A culture cannot be authentically recreated outside of its context but it can be dramatized to bring that experience to a global audience, providing a wider lens into its beauty and diversity. Performance arts opens a window into another culture through creativity and exposure to the tradition. It not only creates awareness but promotes new and diverse interactions among the community. Indus Arts Council achieves that by engaging diverse audience from its surrounding communities to perform theatrical plays in the Urdu language. Children and adults learning Urdu at IAC’s language classes get a chance to participate in the theatrical performances, organized at the end of each semester, bringing the learning of language, its usage, and experience, full circle.
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Children’s Theatre presents a play every year during summer. Students from the Urdu Language Learning classes and Urdu Summer Camp are provided an opportunity to exercise the language in a contextual, expressive form. Children’s play is a full production, complete with costumes and set, designed around inspired stories. Plays are written and directed in-house by Indus Arts Council members who collaborate with other local talent for set design, costume, music, and stage production. Parents as volunteers are a huge asset in our theatre productions.
Children’s plays are inspired by Disney movies and other classic stories to create connection with U.S. born children of South Asian heritage so they can easily relate to the characters and story. The play is then tweaked and re-written with addition of ethnic scenes, character names, costumes, and sets that depict the Pakistani lifestyle in the time-period.