Spacing Theatre/ Chandradasan

Poranadi (the Outcast)

2012-02-08T08:09:00.000+05:30

Lankalakshmi

2012-02-08T08:05:00.000+05:30

Karnnabharam (The anguish of Karnna)

2012-02-08T08:03:00.000+05:30

Karnnabharam (The anguish of Karnna)

2012-02-06T06:56:00.000+05:30

Collaboration, the base of creation'

2012-02-03T08:22:00.001+05:30

Anna Salas

SEARCHING FOR CREATIVITY: Italian drama director Andriya Kusomano speaking at a 'Social, political, cultural and aesthetics surroundings of Collaborative Theatre' yesterday at the Regional Theatre. Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi chairman TM Abraham, theatre actor K Kaladharan and Prof Chandradasan participated.

"Collaboration is the base of creation," tells Andriya Kusumano from Italy. The concept means so much to the director, stenographer, performer, painter and installation artist all-rolled-into-one theatre activist.

So, collaborative creation is what in US called devised theatre. It is a form of theatre in which the script is developed not by a writer or writers, but originated from collaborative, usually improvisatory, work by a group of people.

However, the work is developed not necessarily through the performers, but usually it could be so. This form could be easily connected to the street theatre.

Surprisingly, it is not always distinguishable from improvisational theatre, but by the time a devised piece presents itself to the public, it usually has a fixed form.

The improvisation is confined to the creation process, and either writer, director or the performers themselves, will have decided exactly what is to be included and the running sequence.

"Collaboration turns on the expression of the natural emotions and also it helps bring in a complete change in the social and political field in the West" he added.

The renowned director and vice chairman of the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi TM Abraham explained the drawbacks of the collaborative theatre.

"The politics of funding helps escape from the real daily life and the collaborative creation is trying to ruin the language and the writing process," he observed.

The seminar discussed the subject 'The perception of scientific, cultural, political and aesthetic view of the collaborative theatre'.

Andriya Kusumano presented the Western view of the theatre art, especially in the collaborative theatre.

The seminar was conducted at the Regional Theatre as part of the 4th International Theatre festival of Kerala yesterday.

Collaboration is the theatre of the future and it is trying to find a venue in Malayalam theatre, actor K Kaladharan said.

The Lokadharmi Theatre Group and Mazhavillu, a children theatre group, founder Prof Chandradasan made the introduction speech at the seminar.

In the morning session, a talk show with Rajasthan Institute of Folklore secretary Kuldeep Kothari, and in the evening session musical programme were held.

Courtesy –City Journal 03 February 2012

Lankalakshmi@Kottayam

2012-01-29T00:58:00.001+05:30

The play Lankalakshmi is performed at Darsana Auditorium Kottayam on 29th January 2012, as part of the vilambara of ITFoK 2012, organised by Kerala Sangeet Natak Academy.

“The plot of this play is not just the frailty of a king who is an admirer of beauty. War, diplomacy, ethnic conflicts, ups and downs of ethics, etc are engrossed in it… It originated from the blood that surged from the severed breast of Soorppanakha. That river of blood is ferociously flooding down, with all its fury. Betrayal, Deceit, Destruction, and Death have taken charge of the four destinations…. Now, there remains just a single resolution….”

This play is about the anxieties and agonies of war. It can be said that war is the protagonist and antagonist of this play, and is reflected in different shades in different characters, with Ravana as the key metaphor. Death is projected in all its intensity; the death of heroes is continuously taking place, one after the other. Amidst the continuity of deaths of dear and near ones, the play envisages the plight of Ravana caught in the cross-roads of life and death, the ultimate fate of an egoist reveling in his physical and mental prowess.

The play starts when Rama and his army has crossed the sea, reached Lanka and is waiting outside the fort of Ravana; the war is imminent and near. The first act of the play portrays the internal conflicts and turbulence in the Ravana clan at the face of the war; different voices rise within the race.

"All the treasures in the three worlds should belong to Lanka," is the motive force that leads Ravana. He went after women, not just because he fancied them, but also to enrich his pedigree, to glorify Lanka. In its wake might have come, lurking shadows of crime and curse. Sita is the priceless jewel that should be part of Lanka, even if she is married to another man.

The conflict between Ravana and his brother Vibheeshana goes back to their childhood. His companionship with his uncle Suparsvan reveals the generosity of give and take, although decision-making is the prerogative of Ravana. The conversation between them is like an inner monologue. The love for his brother Kumbhakarna is another tender knot that breaks his heart. His pride in his son is a pointer to his shattered persona as he hears the death of Meghanadhan. His intimate bond with his wife Mandodari is another aspect of his noble nature. Soon the enemy enters his palace, ravishes Mandodari.

The play is designed to be an intimate experience to the audience where the acting area merges and diffuses into the audience area. The presence of Sita and Soorppanakha depicted with paintings. The throne, palace, and the mighty Himalayas, where Ravana travels are abstracted into a multilevel set painted by monotones of blue.

The music has sounds of rain, thunder, wind, birds, and animals to create the ambience of a war field surrounded by ferocious sea of blood.

The narrative of the play takes place in a three dimensional space with varying perspective. The three different narratives used simultaneously merges and juxtapose to create a more universal meaning to the whole rendering. The text written by CN Sreekantan Nair is sandwiched between the Recital of Adhyatma Ramayana written by Ezhuthachan which is based on Bhakthi and Ramayana by Kambar (rendered as Tholpavakoothu) which treats Ramayana down to earth and looks into the potentials of the text as a performance.

