Abhinaya in Kathak. Learning from her was a unique experience. She also got a chance to perform with her group at Triveni Kalashram.
Her unique blend of skills in data, tech, research, and a strong connection with the Indian classical dance, helps her add a distinct value to this project. She will help design the research framework, create surveys, and curate a literature review in a useable format for the project. She will also help analyze all the qualitative and quantitative data collected to help understand the best resources required for the safety of performing arts professionals.
Gaurav Singh Nijjer
Digital Documentation Consultant
Gaurav Singh Nijjer (he/him) is a theatre-maker, creative technologist and arts manager from New Delhi, India. He's the General Manager at Kaivalya Plays, an Indian performing arts company and works as a freelancer with arts collectives across India and Europe. He graduated with MA in Advanced Theatre Practice (Distinction) at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in 2021, receiving the prestigious Chevening Scholarship from the UK Government. In 2022, he moved to Berlin, Germany to undertake the German Chancellor Fellowship where he is conducting a 12-month arts research project on audiences for digital theatre and hybrid performances with the Berlin-based Rimini Protokoll as his host organization. As a theatre-maker, his artistic practice investigates live performance and audience-performer interactivity using technology and distanced composition. In 2021, he received two grants under the C3: Codes, Creativity and Community program by Goethe-Institut India and BeFantastic to create open-source community platforms for arts funding and arts education.
To this research project, he brings the experience of being the production manager at Kaivalya Plays tasked with expanding the reach of their mental wellness and safe space projects to audiences in India and abroad, the first-hand experience of being a performer in the devised play Unravel which looked at therapeutic effects of improv and mental health and finally, as a management graduate from SSCBS (India’s top-ranked undergraduate business college) wherein he studied research methodology and management as a dedicated subject. He is additionally an arts researcher on two other performing arts projects looking at digital theatre and AI-based performances.
Cast & Crew
The Practice of Safety in the Performing Arts in India
This research is currently ongoing.
A research project that seeks to enquire into the aspects of physical, mental and legal safety and wellbeing for individual practitioners like actors, directors, facilitators and designers, among others, in their own practice or as part of a larger collective, in India.
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In early 2022, Varoon P. Anand received the Arts Research Programme grant. This project is implemented by India Foundation for the Arts (IFA), under the Arts Research programme, made possible with support from BNP Paribas India.
