00:03The students of St. Joseph's High School in Kerala's Kodungallur are rehearsing a play.
00:10A day before the performance, Albert is helping them get ready, sharing tips from his own experience on stage.
00:19Albert is one of several community members who took the stage and became a theatre actor.
00:25The story he is helping the children to tell is one he knows all too well.
00:38Surrounded by backwaters, Albert's neighbourhood has long-faced seawater seeping into homes during high tides.
00:45And every time the water rose, it brought back a painful memory for Albert, the day he lost his friend.
01:05For people like Albert, tidal floods have been a harsh reality.
01:11These experiences found their way onto the stage, not through trained actors but via the people who had lived them.
01:19Albert and other residents came together to tell their stories in a play called Chevit Torma, a remembrance in our
01:26years.
01:40For Albert, theatre became a way of giving voice to a deeply personal experience.
01:46For audiences, it became a way of witnessing an environmental reality they may never have experienced themselves.
02:03In the coastal town of Alibag, south of Mumbai, artist Rachna Toshniwal has been facing a changing environment as well.
02:11After years, as an environmental activist, she turned to art.
02:16My experience with the environmental work was very fulfilling and very amazing working with the communities.
02:23But I also realised that we needed a greater, deeper shift in our perception and consciousness about what is our
02:30relationship with nature.
02:33Rachna began collecting waste washed up on the shore and tried to see it in a different light.
02:39Soon, twenty local women joined her.
02:42Homemakers, farmers and women whose lives were closely tied to the coast.
02:47Together, they transformed discarded materials into artworks.
02:51What the sea gave up, the women began to reship by hand.
02:57We have to think about what we have to do and what we have to do.
03:25Back to the stage. Over the last two years, the play has travelled beyond the community, taking its experience of
03:32tidal flooding to audiences across India. But the story didn't stop there. It helped create tangible results for local communities
03:40struggling with tidal floods.
03:52After years of working with the community, climate research organization Equinoct recognized theatre's potential to strengthen both awareness and action
04:02around tidal flooding.
04:04Chevatorma did something that we were not able to do as scientists, is to bring people together under a common
04:10vision and hope that something is possible.
04:13The wider campaign around tidal flooding contributed to its recognition as a state-specific disaster in Kerala in 2026.
04:24Back in Maharashtra, the focus was not just on collecting waste, but also on helping people to see their surroundings
04:31differently.
04:32Rachana's workshops included simple sensory exercises, such as experiencing the beach with eyes shut.
04:56The experience also changed how some of the women dealt with waste in their everyday lives.
05:16In both places, art began with personal experiences of environmental change.
05:22But, once given form, those experiences could be shared, witnessed and understood by others.
05:31In Kerala, Chevatorma is now being carried forward by a new generation.
05:37For these children, the story is not something they have to imagine.
06:02For the women of Maharashtra, the biggest change may have been how they see themselves.
06:18For Albert, watching the children take the stage is a reminder of the children of the children of Maharashtra.
06:32For Albert, watching the children take the stage is a reminder of the children of Maharashtra.
06:36how far a story that began in flooded homes has travelled.
06:41Perhaps, the first step towards being heard is finding a way to tell personal stories,
06:46especially for those living through environmental change.