The Artists Participating in the show at Kottayam are, VR Selvaraj, Johny Thottunkal , Ajaikumar Thiruvankulam , Madan Kolavil, Jolly Antony , Cijin Sukumar , Shaiju T Hamza , Joshua Antony K , Adithye KN, Manosh, Kishore NK, K Viswanatha Pulavar & Group Koonathara, Shoranur, Pattanam Rasheed Prasanth Madhav, Gireesh Menon, Jenson, Jebin Jesmes, Charu Narayanan, Sukanya Shaji, Usha Shaji,Sanosh Palluruthy, Pattanam Rasheed and Arun R Kumar.

This is the Sixth performance of the production

Lankalakshmi @ Bharangam 2012, New Delhi

2012-01-02T01:24:00.000+05:30

Bharat Rang Mahotsav was established a decade ago by the National School of Drama to stimulate the growth and development of theatre across the country. Originally a national festival showcasing the work of the most creative theatre workers in India, it has evolved to international scope, hosting theatre companies from around the world, and is now the largest theatre festival of Asia.

The 14th Bharat Rang Mahotsav will be inaugurated with a visually beautiful production of Rabindranath Tagore’s highly symbolic play, ‘The King of Dark Chamber – ‘Raja’ directed by Ratan Thiyam with Chorus Repertory of Manipur. As a tribute to Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary, the festival has a focus on his works with 14 productions and 4 Allied events from among the 88 plays in the main repertoire and 11 Allied events.

At the forefront of the International section this year we have a focus on contemporary Polish Theatre with three very vibrant productions. Other countries represented in this festival include, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South Africa, United Kingdom, China, Japan, Italy, Pakistan, Israel, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Nepal.

A series of wrap around programs around the festival includes a talk on interactive sessions with the directors, a seminar on “The multi-disciplinary approach of Tagore’s performance language” and 5 photographic exhibitions.

The Schedule of the fest can be obtained from the link http://www.nsdtheatrefest.com/festival.php

Parallel Festival:

Bharat Rang Mahotsav is accompanied by a shorter festival in a second city, with selections from the main repertoire, extending the scope of the Mahotsav and sharing its fare with theatre lovers outside Delhi. The second festival has to date been held in Bengaluru, Kolkata, Mumbai, Lucknow, Bhopal and Chennai. This year it travels to Amritsar, Punjab.

DATES: JAN 8-22, 2012

Theatre from Kerala is represented by

1. Lankalakshmi

(Playwright:CN Sreekantan Nair, Dir: Chandradasan, Lokadharmi ) @ Meghadoot 3/Rabindrabhavan – 5.00 pm on 9^th January 2012

2. Khud and Khuda

(Solo Performance by Gireesh , playwright :Rabindranath Tagore, Dir: Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, Sopanam Thiruvananathapuram) @Sammukh, 6.00 pm on 10^th January 2012

3. Marimankanni

(Playwright: M.N.Vinaykumar, Dir: V. Abhimanyu, Janabheri, Thrissur) @LTG 6.30 pm on 13^th January 2012

4. The Water Station

(Playwright: Shogo Ohta, Dir: Sankar Venkateswaran, Theatre Roots & Wings, Thrissur) @ Abhimanch, 8.30 pm 14^th January 2012

5. Jalam

(Dir: Madhu Gopinath & Vakkom Sajeev, Samudra Centre for Indian Contemporary Performing Arts, Thiruvananthapuram)@ Abhimanch, 8.30 pm 15^th January 2012

6. Peer Gynt

(Playwright: Henrik Ibsen, Dir: Deepan Sivaraman, Oxygen Theatre Company)@Kamani, 7.00 pm on 20^th January 2012.

Lankalakshmi

The music has sounds of rain, thunder, wind, birds, and animals to create the ambience of a war field surrounded by ferocious sea of blood.

The Artists Participating in the show at Delhi are, VR Selvaraj, Johny Thottunkal , Ajaikumar Thiruvankulam , Madan Kolavil, Jolly Antony , Cijin Sukumar , Shaiju T Hamza , Joshua Antony K , Adithye KN, Kalamandalam Prabhakaran, Manosh, Kishore NK, K Viswanatha Pulavar & Group Koonathara, Shoranur (comprising of KL Krishnakumar, Vipin, L Lakshmana Pulavar, KL Ramachandran, KN Somasundaran, Satheesh TP, S Sudheesh, and K Krishna Kumar) , Rasheed Kozhikode, Prasanth Madhav and Gireesh Menon, Jenson, Jebin Jesmes, Charu Narayanan, Sukanya Shaji, Usha Shaji, Rose Ligia, and Sanosh Palluruthy.

This is the fourth performance of the production.

At the doorstep of 2012…

2012-01-01T09:30:00.001+05:30

Let us move to 2012…

leaving the apprehensions of the bygone year

keeping the verve and energy acquired..

dreaming for fresh creative zeal

an year of peace around…

with lots more dreams, denser and transparent …

with lesser drama in social life…

richer Theatre in performance spaces…

Tagore Festival @ kadambazhipuram, a village in palakkad, Kerala.

2011-12-21T01:30:00.001+05:30

Kadambazhippuram is a remote village in Palakkadu district Kerala, almost 6 kilometers from Srikrishnapuram the nearest town and about 25 km from the district headquarters Palakkadu. In this typical village space a national theatre festival on the literature of Rabindranath Tagore is to take place. And the productions include works of Late Habib Tanvir, Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, Anuradha Kapoor, and Neelam Mansigh Choudhary. Actors like Seema Biswas, Gopi Sopanam are performing.

It is heartening to see that theatre of this magnitude and quality happens in a remote village, where most of our theatre is decided by a few cities; it can be said that the present scenario of Indian theatre is such that its predicament is decided by the city based sensibility and the concerns and pre-occupations of the urbanite. The major landscape of the Indian rural reality is sidelined and, marginalized in its physicality, aesthetics, and content, mode of operation and in all realms of its existence. It is at this context this festival become important. it is not just a festival, it is the continuity of the village based theatre movement named Natyasastra, which organizes workshops, produce new plays and perform it, organize seminars and festivals and all allied activities in connection to theatre, ably lead by Dileepan and a host of his friends, dear and near ones. Kudos to him and his team.

