SatRang Mahotsav is a theatre festival that aims to platform and celebrate queer art and artists. Our definition of ‘queer’ is expansive, inclusive, and trusting. If you say you are queer we accept you, whether you are bisexual, trans, lesbian, non-binary, asexual, intersex, pansexual, third gender, gay or simply ‘not straight’. We do not believe in gatekeeping identities, and we do not hold with hierarchies of queerness. We support everyone’s right to self-identify as the gender and sexual orientation they know themselves to be, and we also support a fluid sense of self that changes labels when they no longer fit.
SatRangaM supports the right of all people to privacy, and to establishing whatever boundaries they want with public statements about their gender and sexual orientation identities. We do not believe that performers must announce their identity in order to perform a role on stage. We also recognise that conversations around representation and access to platforms are nuanced and we support the questioning of choices made by dominant performing arts industries that harm, denigrate or suppress the work of queer artists.
We know that queerness is a political identity and we are firm that queer freedom and equity is incomplete without liberation from all forms of oppression—casteism, communalism, racism, sexism, colonialism, ableism, classism and every other system that hoards power by harming others.
We believe all art is political, and that freedom of speech is an essential human right enhanced by our community’s right to reject work that we find hateful or harmful to us. We want to curate a diversity of viewpoints and foster a spirit of respectful critique.
We believe that queer art and self-expression is not inherently explicit simply because it is queer. We consider safe access to queer spaces an important right for children and young people to have and that young people and their legal guardians can decide for themselves if a performance is appropriate to attend.
We want to empower every audience member with the ability to protect themselves by sharing advance information about content in performances that they need to know about in order to decide whether to attend.
We know that every form of work in performance spaces deserves respect, labour rights, and financial recompense. We seek to host a space that gives every member of cast and crew the same welcome and support.
We believe that theatre spaces should be inclusive, and should actively work to dismantle the structures of elitism they inherit. We want to stand in solidarity with every community that has felt excluded or barred from the theatre and we promise to work to making them more accessible.
We believe that complaints about structural oppressions need to be actively invited and made space for in order to dismantle the protective machinery that silences victims. We want to create institutions that prioritise the safety of survivors over biased definitions of ‘good art’.
We want to make a festival where your body feels welcome, your mind feels challenged, and your soul feels nourished.