Popular theatre as a communication medium has gained immense attention and is widely practised in Bangladesh by various NGOs for raising consciousness in achieving the rights and justice required for social development. Likewise, BRAC has been using popular theatre as a communication channel to disseminate development messages among the people for whom development is addressed and felt the necessity to assess to what extent the knowledge packed by such messages is grounded in people’s cognition besides evaluating the strengths and weakness of popular theatre as practised by BRAC. This study presents such an assessment conducted by using a triangulation method comprising a survey, focus group discussion, and case studies. The study observes that knowledge is grounded at a high moderate rate and people have no problem identifying popular theatre as a distinct form of entertainment and communication. People at large consider popular theatre as a means for extending education unveiling social ills while also suggesting ways out of such underdevelopment. The drama group is viewed as a change-maker. There is a need for post-performance dialogue, which is not practised regularly. Nevertheless, popular theatre, if properly addressed and practised in combination with other development programs, is likely to help develop a counter-discourse that is required for sustainable social development.
Authors: Pervez, Anis; Samadder, Mrinmoy
Type: Report
Year: 2014