The theatre festival is scheduled feom 24^th of December to 28^th of December. The plays included are

24 December 5.30 pm Inaugural session. Ms Anuradha Kapoor inaugurates the festival ; Neelam Mansingh Chaodhary releases the festival book. The keynote address is given by Ms. Maya twen berg from the theatre academy of Finland, Helsinki.

7.00 pm Play Jeevit Ya Mrut dir Anuradha Kapoor, by Vivadi New Delh

Vivadi’s Jivit ya Mrit, dramatized by Geetanjali Shree from the short story in which a widow Kadambini . People think of her as dead while she is alive all the time. To prove that she was indeed alive, she has to die in the end.
Seema Biswas performs this solo, less realistic and more a mental landscape of imaginings that displayed her marvellous speech range from high screams of fear to bass rumbles entertaining her young nephew.

The play was directed by the director of National School of Drama Anuradha Kapoor.
Sunday, December 25
10.30 a.m.: Meet the artists
7.00 p.m. "A Wife's Letter,' (Adaptation of Tagore's play, 'Streer Patra'), dir. Neelam Mansingh Chowdhry, for The Company, Chandigarh
The protagonist of the play is a child bride Mrinal who secretly writes poetry to assuage the listlessness of her routine and mundane life. She finds companionship with the cows and buffaloes in the house while fulfilling the routine chores of her household. In this monotonous universe enters Bindu, the orphaned sister of her older sister-in-law. This simple event becomes the trigger which unravels layers of experiences that are then shared and collectively explored. The two characters become the pivot and everything revolves around their beautiful and haunting relationship, fraught with ambiguity.

The director has used teo actors two play Mrinal - one is participating in the physical action on the stage and the other who is taking the narrative forward. ‘The male actor who is playing Mrinal is not constructing the role as a female impersonator nor is he playing androgynous. He is creating a de-gendering of his role, leading perhaps to a more egalitarian approach to performance’ says the director.

Monday, December 26
10.30 a.m.: Meet the artists
6.00 p.m.: Tagore Sketches (Short Plays) presented by Thrissur Natakasangham, Dir: C.R.Rajan, K.B.Hari.
7.00 p.m.: 'Bali,' (Malayalam adaptation of Tagore's play, 'Bisarjan,') presented by Natyasastra, Dir. Narippatta Raju.

Gobindamanikya, Tripura’s monarch, on realizing the futility of blood sacrifices, issued a ban on these unnecessary slaughters at the altar ofthe Goddess. Undoubtedly, this caused a general discontent in the state that was encouraged by high priest Raghupati, who held himself supreme in the matter of religion. He felt that by prohibiting the ritual, the king had definitely committed a grave crime and to punish and humiliate him, he tries various means to drive everyone against Gobindamanikya.

Tuesday, December 27
10.30 a.m.: Meet the artists
6.00 p.m.: Tagore Sketches (Short Plays) presented by Thrissur Natakasangham
7.00 p.m.: 'Chandalika,' presented by Sopanam, Thiruvanathapuram, Dir. Kavalam Narayana Panicker

Tagore's Chandalika (Untouchable Girl), which was modeled on an ancient Buddhist legend describing how Ananda, the Gautama Buddha's disciple, asks a tribal girl for water.

8.00 p.m.: 'Khud our Khuda,' presented by Sopanam, Dir. Kavalam Narayana Panicker, performed by V. Gireesh.
Through the highly inventive imagery and rich and thought provoking ideas contained in the poetry of Rabindranath Tagore, a dramatic text is created to highlight their subtle, but powerful theatre potentials. The basic theme envisaged in the production, as the name Khud and Khuda suggests is the inevitable relationship between the individual and the universe, the man and the God, the micro and the macro. Tagore’s poetry celebrates the time immemorial theme of the struggle of the human spirit, its continuous search for the ultimate, its expectations and failures, sorrow and joy all described in the subtle and gross perspective. Following the path of the classical poets of the yonder past like Valmiki and Vyasa, Tagore also contemplates on dharma and nurtured the grand vision of the ultimate liberation of man. In his lofty message, the constant chase or the hunt that man is engaged in within and without for his own identity proves that the hunter and hunted for are one and the same.

The text for the performance consists of selected jewels from Tagore’s short poems and Gitanjali as well as certain essential excerpts from Raja and other plays to do justice to the theme. The vocal rendition is in four languages, Sanskrit, Malayalam, Hindi and English.

Talking about the play, ‘Khud aur Khuda’, Panikkar described how the play in four languages and yet the most effective was the fifth language i.e. the language of theatre. The Director ensured smooth transition from one language to the next.

Wednesday, December 28
10.30 a.m.: Meet the artists
3.00 p.m.: Seminar . Noted journalist Venkitesh Ramakrishnan will present the paper and the participants are Raghuthaman, Chandradasan, Gramaprakash, Ramesh Varma, Ratnakaran, and Sreeja.

