Role: Co-Director/ Media Designer

Co-Directors: Dr. Erika Hughes, Asma Niaz

Producer: Kinnaird College, Lahore PK; US State Dep.

Venue: Kinnaird College, Lahore Pakistan

Media Design Assistants:

Summary: Sponsored by ASU’s Center for the Study of Conflict and Religion and a US State Dept grant, Dr. Hughes and Branch participated in a 3 week residency leading up to the development of an interactive and immersive theatre piece. Drawn from the personal experiences of 30 Pakistani women studying at Kinnaird, the production was inspired by miniature paintings from the region. Focusing on ‘tiny brushstrokes’ of sights, sounds, and smells of the bustling city of Lahore, Lahore in Miniature explored past and present Lahore with auto-ethnographic monologues interspersed with ancient folktales from the region. The entire theatre was divided into three regions focused respectively on sight with video projection, sound with Punjabi musical instruments, choral singing, and pottery used percussively, and smell with various perfumes, foods, and other fragrances of the city.

Several theatre devising and improvisational techniques were used to help the ensemble develop original auto-ethnographic monologues that were eventually woven together to create the piece. For the sight portion of the performance translucent fabric was hung from the fly system and the audience was invited to sit on stage as they were surrounded by media spilling through the fabric. Isadora was connected to two projectors and used for video processing, mapping video to the fabric, and playback. Two media studies graduate students from the college assisted in developing content for the production and video mapping.