Education philosopher Maxine Greene affirms the power of arts and aesthetic education  “for a more informed and imaginative awareness” to create “critical transactions that empower students to resist both elitism and objectivism, that allow them to read and to name, to write and to rewrite their own lived worlds”.

 

While all of Aagaaz’s work has the belief in the power of the processes of arts and aesthetics as its core, Ajab Gajab is the spine of the practice that supports this belief. The arts, and in our case more specifically theatre, opens windows into complex and layered realities that can otherwise be challenging to address or express, creating opportunities to think critically, celebrate differences, take risks and seek justice not only for ourselves but for others who are perhaps more challenged.

The theatre repertory of Aagaaz comprises of 9 young people who have grown up doing theatre with organisation's longterm community based program - Tana Bana since their primary years in school. Over the years they have followed their passion for the craft and chose to to be professional theatre practitioners.

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Aagaaz’s repertory meets and works regularly. Our engagement with each other is much beyond the rigour of the rehearsal and performance periods. As people who perform stories, we consistently engage the question  - “Why do we wish to tell this story now and to whom?”.

 

Also, beyond the politics of the art form, we consistently immerse ourselves in the rigour of the skills required to create theatre productions.