5.30 p.m.: Tagore Festival Valedictory Function
Inauguration: Kavalam Narayana Panikker
Keynote Address: Prof. K.Satchidanandan

7.00 p.m.: 'Raj-Rakt,' (based on Tagore's 'Bisarjan,' and 'Rajarshi,') presented by Naya Theatre, script, design & direction, Habib Tanvir.
Tagore’s Visarjan is one of his most powerful and most flawed plays, based on a clash between the priest of a kingdom and his king over whether animal sacrifice should be banned. Tanvir’s instinct was to go back to the far stronger novel, Rajarshi (1887) on which Visarjan was based, and meld the play and the novel. Raj-Rakta is one of the last productions directed by Habib Tanvir, and he has utilised minimalism as the theatre language. He has insisted the actors to control and restrict the gestures, movements, and be specific and sharp so that the idea and politics behind the performance will be crystal clear. This work is a classic example of how to write an adaptation. I remember watching Habib doing the rehearsals and insisting on the specificity of each moment, the clarity of the political connotations he tried to bring up in this production. This play is about the religious fundamentalism taking over the nation, and its system. The political power being manipulated by the religious fundamentalists this is a highly contemporary situation.

Beneath the umbrella of political intrigue, the play deals with religious and social issues. Central to the plot is the moral confrontation between the King and the Purohit. A child's simple query makes the King question the validity of bloodletting. After an animal sacrifice, a young girl asks the King, "Itna khoon kyun?

This play is performed by the seasoned artists of Naya Theatre.
This festival is going to be truly meaningful tribute on the 150^th birth centenary celebrations of Rabindranath Tagore. A festival set in a village atmosphere for a poet and dramatist who was searching for the villages of India for the cultural identity and the spirit of the nation. many of his characters dreamed to travel to the villages and the peaceful serenity of the rural nature, its people that can cure many diseases caused by the urban chaos.

Kalamandalam Gopi, Chandrasekhar Kambar, Kanhailal, KM Raghavan Nambiar, Alakhnandan honoured by SNA

2011-12-17T09:34:00.001+05:30

The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi at its meeting held on 13-14 December 2011 elected eleven (11) eminent personalities in the field of performing arts, including Kalamandalam Gopi, Chandrasekhar Kambar and Heisnam Kanhailal. Others include Mukund Lath(musicologist and writer), Hariprasad Chaurasia,(flute), Shivkumar Sharma (santoor), Amjad Ali Khan(sarod), Umayalapuram Sivaraman (mridangam), M Chandrasekharan(violin), R K Singhajit Singh(Manipuri dance), Padma Subrahmanyam (Bharathanatyam), as Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna). The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and rare honour, which is restricted to a very limited number at a given time. Presently there are only 40 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Kalamandalam Gopi (born 1937) is the living legend of Kathakali who blends the solid body grammar of the highly stylised Kalluvazhi tradition in which he was groomed with the more flexible, part-realistic, emotion-laden southern style techniques he acquired later in his career. Gopiyasan is known for the romantic and dramatic portrayal of the virtuous pachcha roles in Kathakali, including Nalan, Karnan and Rukmangadan. He is equally adept in essaying the choreographically denser roles like Bheeman (of Kalyanasougandhikam or Bakavadham), Arjuna (Subhadraharanam) and Dharmaputrar (Kirmeeravadham). He also excels in the yellow-faced pazhuppu roles such as Balabhadra, and the anti-heroic Kathi (Ravana, Keechaka and Duryodhana) black-bearded Kaatalan (Kiratham), red-bearded Bali (Balivijayam) and even the semi-realistic looking Brahmanan in Santanagopalam.

He was initiated in Kathakali by Guru T.Ravunni Nair and later trained as a disciple of Kalamandalam Ramankutty Nair, Kalamandalam Padmanabhan Nair and Keezhpadam Kumaran Nair, at Kerala Kalamandalam Shoranur. Before that, he had a brief career as a practitioner of Ottamthullal.

The duo of Kalamandalam Gopi as the male protagonist and Kottakkal Sivaraman, in the female role was great to watch and attracted great a fanfare.

He was awarded with the Padma Shri awardee, and ia recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award.

Chandrashekhara Kambara (born January 2, 1937) the prominent poet, playwright, folklorist, film director in Kannada language and the founder-vice-chancellor of Kannada University in Hampi is selected as the fellow of Sangeet Natak Akademi. .

Dr. Kambara's plays mainly revolve around folk or mythology interlinked with contemporary issues, a blend of the folk and the modern theatrical forms.

He has been conferred with many prestigious awards including the Jnanpith Award in 2011 for the year 2010, Sahitya Akademi Award, the Padma Shri by Government of India, Kabir Samman, Kalidas Samman and Pampa Award. After his retirement, Kambara was nominated Member of Karnataka Legislative Council, to which he made significant contributions through his interventions

Dr. Kambara has to his credit 22 plays, 8 anthologies of poems, 3 novels, 12 research works and several scholarly write-ups on folk theater, literature and education..^[15]

He has written 22 plays including the much acclaimed Jokumaraswamy, Sirisampige, (for which he was conferred with the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1991) Alibaba and forty thieves. He other plays are Rishyashringa , Chalesha , Jasisidanayaka , Kaadu Kudure , Naayi Kathe , Harakeya Kuri , Sambashiva Prahasana , Huliya Neralu , Mahamayi , Nela Sampige and Shivaratri

Kambar With his rural upbringing and scholarship in folklore, he introduced folk motifs, themes and myths into Kannada literature. Kambar's work is imbued with a poetic sensibility, laced with earthy humour

Kambar argues that the Indian cultural sensibility was marked by its non-linear notion of time: ‘Time is not a controlled sequence of events in our minds, but an amalgamation of all events, past to present’. Against the Western notion of “history”, Kambar posited a view of “many ages and many worlds including the mythic, constituting the Indian sense of present reality. “We imitated the West in creating museums to house the relics of our past, whereas traditionally we had lived with our past in our daily present. This British notion of history forced us, Kambar said, to see our own literature through a distorted perspective. “We are obsessed with the ‘original’ nature of historic texts and with the need to separate them from later interpolations. Instead of swallowing the Western notion of the integrity of a text and its sole author, we ought to celebrate the way in which Indians continually told and retold the Mahabharata, adding to it and modifying it. It is a matter of pride, Kambar declared, ‘that an entire country has collectively created the epic over a period of 10,000 years’.

