SMART: Year 2019 - 2020

The previous year SMART had evolved into a shorter three-day Workshop. The objective of the new model was to make SMART more accessible and sharper in focus for the practitioners to participate. Like the earlier model this workshop too continued to enable theatre groups to start thinking consciously about what they are doing; to identify their problems; not feel alone and sense a collective spirit; explore different ways of approaching problems; and identify opportunities. The areas of discussion was similar to the earlier model - Vision and Core Values, Group Sustainability, Audience Development, Communication and Resource Mobilisation, as well as Strategic Planning. Feedback was collected from the participants at the end of each workshop and served as internal evaluation. One workshop was done in Pune in the previous year. In this year, SMART continued to conduct these three-day Workshops across India, in four cities – Bangalore, Bikaner, Kolkata and Kochi, making it a total of five such workshops over two years. 

SMART Workshop #2 – Bangalore, Karnataka
April 14-16, 2019 | The Courtyard, Bangalore, Karnataka
SMART Facilitators: Menaka Rodriguez, Neel Chaudhuri, Sameera Iyengar and Sunil Shanbag
Local partner and host: The Courtyard, Bangalore, Karnataka
12 participants from nine theatre groups, from various cities including Bangalore, Hyderabad, Jalgaon, Lucknow and Pondicherry. 

SMART Workshop #3 – Bikaner, Rajasthan
June 28-30, 2019 | The Millennium Hotel, Bikaner, Rajasthan
SMART Facilitators: Ashish Mehta, Menaka Rodriguez and Sudhanva Deshpande
Local partner and host: Anurag Kala Kendra
16 participants from 11 theatre groups, from various cities including Bikaner, Bhilwara, Jaipur, Kota, New Delhi, Pune and Mumbai. 

SMART Workshop #4 – Kolkata/Madhyamgram, West Bengal
February 14-16, 2020 | Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed, Madhyamgram, West Bengal
SMART Facilitators: Sameera Iyengar, Sanjna Kapoor and Sudhanva Deshpande
Local partner and host: Jana Sanskriti Centre for Theatre of the Oppressed
19 participants from 17 theatre groups, from various cities including Kolkata, Howrah, Kalyani, Behrampura, Barasat, Konnager, Bongaon, Liluah, Balurghat and Mumbai.

SMART Workshop #5 – Kochi/Mulanthuruthy, Kerala
March 07-09, 2020 | Ala Centre for Culture & Alternative Education (Ala), Mulanthuruthy, Kerala
SMART Facilitators: Arundhati Ghosh, Neel Chaudhuri, Sudhanva Deshpande and Sunil Shanbag 
Local partner and host: Ala Centre for Culture & Alternative Education (Ala) 
27 participants from 17 theatre groups, from various cities including Thrissur, Kodungallur, Kalady, Ernakulam, Palakkad, Kochi, Koottanad, Kasargod, Coimbatore, Bangalore, Kolkata, Guwahati, and Kalyan.

SMART in FY 2019-20 was funded by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi.