New performance skills involved training in the language(s) of acting with a focus on the multilinguality of Weavings: English, Malayalam, Indian Sign Language, and Braille in order to expand the communicative apparatus and understanding of all participants. Multisensory acting training in “theatre in the dark,” “visual and object theatres,” “touch-image theatres,” “accessible new media sound art and sound sculptures,” and “theatre games” lead to an innovative creative collaborative workshop, rehearsal, and performance space. “Sense Methods”—a system that blends the use of mudras, ISL, and touch ensured that no one sensory system was privileged, and that storytelling-through-movement was foregrounded. Further skill development in collaboration, interdisciplinary arts practices, intercultural performance, accessible music, and accessible rehearsal techniques further enhanced capacities for understanding, empathy, dialogue, and creativity. A unique feature of this project was the exploration of games as activities for ensemble-building as well as devices for advancing the storytelling through interactive approaches.
*This low angle shot captures a group of participants practicing fluid, expressive movements with outstretched arms. The light from above highlights their poses of physical beauty and the sense of collective focus in their movement.
*Four participants sit on a tiled floor, collaborating on mixed-media art. They are using yarn, clay, tape, and stones to create tactile, three-dimensional designs on tan cardboard sheets.
*Participants lift a large, intricate white cargo net toward an overhead light which is a large-scale Spider Web. Its thick knots and hanging fabric strips form a shifting structural shape in the darkness.
*The participants practice with large, vibrant animal puppets on rods and draped in yellow and magenta cloth. While puppeteers in the center carefully manipulate figures, others observe with scripts in hand.