It is this idea of continuity of culture and tradition, its organic relationship with the present day reality makes the works of Kambar distinct. Even when narrating the story of Alibaba Kambar can very well place it inside a temple (where thieves also can be hiding) and place Ganesha as one of the important characters.

I remember my interaction with his Alibababayum Nalpathu Kallanmarum which I translated into Malayalam, (yet to be published), designed and directed for our children’s theatre group Mazhavillu.

Heisnam Kanhailal (born 1942)is a noted art theatre director from Manipur. He is the founder-Director of Kalakshetra Manipur, established in 1969, a theatre laboratory that explores a new vocabulary in the existing language of theatre.

Kanhailal , a drop-out from the National School of Drama in New Delhi, Identified himself in his early years with the ‘Third Theatre’ tradition of Badal Sircar. He explored non-verbal, physical, ensemble acting in numerous theatre pieces, steeped in the indigenous myths and conventions of Meitei culture. After experimental plays like Tamnalai (Haunting Spirits) and Kabui-Keioba (Half-Man, Half-Tiger), Kanhailal created a sensation with his sharp and lyrical retelling of a popular folk tale Pebet (1975), in which Mother Pebet, a mythical bird, succeeds through subterfuge in reuniting her children, who have been abducted by the Cat. Thinly disguised as an allegory of neocolonial domination, with the Cat masquerading as a Vaishnavite monk, the play was condemned as ‘anti-Hindu’ and ‘anti-Indian’, even as it was hailed as a theatrical masterwork.

Seeking a less ethnically determined idiom of protest to depict the violence of everyday life in Manipur, Kanhailal dramatized L. Samarendra Singh's poem Africagee Wakhanda Gee in another memorable evocation of the survival of the human spirit in Memoirs of Africa (1985). His wife, the actress Sabitri, was central to both productions, performing with the power of a contemporary shaman. More recently, Kanhailal has attempted to deepen the communitarian and ritualistic dimensions of his theatre in the context of suffering. His plays have also begun to move outwards from their inner lyrical resilience towards a more verbal, layered, and ironic reading of myth and history, as in his reinterpretation of Karna (1997), the tragic warrior from the Mahabharata, and his adaptation of Mahasweta Devi's story Draupadi (2000). He has written 15 plays and directed over 35 plays.

He was awarded Padma Shri in 2004 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1985

Thonnakkal Peethambaran was born on Dec 2, 1939. After his primary education upto 12th he began to learn Kathakali under Pirappankode Kunhan Pilla. After his first performance he continued his studies under Oyoor Kochu Govinda Pilla for 2 years, after which he was trained at RLV College Tripunithura under the legendary Kalamandalam Krishnan Nair. He performs almost all the roles in Kadhakali , and excels in the role of Raudrabheeman in Duryodhanavadham.

In the field of Theatre, eight eminent persons have been selected for Akademi Awards 2011. They include Alakhnandan and Kirti Jain for Direction, Amitabh Shrivastav, Vikram Gokhale, Neena Tiwana and A R Srinivasan for Acting, R Nageswara Rao (Babji) for Major Traditions of Theatre – Company Theatre, Andhra Pradesh and Kamal Jain for Allied Theatre Arts (Lighting).

Alakhnandan has worked with eminent directors like B.V. Karanth, Fritz Bennewitz and K.N. Panikar. He discovered modernity in Indian playwrights instead of imitating Western dramatists.

Born in 1940 in Arrah district of Bihar, he spent his childhood in Jabalpur where he used to watch Jatra and acted as a child artiste during religious celebrations. Inspired by Karanth, he explored various folk theatre forms of Bundelkhand, including Bundelkhandi Swang form. Using these elements, he made his productions colourful, lively, fresh and meaningful.

Alakhnandan started his own repertory in Bhopal in 1987 called Nata Bundela. Recently Alakhnandan made theatrical performance of Rabindranath Tagore’s poetry

An M.A. (Hindi) and a Postgraduate Diploma holder in Public Administration, Alakhnandan’s directorial artistry ranges from stark realism to black comedy to folk theatre, from serious adult theatre to children’s theatre. The plays he has directed included Sanskrit and Hindi classics, translations from regional dramas, his own plays and European avant garde dramatic works. A poet himself, he has infused in his productions a distinct poetic and political sensibility. Alakhnandan has a special flavour to combine ingenuity and skill to create black humour in situations like death and mournful last rituals. A playwright and Hindi poet of repute, Alakhnandan, is also a master in the field of children’s theatre.

He was awarded the Shikhar Samman for theatre by the Madhya Pradesh government in 2006. Alakhnandan’s publications include Chanda Bedni, Ujbak Raja Teen Dakait, Swang Shakuntala (plays), Budhdhi Bahadur, Murkha Shiromani, Narad Ji Phanse Chakallas me (children’s plays) and Ghar Nahin Pahunch Pata (collection of poems)

Kirti Jain (born 1949) is an MA in English Literature, and has a diploma in theatre (direction) from NSD under the tutelage of Abrahim Alkazi. She was teaching theatre History in NSD and later became the director of it.

She has directed many productions including Baghdad burning, Lehron Ke Rajhans, (1992), Holi, Subarnalata, Tinka Tinka, kaun Thangwa nagariya Lutal Ho, Aur Kitne Tudke. The processes that precede a performance, of giving space to others, of working through consensus are all integral to Kirti's understanding of theatre. She says she is more lured by structures and shapes rather than scripts and scenes.

She has travelled to many countries including Pakistan, UK, USA, Japan, China, Germany, France, Poland, USSR, Philipines with her productions and for giving lectures. She has extensively written about theatre in englishg and also in Hindi.

