The 7th edition of the annual ASSITEJ Asia Meeting was held at Lahore from April 6-7, 2017. Delegations from six Asian and Australian countries including Japan, Korea, Australia, India, Sri Lanka & Pakistan participated in this meeting. With the passage of time, this annual meeting of Asian countries has become a focal point to share experiences, objectives & future possibilities of collaborations between Asian countries.
Delegations included:
Mr. Asaya Fujita (Japan), Mr. Ryo Uchida (Japan), Ms. Sookhee Kim (Korea), Mr. Seok Hong Kim (Korea) Mr. Sampath Perera (Sri Lanka), Mr. Mayura (Sri Lanka), Ms. Sue Giles (Australia) & Mr. Imran Khan (India) via Skype. While Mr. Aamir Nawaz, Mr. Mobeen Ejaz, Mr. Umair Mushtaq & Mr. Azeem Hamid represented ASSITEJ Pakistan.
This meeting explored a lot of challenges for companies doing TYA in Asian countries, like:
- A lack of government support to performing artists
- Lack of understanding the importance of performing arts culture
- Need for communication to get to know other organizations working with common themes
- Communicating a clear vision and strategy for a new network
- A new network construction and establishing hierarchy with roles and responsibilities
- Inter region engagement
- Funding possibilities within this network
- A clear focus on support for artists rather than to form a network, which does not help with their needs
- Need for strong and continuous mechanism for creating awareness through various communication channels on the significance and impact of performing arts on public
- A centralized place where the network can receive research information and stories, reviews
- How to make network more engaging for other members
The meeting ended with a very effective action plan for Asian chapters of ASSITEJ:
- Next ASSITEJ Asia Meet in Japan during the first half of the festival on February 19, 20 and 21, 2018
- Building relationships with artists to understand and accept differences
- Launch communication channels: two Facebook pages
- Website development ASSITEJ Pakistan and Korea; start with an English version
- Establishing a literature library or e-library
- Research and publicize residency options in our own countries and also figure out possibilities
- Title for TYA add a definition or slogan to it
- Contact missing centres to make final plan for contribution
- Research on sustainability and capacity for the ASSITEJ Asia Festival in order to conduct it annually and add value to the conferences
- Decide the conferences and festival host countries for next 3 years and the next Asia meet
- List down financial assets required to conduct ASSITEJ Asia conference and the festival
- Blog setup, membership registration, resource sharing to research articles for advocacy and awareness
- Imran, India region will be managing the public Facebook page and content of the website
- Korea, Australia and Japan network need to pay to Pakistan network for the website and maintenance
- Making updated connections and key contact person list for every national center
TAMASHA FESTIVAL 2017 LAHORE GOT SUCCESS STRAIGHTAWAY
First Edition of Tamasha Festival 2017 with its tag line (Performing Arts For young audience) organized by new born ASSITEJ Pakistan got marvelous response and was successful to leae its prints in Lahore. ASSITEJ Pakistan, which got registration from ASSITEJ in January 2017 organized this three-day colorful event presenting performances, workshops and discussion sessions by eminent national and international artists on April 7-9.
Tamasha Festival showcased 8 theater, dance and music performances by professional groups, 21 theater performances by schools & 10 performing arts workshops for children and young audience with 8 discussion sessions about performing arts and theatre for children & young audience with well-known performing arts personalities. Estimated 13,280 attendees of which major number of participants were children & young audience.
The festival’s ambition is to show some of the most interesting, innovative and engaging performances from the field of performing arts for a young audience in Pakistan. The festival aims to be an eye opener and a source of inspiration for anyone who works with and is interested in performing arts for young people, the young audience will be able to experience and participate in performing arts at an outstanding level.
ASSITEJ Pakistan is an initiative of four theatrical organizations of Pakistan named Maas Foundation, Independent Theatre Pakistan, The Little Art & Chota Mota Theatre. ASSITEJ Pakistan is going to make Tamasha festival an annual activity in Pakistan and will make this product more fruitful & colorful with international participation in coming years.
Play “SURAJ CHACHU” in Tamasha Festival 2017 Lahore
Theatre production ‘Suraj Chachu” finally came on stage in Tamasha Festival 2017 at Lahore. Play was full of joy, creation, emotions and interactions for audience. This play revolves around the importance of awareness against pollution and usage of trash bins. The play was designed for age group 4 + and received by packed halls of kids and young audience. The performance was prepared with three months of intense rehearsals. The play was seen by delegations from ASSITEJ Korea, ASSITEJ Sri Lanka, Australia and ASSITEJ Japan. This play offered children experiences that besides providing a pleasant space, also opens them to the opportunity to participate and interact with the performers in some capacity. This play was written by Aslam Mughal & Directed by Aamir Nawaz.
