Join hands with us to patron our Artists-In-Residence, gearing towards their first ever Kamatipura Art Festival!!

April 2025 WORKSHOP 18

Meeting our 'Inner Child' - Night/Day Doll making , Lullabies with Myth Theatre and Forum theatre, featuring guest facilitator/singer Gurupriya Atreya

Transforming 24 Hours into Lifelong Impact

In just 24 hours, our offsite workshop brought together a vibrant group of women from Kamathipura into a space of safety, imagination, and transformation. From the moment they boarded the tempo traveller — with music, laughter, and babies in arms — this was more than a trip. It was a crossing over. Through careful facilitation and intentional design, participants transitioned from the noise of daily survival into a sanctuary where their voices, bodies, and stories were fully seen and held. With attention to comfort, emotional care, and accessibility, we created an inclusive, immersive environment that sparked healing from the very first hour.

The Inner Child as Entry Point to Empowerment

Our signature Inner Child Workshop began with a deceptively simple question: “What do you see when you look inside?” The answers — “a child,” “a god,” “myself at six” — laid the foundation for one of the most emotionally resonant sessions. Using scrap cloth, painted faces, and their own hands, the women crafted dolls that represented their inner children. This tactile process allowed for self-recognition, storytelling, and emotional release — all through art. For many, it was the first time they saw themselves as creators, as makers, as keepers of memory. What emerged was powerful: a room full of women reconnecting with parts of themselves they were taught to forget.

Immersive Performance that Awakens the Soul

As night fell, the workshop transitioned into our acclaimed Myth Theatre experience — a sensorially designed performance using slow movement, light, silence, and collective reflection. Participants were guided through grounding practices and then invited into a story world that blurred the lines between performer and audience, past and present. “My pearl is shining inside,” one woman whispered afterward. Anil performed myth theatre- of a magical story of an Osyter who lost her pearl- and finding it inside, Gurupriya lended her beautiful vocals.

Lullabies for the Inner Child

This was followed by our Lullaby Circle, where our guest facilitator and singer-par-excellence, Gurupriya sang traditional Hindi and Islamic cradle songs. One by one, participants — including those who hadn’t slept sober in years — fell into deep, healing rest. It was nothing short of revolutionary: radical rest as a form of resistance. For our participants who have never probably be held before - this was a ritual back to their inner children guided by love and softness. We are incredibly grateful to Gurupriya for putting everyone, including a little baby to sleep almost instantaneously. It was a space of deep deep healing and connection.

Forum Theatre: Where Real Lives Become Rehearsals for Change

The final stretch brought real-life issues to the stage. Using Forum Theatre methods, participants devised and performed stories of children. Three teams brainstormed and came up with stories of- girls unable to exercise their agency to work, comparison of exam scores between siblings, class struggles of children not being allowed to play in a high-society park.

Conflict, Issue and Oppressions were discussed in detail. Participants shared their own oppression, with one participant moving us to tears with a triggering incident during her begging- of social apathy and injustice. It was a very loaded session led by Neethu, who introduced the participants the basics of forum theatre through co-learning and compassionate space holding.

We returned fully armed with lots of love, agency and a sense of justice. Our Artists in residence were shortlisted, and we look forward to your support in holding this one-of-a-kind residency featuring our participants and their deep, embodied art and theatre work facilitated by our core team Jaya, Neethu, Anil and Girija.

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