The on-going Farmers' Protest at borders of Delhi has become three-months old by February 2021. The artists of various hues and social activists are staging performances in the form of group singing, solo singing, street theatre, poetry recitation, folk theatre, glove puppet shows, marshal art performances to keep the spirits high for the peaceful protest - one of its own kind in the world.
Of late, the Bhand performers from the Punjab performed at the protest site. It needs to be understood that Bhand is the simplest folk theatre with high pitch rendering through short dialogues in local dialect by making use of gestures, stationary dancing, minstrelling, storytelling to capture attention, entertain and convey messages.
The tradition of Bhand rendering has been incorporated in theatre courses as a learned skill for rendering dramatic story invoving two characters - the ustad and and the jamura. This format is also used by street magicians and street shows with monkeys.
In the ustad-jamura format there is a master / ustad in the lead role and jamoora / follower in the assistant role.
The storylines consist of alternate lines as follows.
Ustad's line: Tutoring the jamura to do or say something
Jamoora's line: Obedient responding with a subtle variation to create a strong satirical effect
Many educators feel that this theatrical format can be easily and quickly adapted for classroom instruction of various subjects with 5-10 minute performances for a class session. Even, paired projects can be given to convert lessons into this format by students themselves.
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