She is associated with Natrang Pratishtan, a theatre Archives and Documentation Centre.

Amitabh Srivastava graduated from the National School of Drama (Acting) in 1979 Soon after, he plunged into theatre in Delhi where he associated with major theatre directors E. Alkazi, B. V.Karanth, Fritz Benewitz, Ranjit Kapoor, Barry Johnn, Amal Allana, Prasanna Devendra Raj Ankur. He visited the U.K, Germany, and Poland with the National School of Drama Repertory Company. For the last twenty-five years he has also been active with TV and cinema as writer, director, and actor and has been performing in numerous stage plays, T.V. serials, telefilms and films.

He has always considered writing and scripting to be his forte and has adapted world classics of drama such as The Tempest, Good Woman of Schetzuan, The Visit, Hedda Gabler, The Odd Couple, Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay! Won’t Pay! to name a few. He has also written screenplays for feature films such as Hey Ram, Abhay, and White Rainbow.

Vikram Gokhale is a well known film, television and stage actor, notable for his roles in Marathi theatre and Hindi films and television. He is also a renowned, director, consulting film editor and much more. He is a trained actor and director who learnt under the guidance of Mrs. Vijaya Mehta, He has acted in key roles in more than 30 professional Marathi and Hindi theater productions.

Neena Tiwana An actress from Punjab who was instrumental in establishing the Punjab Kala Manch alongwith her husband Harpal Tiwana at Patiala to promote local artists. Neena Tiwana is a graduate from National School of Drama.Neena Tiwana and his son Manpal Tiwana are now playing a key role in promoting the theatre in Punjab, after the demise of her husband in a road accident in 2002.

A R Srinivasan (ARS) is a veteran Tamil actor from Chennai who has climbed the ladder of success both as an actor and as a high ranking officer because of a clear vision for himself. He has been an part of many stage plays, tele-serials and cinema – three dimensions of acting career accomplished successfully, while being employed full time as a high ranking officer of a company. He is fondly known to his fans as ARS

R. Nageswara Rao — Babji the secretary of the celebrated company theatre Surabhi is selected for this years award. Over 125 years, a theatre legacy has trickled from one generation to another of a family. Surabhi today lives on through five troupes spread over Andhra Pradesh, held together by over 3,000 family members. The productions thatturned out as Surabhi masterpieces include “Maya Bazaar”, “Srikrishnaleelalu”, “Chandipriya” and “Bhaktha Prahlada” R. Nageswara Rao — Babji for everyone — runs the Hyderabad-based Sri Venkateshwara Natya Mandali, the biggest among the Surabhi troupes. . “We are born to the stage, educated here. We rehearse, cook, sleep here.” Theatre is at the core of these lives, points out Babji. “From a three-month-old baby to an 80-year-old are here.” Together they make costumes, create sets and backdrop, play music and arrange lighting. Babji asserts the audience never deserted Surabhi, “We depend on ticket and audience.”

What began with a “Keechaka Vadham” performance in 1885 at a wedding, today survives with a bit of government help and the zest of the audience. “I belong to the fifth generation of artistes. The sixth and seventh generation family members are already part of the group,” says Babji Babji's ancestors moved from puppetry to theatre performances with “Keechaka Vadham.” An assortment of mythological, folklore and plays based on women's issues make Surabhi theatre which are laced with stunning visual effects , Huge sets, intricate backdrops, elaborate costumes and tricks

Legendary B.V. Karanth conducted workshops and evolved three plays with them — “Bhishma”, “Chandipriya” and “The Good Women of Setzuan” an adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's play. If “Bhishma” did away with Surabhi tricks and splendour, it did not do too well. So when it came to “Chandipriya” in 1997, Karanth left it to the Surabhi artistes to select the play, have “their tricks” yet ventured into in a modern way. I remember Karanth paying his tribute to the Surabhi tradition by saying that, “ I was not teaching the Surabhi artists, but was always studying from them.

Kamal Jain (Lighting) is the only one selected this year for the award from among the artists of the technical side of theatre.

Kashiram Sahu for Folk Theatre (Chhatisgarh), Mipham Otsal for Traditional Theatre (Jammu & Kashmir), Bellagallu Veeranna for Togalu Gombeyatta, Puppetry (Karnataka), Gopal Chandra Das for Putul Nach (Tripura) are also among the awardees.

KM Raghavan Nambiar Important Malayalam Playwright, KM Raghavan Nambiar who wrote plays like Swathanthryam Thanne Jeevitham, and the former vice Chairman of Kerala Sangeet Natak Akademi Trissur was selected for the Tagore Puraskar, a one time award instituted in connection with the Tagore centenary celebrations.

Lankalakshmi@kollam fest

2011-11-28T14:58:00.001+05:30

Kollam fest 2011 is an international event focusing art, culture, trade and tourism organized by the Kollam Corporation, which is scheduled to commence on 1st November.

Kollam Fest is destined to be the signature event in Kollam for year 2011 as well as the years to come. Kollam Fest aims to showcase our rich Culture & Heritage, Tourism potential, Investments for the new ventures, et al through the month long gala event. The fest aims to constitute an award in the name of the late renowned actor O.Madhavan for the best professional theatre group in Kerala.

Vayala Vasudevan Pillai Theatre Fest

A theatre festival to commemorate late Vayala Vasudevan Pillai is an important event in the fest.

Kollam is the abode of the largest number of mainstream theatre groups of Kerala; Kollam District hosted the first workshop on theatre was initiated by G Sankara Pillai that heralded the arrival of the modern theatre in Kerala, and Kollam the birthplace of eminent playwrights Pulimana Parameswaran Pillai, CN Sreekantan Nair, Kadavoor G Chandran Pillai, O Madhavan and Vayala Vasudevan Pillai. Thus this city should be a natural arena where meaningful theatre has to occur. The different plays featuring in this fest is aimed for the same.

