Women’s Theatre
Community Theatre
Nireeksha held a series of theatre workshops with women from Kudumbasree, the largest women collective in Asia. Through this process, Nireeksha conceived the concept of community theatre of these women. The idea was to form all -women theatre groups of women that can produce and perform plays that highlight gender issues while incorporating local art forms, language/dialect, stories/myths in that region. With this concept, a team from Nireeksha trained selected women in all aspects of theatre enabling them to form all women theatre groups in five districts of Kerala.
Rangasree Community theatre-the generic name for such groups with women from Kudumbasree, has now spread to all districts in the State.
Applied Theatre
Right from its inception, Nireeksha has given equal importance to applied theatre with interactive theatre workshops with different groups of people. Over the last 25 years, Nireeksha demonstrates a plethora of work in Applied Theatre Sector.
Drama on wheelchairs
Nireeksha has had several interactive workshops with residents of Cheshire Home, Thiruvananthapuram and has brought to stage people in wheelchairs for the first time in the history of theatre in Kerala. The play Kanalpodu performed at Vyloppilly Samskriti Bhavan, Thiruvananthapuram in 2002 was a groundbreaking event of that time.
Much later in 2014, another play Agni Chirak was performed by some residents of Cheshire Home staying there at that time. The play was an outcome of theatre workshops lasting several weeks. Agni Chirak was performed at Nisagandhi, Thiruvananthapuram before a big audience.
Student Community
Nireeksha regularly conducts interactive theatre workshops emphasizing on gender with college, higher secondary and high school students. The feedback usually varies from positive to fantastic.
Tribal and Coastal Communities
Interactive theatre workshops with women from tribal and coastal areas of the State has always been an enriching experience both ways.
Nireeksha also engages with children from coastal area with theatre workshops helping them to identify issues that confront them both as students as well as a community. Some of these workshops end up with street plays based on these issues.
Children’s Theatre
Children’s Theatre Workshop is an integral part of Nireeksha activities. Apart from giving an opportunity for children to engage in theatre during their free time, Nireeksha aims to better gender awareness among children through these workshops.
Nireeksha has formed a Children’s Theatre called Anubhaava from among the children in the neighborhood of Nireeksha Theatre that meets regularly at weekends from 2012 onwards. Anubhaava has its own repertoire of plays performed at regular intervals