My internship at Teesri Duniya theatre company in Montreal鈥攗nder the mentorship of the artistic director Rahul Varma鈥攚as 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 company鈥攂eing part of the production and staging processes鈥攈elped 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 Teesri鈥檚 role as an institute dedicated to issues of social justice, equality, and multi-culturalism. I explore the company鈥檚 growth and development across the years by providing a historical overview and contextualizing the work done here within the Canadian context鈥攖he 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 company鈥檚 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 language鈥攐stensibly, the cornerstone of Quebec鈥檚 distinct identity and culture鈥攊s mandatory in virtually every aspect of life. Against this background, I argue that Teesri鈥檚 theatre work鈥攆irmly rooted in the community and the everyday multi-ethnic experience of immigrants within the local socio-cultural milieu鈥攂uilds 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 theatre鈥檚 plays鈥� 鈥楥ounter Offence鈥欌�攚ritten by Rahul Varma in 1996. The play recounts the story of a South-Asian diasporic couple鈥擲hapoor, an Iranian male on a temporary student鈥檚 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 battering鈥攁nd later found dead鈥攓uestions 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 support鈥攃reative, administrative, and logistical鈥攖o the artistic team of 鈥淧sycho 6鈥�, Teesri鈥檚 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 wouldn鈥檛 have been possible. I am extremely grateful to the Goodman Family Foundation, as well as the Arts Internship Office, 平特五不中 for enabling me to pursue my summer goals successfully. This opportunity was a learning experience I will forever be grateful for.