The Vayala fest is inaugurated by the veteran actor from Tamil nadu Y G Mahendra and his play titled Venka 3 written by Chithralayam Shreeram, directed by YG Mahendra, and performed by UAA Chennai marked the opening of the fest on the eve of 21 11 2011.

The other plays and their schedule in the fest are

Melvilasam Directed by Soorya Krishnamurthy; performed by Soorya Theatre Group Thiruvananthapuram- 27/11/11 7.00 pm

Adapted from a Hindi play "Court Martial' by Swadesh Deepak and inspired from the experiences of Gopi Poojapura, an ex-soldier of Indian Army and mentor of Soorya Krishnamoorthy, the play highlights the caste differences in the Society. The trauma experienced by a jawan from a backward community, who is ill treated by his superiors is brought out through an emotional presentation and effective dialogues. All the characters of the drama, in military uniforms enact an emotional scene of court martial proceedings. The play goes into the reasons that compelled the soldier to commit the murder of his officer and seeks to depict the relentless fight between the privileged and the downtrodden.

Dr Raja Warrior will commemorate Vayala Vasudevan Pillai before the play.

Lankalakshmi written by CN Sreekantan Nair, Directed by Chandradasan and performed by Lokadharmi, Kochi- 03/12/11 7.00 pm

C. N. Sreekantan Nair's ‘Lankalakshmi' is a challenge for any director, for its text featuring poetic language and imagery. The production breaks the conventional approach to the text, design and acting and. The performance contextualises the play by sandwiching it between ‘Kamba Ramayanam' and Ezhuthachan's ‘Adhyatma Ramayanam.' While the Kamba Ramayanam handles the myth in a humorous manner, with no touch of piety at all, Ezhuthachan's ‘Ramayanam' was a creation of the Bhakthi movement. C.N.'s ‘Ramayana' is somewhere in between.

Chandradasan will commemorate CN Sreekantan Nair before the play.

Makkalkoottam, written by Suresh Babu Sreestha, directed by Pramod Payyannur, performed by Prakash Kalakendram Neeravil, Kollam- 05/12/11 7.00 pm

Makkalkoottam, directed by Pramod Payyannoor is based on a novel by TV Kochubava, and presented by Prakash Kalakendram, Neeravil, Kollam, won the second best actor awards for Rajesh Sharma and Sreeranjini. This play looks into the untouchable community of low caste Chakkilayan, who have been marginalised into the outskirts of the society; victims of social custom, ignorance, and exploited by the upper caste/class. The play uses a narrative style mixing up of traditional narrative of Theyyam, and Tholpavakoothu, along with realism. Innovative space design with good technical execution is the hall mark of the play.

The day’s commemoration talk is on Kadavoor G Chandran Pillai and will be done by Prof. Biyatrees Alex.

Spinal Cord, written and directed by Deepan Sivaraman, and performed by Oxygen theatre company Thrissur - 06/12/11; 7.00 pm

Spinal Cord narrates the story of a murder and its tragic consequences in a township. Twenty seven years after the incident the victim’s mother wakes up from a haunting nightmare with unpleasant memories of her son. Through the faded memories of the 80 year old mother, we start to know the tragic story of her son and the entire consequences of that honour killing. The play develops through the narration of the mother which often oscillates between past and present. When the newlywed Angela and Kunjavaran retire to their wedding night, Kunjavaran discovers that his wife is not a virgin. Shocked and angry, he returns Angela to her family home that very night, where her humiliated brother beats her savagely and demands to know her violator and she names Nasar. Nasar is unaware of the allegations that have been cast against him. But with Angela’s brother bent on avenging their family honour, the whole town is abuzz. They all know whom he plans to kill, where and when.

P Balachandran will talk on Prof G Sankara Pillai at 6.30 pm

Kalamkariyude Katha, written by Sreeja Arangottukara, directed by Smitha M Babu, and performed by Prakash Kalakendram Vanithavedi, Neeravil, Kollam - 08/12/11 7.00 pm

Kalamkariyude Katha,’ vividly portrays the creative sensibilities and inner conflicts of a potter woman. It unveils a widow’s zest for life and her struggle to survive in a society that still ostracises widows in many ways. The turbulence that Kalamkari has to undergo in her life followed by her husband’s death and her struggle to keep her creativity alive by making pots form the central theme of the play. But through it, ‘Kalamkariyude Katha’ also throws light on the survival instincts of human beings in a poignant manner, and the play oscillates between fantasy and reality. The play, scripted by Sreeja K.V., had won the Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi’s award for the second best script.

There will be a debate on women’s theatre at 6.30 pm

Lankalakshmi

The music has sounds of rain, thunder, wind, birds, and animals to create the ambience of a war field surrounded by ferocious sea of blood.

The Artists Participating in the show at Kollam are VR Selvaraj, Sanosh Palluruthy, Johny Thottunkal , Ajaikumar Thiruvankulam , Madan Kolavil, Jolly Antony , Cijin Sukumar , Shaiju T Hamza , Joshua Antony K , Adithye KN, Muthumani Somasundaran , Kalamandalam Prabhakaran Jenson, Manosh, Kishore NK, Jebin Jesmes , Shirly Somasundaran K Viswanatha Pulavar & Group Koonathara, Shoranur , Pattanam Rasheed , Prasanth Madhav and Gireesh Menon.

This is the third performance of the play.

National Theatre Festival for Children at palakkadu

2011-10-30T00:23:00.001+05:30

The regional centre of the national school of drama (NSD RRC) is organizing a National theatre festival for Children at Municipal Town hall Palakkadu from 02^nd 06^th November 2011. Eight beautiful children’s plays from Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu will be performed in the fest. A theatre workshop for school teachers and a photo exhibition is also arranged along with the fest. The plays are scheduled at 6.30 in the evening.

