Mumbai: The 16th edition of Thespo, the annual drama festival for theatre-wallahs below the age of 25 that is taking place from 15th to 21st December 2014 will host 6 Plays, 6 Platform Performances, 7 Fringe Performances including film screening and play readings, 15 workshops and 4 live music acts. The festival is centered on the theme ‘Plug-In to the Tamasha’.

With its effort to demonstrate the purity and simplicity of theatre without the frills, Thespo 16’s fringe performances are sure to impress. Of noteworthy mention is the ‘Violence Against Women Project’, conceptualized by Gillian Clark, an interdisciplinary Theatre Artist hailing from Halifax, Nova Scotia. It will mark two years since the Delhi Gang Rape with a cross-cultural discussion on the meaning of sexual violence against women in urban India and Canada (16th December 2014, 7 PM, Prithvi House).

Gillian Clark is being invited to work with young Indian theatre makers to reflect what sexual violence against women means in urban India in comparison to that in Canada – to spark a cross-cultural discussion. The question she is looking to answer is how can we use social media to unite us and catalyst global and cross-cultural discussions about sexual violence against women?

Gillian Clark is an interdisciplinary Theatre Artist, residing in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She graduated from the Dalhousie Theatre Program with her honours in Acting in 2013. Gillian strives for her work to be honest, unpredictably relatable, and driven by the truthful comedy and tragedy in humanity. Her desire through all of her writing is to create a new sense of empathy through vulnerability.

This year, Thespo has scoured through a record total of 186 entries from across India, Sri Lanka and Canada. Organized by QTP, under the aegis of Theatre Group Bombay, it will be taking place in two venues this year: the iconic Prithvi Theatre, which has been the home of Thespo since 2008, and Sitara Studio, the city’s latest indie cultural space that used to stage Marathi plays back in the 1970s.

For information on the complete schedule of events, ticket prices, etc., please visitwww.thespo.org.