How to Break Walls between Genders

A Chennai-based group of transgender activists is using theatre to evoke the empathy of people

After earning a degree in Journalism from Madras University, a transgender woman named Angel Glady decided to go to theatre school in Korea. One day she received an overseas call from a friend named Living Smile Vidya, also a transgender woman, who was studying performing arts in London.

“She talked about Connect, a platform there for the expression of artistic talents of transgenders. We decided to explore such a platform in India as well,” says Glady. And thus was born Panmai, a theatre group that uses art to highlight issues affecting the transgender community. Earlier this month, the Chennai- based group staged a play in Kerala.

Like many transgender people, Glady and Vidya have also had a traumatic past; they were cast out of their families (and societies) and had to move to metros to find like- minded and bodied people. In theatre, they finally found their calling. The Color of Trans, their play, has the group’s three actors—Vidya, Gladys and Vinodini Vaidyanathan— challenging the very idea of a ‘third gender’, asserting that gender identity is fluid.

The play begins with the stigma faced by a transgender woman because her voice is still masculine in tenor; she doesn’t talk while using the public ladies’ toilet because she might be questioned. The play also highlights other issues the community faces, like intimidation and sexual exploitation. “What we wanted to communicate is that we are human beings like anyone else, nothing less, nothing more,” says Vidya. She, Glady and Vinodini Vaidyanathan, had all worked with a French theatre group called Clowns Without Borders earlier. The team says the play has been well received. “We hope the walls between all genders will be broken one day,” says Vidya.

Panmai is also now planning to conduct workshops in painting, craft, dance and music for transgender people.

Angel GladyChennaiLiving Smile VidyaTransgender activists