Internship Spotlight: Gaïna Clara Paul - Teesri Duniya Theatre

I want to thank Mr. John Blachford for funding the Archie Malloch Internship in Public Learning award and making this internship possible.

I am an Honours Sociology student entering my third year with a minor in Indigenous Studies. I am interested in decolonization practices, intercultural solidarity and culture. I chose to pursue an internship at Teesri Duniya Theatre in Montreal, a political theatre that shares similar values in decolonization and multiculturalism. Teesri Duniya Theatre advocates for a theatre that features those marginalized and unrepresented in the mainstream. I looked forward to learning more about community mobilization and political theatre that uses its platform to spotlight injustices.

At this internship, I had the opportunity to interview 14 theatre practitioners, including directors, playwrights, and actors, as well as audience members involved with Teesri Duniya Theatre’s season, Staging Freedom. Many of the participants were artist-activists committed to resistance. Some of them had over 60 years of experience in theatre, and I was fortunate to be in their presence. Based on these interviews, I wrote an article on a “decolonized theatre”, which humanized Palestinian voices. All while examining the deep connections and solidarity between Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island and Palestinians. Using skills that I learned being a sociology major, I conducted semi-structured interviews and subsequently coded and analyzed these interviews.

Although it was challenging to go through and categorize all the interview transcripts, I learned so much from all the participants. The participants shared a desire to counter dehumanizing colonial narratives present in the mainstream through new and innovative practices. To measure the impact of these practices, I created a separate coding scheme for audience members. Ultimately, it was an opportunity for me to learn how to work more efficiently while sticking to the fundamentals of research.

As a Sociology student interested in research, this was a great opportunity to lead a research project of this kind. I reached out to participants with the help of my amazing manager, scheduled the interviews, and juggled with my participants’ different time zones. It was worth being able to discuss such a topic with them.

I also had the pleasure of participating in various events hosted by Teesri, such as book talks, poetry readings, and staged readings. I did front of house for these events, selling tickets and welcoming our audience members. I became familiar with many of Teesri’s regular audience that way. I also updated a working play script with new changes to give to actors. All meaningful activities!

I was especially excited to be on stage, reading the stage directions for our artistic director, Rahul Varma’s new play. Alongside amazing actors and our phenomenal director, Lib Spry, I participated in the first staged reading of Dhara’s Revenge. In his first comedic play, I was awed to see the sheer number of community members that Rahul’s play brought together.

I took on Teesri’s library cataloguing for a while. True to its mandate, Teesri’s library is geared towards marginalized and racialized authors and topics. Teesri has an extensive physical library of scripts, academic literature and novels to benefit the community. I categorized the books of Teesri’s library in the online database for easy finding.

I want to thank the entire Teesri Duniya Theatre team, with a special thanks to Rahul, for making this internship a fulfilling one. I also want to thank all the participants who agreed to be interviewed because they believed in my project!

I want to express my gratitude for having received the Archie Malloch Undergraduate Internships in Public Learning award. With the help of the generous donation of Mr. John Blachford, I was able to spend a summer working and researching at a theatre with a commitment to supporting marginalized communities.