Jana Sanskriti: Forum Theatre for India's Rural Oppressed

Founded in a village in the Sundarbans in 1985 by Sanjoy Ganguly, Jana Sanskriti brought Brazilian director Augusto Boal's Theatre of the Oppressed to India, becoming its first and largest exponent in the country. The organization trains landless laborers, fisherfolk and other marginalized villagers to write and perform 'forum theatre' plays about the oppression in their own lives, then invites the audience to step into the action and try out real solutions on stage before applying them in their communities. It has grown into a movement of thirty satellite theatre teams — nine of them all-women — spread across West Bengal and nine other Indian states, addressing issues from domestic violence and child marriage to corruption and access to healthcare. Jana Sanskriti's teams reach at least 200,000 spectators a year through their performances.