Announcing Scriptwriting Workshops: Applications are now open

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS FOR SCRIPTWRITING WORKSHOP

FROM THE EIGHT NORTHEASTERN STATES

focussing on sexual and gender-based violence 

As part of the projects:
Stepping Stones: Engaging with Youth in South Asia by Zubaan & Panos South Asia with IDRC
& Body of Evidence by Zubaan with Goethe-Institut

Zubaan is pleased to announce a call for applications from the eight states of Northeast India for a script writing workshop based on the material generated through the Sexual Violence and Impunity (SVI) Project. The three-and-a-half-year research project, which was supported by IDRC and concluded in 2016, looked at the history and the unaddressed concerns of sexual violence in the legal, medical and forensic fields, apart from the social issues and taboos surrounding it, in five countries (India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka).

Now, with the Stepping Stones Project with IDRC and Panos South Asia and the Body of Evidence Project with Goethe Institut, Zubaan is conducting scriptwriting workshops across India as a way to further the engagement with the findings of the SVI project through creative art forms like theatre. More details about the project can be found here.

WORKSHOP FOCUS:
The idea behind the initiatives is to take the findings of the SVI project into different forums and engage young people in discussions about the ways in which impunity for perpetrators accrues and is strengthened by existing lacunae in legal, medical and social practices. The workshop aims to develop scripts that emerge out of the SVI project. Some of the questions that guide this project are:

• What are medical students taught about sexual violence and how do they take this knowledge into medical practice when dealing with victims/survivors?
• What are law students taught about dealing with victims/survivors of sexual violence?
• Why are societies so tolerant of sexual violence, and why do they continue to blame victims?
• Why are issues of bodily autonomy difficult to grasp for our societies?

EXPECTED OUTCOMES:

• One primary script developed which will deal with the questions raised above. This can become a resource for future use.
• Individualized scripts developed by the participants to suit regional aspects of the focus.
• Groups/artists whose scripts are selected will also be provided support to perform in different universities, colleges and other locations (a fixed number of performances will be decided at a later stage).

DURATION & LOCATION:
A 5-day residential workshop will be held in July 2018 in Guwahati, Assam (exact date to be announced after applications close). No fees will be levied for participating in the workshops.

HOW TO APPLY:
Interested theatre groups and artists from Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim can mail us their applications at projects@zubaanbooks.com including:

• CVs and/or a background note on the group
• One sample script they have developed, or helped to develop, with a gender focus.
• Links to the groups/artists websites or social media sites, if applicable.

Applications will be reviewed and groups selected by the advisory board of both projects, whose names will be updated on the project page after selections. Click here to download this call for applications as a PDF.

LAST DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 7 JUNE 2018