BENGALURU: When Sangeetha Goel, narrates her stories, she is used to having an average of 25-30 people as the audience. But understanding the gravity of the situation, she has no complaints about recording a few stories for her listeners. While the city faces a lockdown, many groups are conducting events online to keep people engaged. From storytelling to live music sessions, artistes are using technology to keep up the spirit of people during this time. “I have started sending audio stories to people since Monday, after a friend’s request,” says Goel, who also hosts a radio show on storytelling. After Goel had put out the message, she has received requests from over six people till now.
Due to the stay-at-home order from the government, many of Goel’s shows have been cancelled. She says it becomes even more crucial for her to help people stay calm now. “I conduct storytelling sessions to deal with anxiety. When I got a request for an audio story, I realised the power of storytelling in calming people down,” says 34-year-old Goel, who also takes storytelling classes in different schools. However, she misses her audience because her kind of storytelling also includes theatricals and live reaction from people, which Goel is unable to perform now.
While she is all geared up with her online storytelling sessions, That Extra Step (TES), a city-based community building group, is going to have a live jam session on Instagram this weekend. Shubha Pradha Somashekar, one of the co-founders of TES, says the theme for all activities this week was on music to celebrate World Music Day. “It’s funny how TES is all about going offline and connecting with each other without any gadgets or alcohol. Since many people are in quarantine, we decided to tweak our rules a little bit,” says Somashekar, adding, “It is also important to maintain people’s optimism right now.” The Instagram live will have Karen Ruth Correa, a city-based Indie artist performing on March 21.
Harihara S S, the other co-founder of TES, says they are trying to do as many shows online to keep people engaged. “We are planning to do online quizzes next. We are trying to translate as many offline activities as possible to the online platform,” he adds.
It’s not just social activities, even theatre groups like Citylamps, which is known for their playback theatre, are doing their rehearsals on video calls.“Just to keep that creative flow, we are doing some of our improv theatre rehearsals online,” says Laxmi Priya, one of the members of the group.