KARACHI: In a narrow yard inside a community center in the Pakistani city of Karachi, a group of young boys and girls stood in a circle on one foot, engaging in a movement exercise aimed to give the students a grounding in practical performance skills as well as allow them to socialize and have fun.
The scene was from the Lyari Theatre Academy, housed in a two-story building rented out by the Dreams of Youth Welfare Society as a space to provide multiple trainings and classes to young people in Lyari, one of the poorest areas of Karachi, known for its soaring crime rates and criminal gangs.
Launched last month, the Academy is currently running a three-month-long course, with two-hour classes thrice a week, conducted by a male and a female instructor. The first session was held on May 22 and the course is currently in its third week, with 19 students, of whom five are girls. The classes have a Rs1,000 ($3.5) per month fee, but the dues for more than 90 percent of students are paid by welfare and community organizations that work in Lyari.
The theater workshops are the brainchild of Sabeer Ahmed, a stage actor and social activist, who wanted to create a space where young people, particularly girls, could learn theater and with it have fun and build confidence.
“The biggest thing for us is to first convince parents to let their children come here for theater,” Ahmed told Arab News, as a young boy behind him practiced projecting his voice while a group listened.
“People consider theater a taboo here. They think if it’s theater, it’s something bad.”
The picture taken on June 5, 2023, showsstudents doing a warmup exercise before their acting class at Lyari Theatre Academy in Karachi, Pakistan. (AN photo)
Ahmed said the main purpose of starting the classes was so girls, often not allowed to go out of the neighborhood, could have a space for entertainment and activity.
“Now we have formed the Lyari Theatre Academy here, and most of these people [students] are coming from the vicinity,” he said. “They take it as an entertainment to escape from the suffocated environment they live in.”
Student Shanze Tahir Durrani said her family allowed her to pursue her childhood passion after they learnt that the classes were taking place inside Lyari.
“I was really interested to learn theater,” she said. “When I learnt that it is happening in my own locality, then my family allowed me to go and learn.”
Rimsha Usman Ghani, a theater artist who is an instructor at the Academy, described her own struggles as a young girl interested in the performing arts.
“Most people know about the situation in Lyari, it’s very tough to pursue theater here and it was tough for me too,” she said. “But I was [able to do it] because of my father’s support, who went against my entire family to support me in theater.”
Rimsha Usman Ghani (center), an instructor at the Lyari Theatre Academy, gives briefing to her students during an acting class in Karachi, Pakistan, on June 5, 2023. (AN photo)
Now, Ghani wants to pass her skills forward.
“I am now trying my best that whatever I have learnt, whatever I have read, I am able to take it forward in my Lyari, especially to girls,” the instructor said. “Because I understand that it’s very difficult for girls to step out and perform.”
Indeed, said Ghani, the drama classroom was one of the few places where real world life skills such as communication and self-confidence could also be taught.
“Girls should be confident enough to speak to anyone, whether it’s a male or a female,” she said.
“When I took the first class, girls did not have that much confidence. After three weeks, I saw confidence in them. Earlier, they couldn’t even stand next to a boy but now they are engaging in activities with them.”
