Help d.r.i.f.t bring accessible community theatre to the | Milaap
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Help d.r.i.f.t bring accessible community theatre to the mountains!
  • Gurleen

    Created by

    Gurleen Arora
  • dt

    This fundraiser will benefit

    drift trust

    from Dharamshala, Himachal Pradesh

d.r.i.f.t – a three-year-old theatre movement in the mountains of Himachal Pradesh!

Hello! Namaste! Tashi Delek!

Since you’re visiting our crowdfunding page, you probably already know a little bit about d.r.i.f.t and why we do what we do. If you don’t, this video is a good place to start.

We’re an independent theatre festival in Dharamshala, in the foothills of the Himalayas. Dharamshala is the exile home of the Dalai Lama and has a diverse population of Himachalis, including Gaddis, Indians from all over the country, Tibetans and people from around the world. We run a year-long programme with public readings, school workshops and training workshops culminating in an Annual Theatre Festival that makes different kinds of theatre from all over the country and the world accessible to all of Dharamshala. Our tickets are priced at just Rs.50! The central principle of the festival is that the participating groups will oversee the running of the festival themselves. They will help each other with setting up, backstage work,ushering, preparing and serving food and drink for artists and volunteers alike etc. The open workshops cover different aspects of theatre including voice training, acting, playwriting, stage, light and sound design, stage management and production among others.

d.r.i.f.t was dreamt up by Niranjani Iyer but has now become a shared reality for the Dharamshala community, many of whom previously had zero or minimal exposure to theatre, but are now learning to be actors, writers, directors, performers and technicians, and have now been running a fully fledged theatre festival for two years as well as creating original local theatre pieces.

So that's what we're working on! The festival is our annual crowd-puller, but we’re equally excited by our year-round work with schools and local communities. This project has been entirely self-funded until now but this year, for the first time, we're opening up our funding to the public so that others who believe in our vision of theatre and the arts can chip in to help us put the festival together!

And what exactly do we believe in?

  • That accessible community theatre is an important and essential part of our society.
  • That everyone has a right to access to the arts.
  • That the arts must be an inclusive space.

Our workshops, readings and the annual festival serve as open public spaces and cultural hubs where members of the community can meet, exchange ideas, raise questions and debate issues. These spaces are crucial for a vibrant democracy with a diverse citizenry.

Your donations will pay for:

Festival space rental
Artists’ travel and honorarium
Printing costs of posters/fliers/promotional material
Production costs
Accommodation and food for artists and volunteers for five days
Training workshops
School outreach – both workshops and shows.

We need your support! Please help us build our movement to take theatre to non-urban spaces by donating! To know more about our work, you can follow us on Facebook and Instagram.




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