In a whirlwind ten days, members of Radical Evolution’s community collaborated with Jana Natya Manch to co-create a short play in response to the issues and demands of Professional Staff Congress (PSC), the union of faculty and staff for all CUNY campuses. The workshop culminated in a performance for members of PSC and our communities at The People’s Forum, where we received overwhelmingly positive responses to the work.

After the residency, NYC-based folks who participated in the residency and members of our community who saw the piece began meeting weekly to continue creating street theatre performances and other collaborations with the working people of NYC. We have performed at rallies, meetings and community events, and codified the group as Radical Evolution’s Street Theatre Crew! For more info on upcoming performances, check out our Instagram @radevolution, and click here for more information on the Crew.

  • We first learned about members of Jana Natya Manch on a trip to India in 2018. We were there to meet theater makers and learn about the theatre landscape in New Delhi and beyond.

    So it was with great excitement that on our last day in town, we made our way to May Day books, an independent bookstore in northeast Delhi, to meet Sudhanva Deshpande, longtime member of Jana Natya Manch, and learned about India’s most well-known street theatre company. We had a fabulous conversation that lasted hours, and he very generously gifted us a few books about the company’s history and work.

    Since then, we have been major fans from afar and remained curious to learn more about the strategies and methodologies by which they make their work - and have made their work - for over 50 years.

    In early 2020, Beto, Meropi and Sudhanva began speaking about the possibility of bringing members of Jana Natya Manch to New York, for an exchange in the rehearsal room, and to introduce them and their work to the New York City cultural community. This residency is the culmination of three years of dreaming this idea into being.

  • Jana Natya Manch Workshop Collaborators: Sudhanva Deshpande, Komita Dhanda, Ashok Kumar, Moloyashree Hashmi, Sania Hashmi, Priyanka

    Radical Evolution Workshop Collaborators: Rachel April, Golam Sarwar Harun, Julián Mesri, Liz Morgan, Gargi Mukherjee, lisa nevada, Beto O’Byrne, Meropi Peponides

  • This program is supported in part by:
    The Network of Ensemble Theatres Travel and Exchange Network Grant
    Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation
    New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature
    New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with the City Council

    Special thanks to:
    The People’s Forum
    ART/New York