My internship at Teesri Duniya theatre company in Montrealâunder the mentorship of the artistic director Rahul Varmaâwas a truly enriching experience. I was a part of the theatre team for a period of three months during the summer and most of the work was done remotely, due to Covid safety guidelines. I worked on a project that sought to curate and preserve the history of the company since its establishment more than four decades ago, in 1981. As a graduate student researching South-Asian, queer theatre for my thesis at university, working with an actual theatre companyâbeing part of the production and staging processesâhelped me in gaining practical knowledge which will be an excellent supplement to my theoretical work. This internship will go a long way in bridging the gap between my academic work and mainstream, commercial theatre.
During my time as a research intern at Teesri, I worked on an academic paper for potential publication in the June 2023 volume of the journal Critical Stages. I have been in touch with Dr Yana Meerzon, professor at the University of Ottawa and a member of the editorial board at Critical Stages, for the same. The paper traces the trajectory of Teesriâs role as an institute dedicated to issues of social justice, equality, and multi-culturalism. I explore the companyâs growth and development across the years by providing a historical overview and contextualizing the work done here within the Canadian contextâthe politics of the performance pieces produced here, the space the theatre provides to marginalized communities, as well as the voices/thoughts/ideas it introduces to the on-going conversation about minority empowerment, especially in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality etc.
My paper focuses on studying the effects of Bill 96 on the vibrant arts and theatre world of Quebec, especially on theatre companyâs like Teesri that have resisted cultural homogenization and domination for years. An ambitious piece of legislation, Bill 96 seeks to grant sweeping powers to the State to ensure that French languageâostensibly, the cornerstone of Quebecâs distinct identity and cultureâis mandatory in virtually every aspect of life. Against this background, I argue that Teesriâs theatre workâfirmly rooted in the community and the everyday multi-ethnic experience of immigrants within the local socio-cultural milieuâbuilds solidarity amongst the varied communities and is thus, of crucial importance to challenge the nationalist Quebecois tendencies and government policies which reflect these sentiments. In my paper, I analyse one of the theatreâs playsâ âCounter Offenceââwritten by Rahul Varma in 1996. The play recounts the story of a South-Asian diasporic coupleâShapoor, an Iranian male on a temporary studentâs visa in Montreal, who marries Shazia, a Canadian citizen of East-Asian descent, to attain residency sponsorship for himself and his parents. When Shapoor is arrested by Sgt. Galliard, a white police-officer, on charges of wife batteringâand later found deadâquestions of racism and cultural misogyny are brought centre stage in this family-drama-cum-crime-thriller. The anglophone version of the play premiered in Montreal, as a Teesri production, and had a successful run with consecutive full houses. This initial success was followed by international recognition and acclaim as it was translated into French and Italian and thereafter, produced as a multi-lingual, multi-ethnic show in Vancouver and Venice.
My time at Teesri was spent sourcing and collecting information through historical documents, publications, interviews, critical texts/essays in journals and magazines for my research paper. My regular discussions with Mr Varma, the co-founder of Teesri, were very informative and productive in giving me an overall background of the evolution of the company and how its vision has changed over the years as well as the challenges they have faced and overcome as an artistic team in the past. I was also involved in providing supportâcreative, administrative, and logisticalâto the artistic team of âPsycho 6â, Teesriâs first in-person production after the pandemic, which was staged at Montreal Arts Interculturels (MAI) from June 10th to 23rd. Thereafter, I wrote a critical review of the production which has already been published on the webzine Montreal Serai.
The Goodman Family Internship award helped in covering my living costs for the summer, without which working at Teesri wouldnât have been possible. I am extremely grateful to the Goodman Family Foundation, as well as the Arts Internship Office, McGill for enabling me to pursue my summer goals successfully. This opportunity was a learning experience I will forever be grateful for.
