SMART: Year 2017 - 2018

In this year, SMART continued to conduct SMART on Wheels, the series of city-based events, across five cities - Patna, Bareilly, Mumbai, New Delhi and Pune. This was envisioned in the previous year as a day-long programme at small towns and cities with two to three SMART core team members traveling there with one SMART alumnus, to engage the local theatre community in discussions around their needs in theatre. It was designed to share with them our ideas in SMART, and also gather concerns and aspirations from the field. We hoped our learnings would augment the SMART programme to build deeper understanding and interest for management within the larger theatre community.

SMART On Wheels #3 – Patna, Bihar
August 20, 2017 | Delhi Public School, Patna, Bihar
SMART Facilitators/Alumni: Swati Apte and Pradeep Vaiddya (SMART 2015 Alumnus)
Local partner and host: Invitation from Sanjiv Kumar of The Takshila Education Society
Over 50 participants were in attendance, from over 35 theatre groups and a few freelancing individuals as well from Patna, different parts of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

SMART On Wheels #4 – Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh 
October 05, 2017 | Windermere Theatre Black Box, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh
SMART Facilitators: Arundhati Ghosh, Menaka Rodriguez and Ashish Mehta
SMART Alumni: Pravin Shekar, Backstage Theatre (SMART Alumnus 2015) and Asmita Shri, Ranga Vinayak Ranga Mandali (SMART Alumnus 2016)
Local partner and host: Ranga Vinayak Ranga Mandali and Windermere Theatre
21 participants were in attendance, including six theatre groups and several freelancing individuals, from Bareilly, Saharanpur and Badaun.

SMART On Wheels #5 – Mumbai, Maharashtra
December 22, 2017 | Studio Tamaasha, Mumbai, Maharashtra
SMART Facilitators – Sunil Shanbag and Swati Apte
SMART Alumni – Savitri Medhatul, Kali Billi Productions (SMART Alumnus 2016)
Local partner and host: Tamaasha Theatre and Studio Tamaasha
Six participants were in attendance, from five theatre groups, from Mumbai.

SMART On Wheels #6 – New Delhi
February 06, 2018 | Barefoot! Theatre space in Shahpurjat, New Delhi
SMART Facilitators: Sanjna Kapoor, Sudhanva Deshpande and Neel Chaudhuri (SMART Alumnus 2015)
SMART Alumni: Ashish Paliwal, Barefoot! Theatre (SMART Alumnus 2016)
Local partner and host: Jana Natya Manch, Tadpole Repertory and Barefoot! Theatre
17 participants were in attendance, including those from eight theatre groups and freelancing individuals, from New Delhi.

SMART On Wheels #7 – Pune, Maharashtra
February 10, 2018 | Rangadarshan Sabhagruh, Maharashtra Cultural Center, Pune Maharashtra
SMART Facilitators: Ashish Mehta and Pradeep Vaiddya (SMART Alumnus 2015)
SMART Alumni: Ravi Choudhary, Natak Company (SMART Alumnus 2015) and Rupali Bhave, Jacaranda (SMART Alumnus 2016)
Local partner and host: Aasakta Kalamanch, Expression Lab, Maharashtra Cultural Center
40 participants were in attendance, from 27 theatre groups and several freelancing individuals, from Pune, Nashik, and Kolhapur.

SMART in FY 2017-18 was funded by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan New Delhi.