From Script to Classroom: Using Theatrical Storytelling to Teach Hindi Through Read-Aloud, Interpretation, and Discussion
Date April 18th, Saturday, 3 to 4
By Mayuri Raman Nayan
Abstract
This workshop introduces Hindi teachers to a practical, lesson-based approach to theatrical storytelling. Using a short play script from Rangdarpan as the model text, the session demonstrates how dramatic reading, guided interpretation, and classroom discussion can be shaped into an engaging language lesson. Rather than treating a script only as literature to be read silently, participants will explore how voice, pauses, emotional cues, and character perspective can help students listen more closely, speak more confidently, and connect more deeply with language and culture. The workshop emphasizes low-pressure, classroom-friendly strategies that do not require stage experience, making the approach accessible for both virtual and in-person teaching. Teachers will leave with a ready-to-adapt lesson model they can use with other short plays, dialogues, and narrative texts in their own Hindi classrooms.
Target Audience
- Hindi teachers and South Asian language educators
- Heritage language and world language instructors
- Teachers interested in storytelling, theatre, and experiential learning
- No prior theatre background required
What Participants Will Learn
- how to design a performance-based Hindi lesson around a short dramatic text
- how to use read-aloud strategies to support comprehension, pronunciation, fluency, and interpretive skills
- how to guide students to notice voice, pause, tone, emotion, and character perspective while reading a script
- how to build pre-reading, during-reading, and post-reading tasks that make language learning active and meaningful
- how to teach vocabulary and expressions through dialogue, context, and character interaction rather than rote explanation
- how to connect interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational communication through one shared classroom text
- how to adapt the same script for different proficiency levels and for both online and in-person Hindi classrooms
Session Structure
| Session Flow | What it includes |
| Opening and context (5 min) | A brief framing of theatrical storytelling and why dramatic reading works so well in language classrooms. |
| Model lesson with Rangdarpan script (15–20 min) | Participants experience a short play excerpt through read-aloud, voice modulation, emotional cues, character perspective, and minimal performative choices. |
| Discussion and reflection (10–15 min) | Teachers discuss meaning, interpretation, cultural context, learner response, and ways to scaffold the script for their own classes. |
| Classroom application (5 min) | Practical ideas for adapting the method across proficiency levels in online and in-person Hindi classrooms. |
Why This Workshop Matters
In many virtual and hybrid classrooms, language learning can start to feel flat or overly text-bound. This workshop offers a more human, voice-centred approach. Theatrical storytelling invites learners to hear rhythm, feel emotion, notice intention, and respond to language as lived expression rather than as isolated vocabulary or grammar alone. Because the method relies on presence, listening, and imagination rather than staging or memorization, it is especially useful for teachers who want an interactive classroom practice that is simple, adaptable, and culturally grounded.
About Mimansa
Mimansa is a storytelling and learning initiative that blends theatre, literature, and pedagogy to create engaging, culturally rooted educational experiences. Its work uses narrative and performance as tools for connection, reflection, and language learning across age groups and proficiency levels.
SALTA 