by Fizza Hasan The idea of a creative project on the Partition has always been close to my heart. Born into a family of people who migrated in 1947, my father’s family from Panipat, and my mother’s from Meerut, I grew up listening to stories of the Partition. Accounts of the aristocratic life in Panipat, of the house with a […]
by David Studwell Beginning in August of 1947, the largest mass migration in history began as fifteen million men, women, and children left their ancestral homes to cross the newly drawn borders between India and the new country of Pakistan. During and after the partition of India over one million people died as a result of violence that erupted between […]
by Kathleen Mulligan I have always been deeply curious about the stories of my family history and the lives of the people who came before me. That curiosity, combined with a deepening love for the subcontinent, inspired the first seeds of the idea for a Voices of Partition project while David and I were in Islamabad on Fulbright grants in […]
We received several humbling and overwhelming responses from the audience of our latest production Daagh Daagh Ujala. Many Partition survivors who saw the performance appreciated the sensitivity with which the play was put together, and commended Theatre Wallay on taking initiative to tell first-hand accounts of Partition survivors. One such audience member commented that the performance was so moving that […]
Theatre Wallay performed its play ‘Dagh Dagh Ujala’ in Islamabad on 24th, 25th, and 26th of April 2015. Though the performance venue was a little out of way – in Kuri a suburban town – it was performed before packed hall all three nights. The play was based on true stories collected in the previous phase of its project Voices […]
Urvashi Butalia, the author of The Other Side of Silence, was also here to attend Islamabad Literature Festival. When she heard about the play, she rescheduled her engagements, and came to see the play on the night of 25th April. She was all praises, and expressed her wish that Theatre Wallay could perform it in India. She assured TW that […]
Theatre Wallay has recently concluded the 2nd phase of its project ‘Voices of Partition’. in the second phase, the team focused on collecting oral stories from the partition survivors. The team made great efforts to collect stories from a cross-section of society – from landless farmers to landlords, from those who migrated from Punjab to those who migrated from Bihar, […]
Renowned actress Fawzia Mirza was here in Pakistan recently. She performed her play ‘Me, My Mom, and Sharmila Tagore’ at NAPA theater festival in Karachi, and then made it to Islamabad as well. TW made good use of her presence in Islamabad, and arranged a session for the team to discuss various aspects of theater with Mirza, and learn something from her. […]
Fawzia Mirza visited Pakistan bringing her show ‘Me, My Mom, and Sharmila Tagore’ to Pakistan. Theatre Wallay acted as host, and took benefit of her presence by organizing an interactive session for team Theatre Wallay with Fawzia Mirza. This what she had to say about Theatre Wallay after the sessions:
Theatre Wallay organized ‘Monologues in Process’ to give a glimpse of its project “Voices of Partition” to the select audiences. The event was held at USEFP premises on January 23, 2015. It was attended by around 50 people from different walks of life. The monologues were based on some stories of Partition survivors collected in the preceding weeks. Selected parts […]