“In a society where literacy rates are low and people have little entertainment options, theatre performances are a way of providing both knowledge and entertainment.” (Zahoor, District Program Coordinator, Sachet Chakwal)”

Theatre in Pakistan is generally perceived as an entertainment mostly limited to male audiences and associated with non-family kind of recreation with humor at times bordering next to vulgarity and adult back-slapping: “I remember, we were organizing a theatre performance in one of the villages and a woman was very vocal in her disapproval due to social unacceptability of theatres as a family event. But after the performance, she agreed that the performance was enjoyable and informative.”(Female Social Organizer, Muzaffarabad District Office)

The main aim of introducing theatre as a RHIYA activity was to create awareness among the communities and stakeholders alike about various aspects of reproductive health through interactive performances highlighting RH related issues according to the socio-cultural practices. Female participation in any performing arts is definitely not acceptable among majority of the people especially in the rural areas of the country, but for RHIYA partners, female participation in theatre activities was an additional challenge requiring a lot of effort.

This skeptic community perception towards liberal arts led RHIYA to a more realistic approach whereby the three RHIYA partners would work with already existing local theatre groups in the target districts as a demonstration affect. PAVHNA was the first partner to initiate the process by getting together ten individual local entertainers in Muzaffarabad who usually performed dance and singing numbers in local social gatherings. The idea was to initiate the process through already experienced performers on the presupposed assumption that gradually the target group of adolescent and youth would start participating and develop their own skills and eventually form community based theatre groups.

“We were clueless about theatre and how to go about the process of initiating such an activity. Of course, we were also weary of the local reaction understanding the concept of theatre according to the community perceptions. But, we were fortunate that one of our youth counselors in the district office had some experience of interactive theatre and had also received a few trainings on it from a Lahore based organization. Ijaz started working with the local (male) youth, who showed interest in becoming a part of RHIYA theatre group. The first performance by this group was presented on the World AIDS Day. It was a great hit with the audience.” (Arshad Hanif, MSS District Program Coordinator, Kohat)

The RHIYA program strategy of involving existing local talent worked. The first few performances in Chakwal, Muzaffarabad and Kohat had a definite positive feedback and the community members, gatekeepers and stakeholders highly appreciated the effort. In Muzaffarabad, Chakwal and Kohat districts, after the first performance, many youngsters started coming forth to become a part of the program theatre groups in their respective districts, indicating to the district and program teams that theatre could be an effective method of information dissemination, community and youth participation.

“I feel it (theatre) is one of the most effective communication tool in RHIYA as people enjoy and learn at the same time. We were quite nervous in the beginning regarding the response of the audience considering the subject matter of these performances and the local perception regarding theatre. But the response was much more than our anticipation.”(Male Youth Leader, Muzaffarabad)

PAVHNA after the initial positive public response allocated a YFC to the theatre group. This center became a center for all theatre related activities, like script writing, rehearsing, planning of the event etc. including a training point for those local youth who were interested in theatre performances. Subjects for the performances focused on HIV and AIDS, STIs, small family norms, advantages of breast feeding and other social issues like child abuse, gender discrimination etc.

During the community performances, the effectiveness of theatre can be seen through the interest of the audience and more so during and after the performance when the audience are provided an opportunity to interact with the performance and ask questions regarding the performance.

“Lively discussions and questions take place after our community performances. Men and women alike enjoy the performances and seem to understand the issues, which are indicated by the questions asked towards the end of the program.” (Youth PAVHNA Theatre Group Member)

Adapted from RHIYA Best Practices, Theatre groups among RHIYA Partners, Case Study III.