Manas Moulic, India 2026
Dr. Manas Moulic is a Professor of English, playwright, theatre director, lyricist and educator from India. While playwriting began as a personal artistic pursuit, it has remained a sustained and disciplined practice through which he explores socio-political realities, power structures, and social contradictions on stage. His plays often employ satire, irony, symbolism, and dark humour to engage with contemporary issues without resorting to didacticism.
Though not formally trained in playwriting, his theatrical work emerges from long engagement with literature, performance, and lived social experience. As an educator, he is deeply interested in how society and politics shape dramatic form, character, and theatrical language. His teaching practice bridges academic inquiry and practical creation, encouraging writers and performers to observe closely, think critically, and translate social tensions into performable dramatic action. He continues to view theatre as a space for dialogue, ethical questioning, and imaginative resistance.
Writing Socio-Political Satire for the Stage
This workshop focuses on the craft of writing socio-political satirical plays for the contemporary stage. It invites participants to examine society not as an abstract concept, but as a living network of habits, contradictions, power relations, and everyday performances. The emphasis is on transforming social observation into theatrical action rather than ideological statements.
Participants will explore different modes of satire - irony, exaggeration, parody, allegory, and dark humor - and how this function dramaturgically in performance. Special attention will be given to creating characters who embody social and political tensions without becoming stereotypes or mouthpieces.
Through guided discussion and practical writing exercises, participants will learn how theatrical tools such as space, rhythm, repetition, silence, and symbolism can sharpen satirical impact.
The workshop encourages writers to balance critical distance with empathy, allowing satire to question authority while remaining humane and performable. By the end of the session, participants will have developed short satirical scenes and a clearer understanding of how socio-political material can be shaped into effective, stage-ready dramatic writing.