Prof. Kumara Varma will inaugurate in festival at 6.30 pm on th second in which Chandradasan is the chief guest. Suresh Anagally, the director of NSD RRC will participate in the function.

The inaugural play is Nai Mari Natakam, in Kannada, written by Vydehi, directed by Jeevan Ram Sulia, and performed by Alvas education foundation, Moodbidri, Karnataka. Vaidehi born in 1945, in Kundapura, Dakshina Kannada District, Karnataka is a well-known Kannada fiction writer and poet, renowned for her espousal of the cause of women. Her writings, generally described as post-modernist, depict the plight of women in an indignant and rebellious tone. A versatile writer, she writes short fiction, novels, essays, children’s plays and poems.

On the third Land of Pongo in Tamil directed by Shanmukharaja and performed by comfort international school Coimbatore, and Kanniyude Makkal based on a story by Ravindranatha Tagore, directed by Gopi Kuttikkol and performed by Sunday theatre Kasargodu will be performed.

On the fourth two Malayalam plays are scheduled. They are Cyclist written by Vijay Tendulkar and directed by Satyabhama for Navarang Palakkadu, and Chipko, Chipko written and directed by Shirly Somasundaran for Mazhavillu Kochi, Kerala.

Chipko Chipko is based on this year’s World Environment Day message — Forest, Nature at your service; and is based on the lives of the 363 Bishnoi women who sacrificed their lives to protect trees in 1773. The protests by the Bishnoi women against felling of trees to build King Abhay Singh’s palace is considered the first attempt by women to safeguard trees in history.

On the 05^th of November the plays are Mandrika Kannadi written and directed by KV Ganesh, for Rangachethana Trissur, will be followed by Kaboolivalayum Makkalum written by Tagore and directed by Asok Sasi for Rangaprabhath Thiruvananthapuram will be performed.

On the last day “Sadako – Savira Kokkugalu,” Kannada adaptation of the Malayalam play written by Vayala Vasudevan Pillai, performed by the Kinnara Mela team from Tumari, directed by B.R. Venkataramana Aithal will be performed.

The inauguration of the valedictory function will be inaugurated by PV Krishnan Nair, the secretary of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi and the chief guest is Prof.G.Dileepan.

It is good to see that all the childrens theatre groups that are continuously working in Kerala are represented in this festival. The festival is organised by the local cooperation of Navarang Palakkadu.

Gursharan Singh passes away (1929-2011)

2011-10-01T01:30:00.001+05:30

GURSHARAN SINGH, Director, playwright and legendary stalwart of modern Punjabi Theatre, born in Multan, Punjab, on September 16, 1929, passed away in Chandigarh, on Tuesday, September 27, 2011.

The legendary theatre artist, playwright and director, Gursharan Singh, affectionately called Bhai Manna Singh (after the character he created through his plays), was 82 and was struggling from illness for quite a long time.

He had created the rural theatre in Punjab with modern sensibilities, written and performed widely, and was instrumental in creating a socially meaningful theatre in Punjab, after the IPTA era. . Gursharan Singh was a "revolutionary, missionary and a socialist", who brought Punjabi folk and rural theatre to the forefront. The history of post independent Punjabi theatre is created by him, and has nurtured and groomed younger directors like Kewal Dhaliwal.

“It is a long battle, the battle of changing mindsets,” Gursharan Singh, once said of his theatre movement.

Gursharan Singh, an engineer created a cultural revolution in Punjab through his new genre of theatre called Tharra theatre (‘platform’ theatre, a kind of street theatre) He performed widely from interior villages in rural Punjab to the corridors of power in Delhi.

Theatre for him was more a social activity, to convey a message, and to change the course of the society than an activity of ‘art or aesthetics’. His theatre talked about his society, its injustices, and was not concentrating on the ‘finer aspects of aesthetics, that may cater to the elite. He had a definite purpose for is theatre - the betterment of society and voicing the bitter reality that is seldom expressed.

Whenever he found that social injustice is prevailing and forces of oppression that suppresses the masses, he stood up with his theatre. He sensitized the people at the grass roots level against the social evil and unethical values prevalent in the system through the medium of theatre’. As actor, author or director, Singh aimed at a theatre for social change and for civil rights

He was a leftist to the core, a sympathiser of the Naxal movement; when youngsters were being killed by the police in fake encounters during the Naxalite movement in the 1970s, he questioned the state’s acts through Kiv Koorrey Tuttey Paal

During the dark days of Emergency, when freedom of expression was numbed by silencing he came up with the play Bund Kumre and was eventually put in jail in September 1976 . He was arrested under a trumped-up charge of “training the youth to blow up a bridge.” After going through the charge sheet the magistrate laughed and said, “it would have been better to implicate him in some theatre activity case.”

When the militancy and separatist movement nabbed Punjab in the 80’s Gursharan Singh dared to voice against the militancy movement as well as the blind military actions of the state. He and his team toured the nook and corners of Punjab staging plays like hamak Nagare dee, Bhai Mana Singh, and Miti da Mul which attacked the militant separatist movement directly. At the height of Sikh terrorism he continued to perform, regardless of the threat to his life. It was natural that he has to fight against the militants as well as the state power, but his plays and life was protected by the farmers and the village folk. Their anguish was reflected in the works of Gursharan Bhai, and it is those words which they wanted to speak aloud was echoed through his characters. The silent cries of the millions of poor, the marginalized of society, the people who for centuries have not been allowed to speak

When state terrorism was silencing every voice of dissent, he challenged them by staging Hit List in Amritsar

He worked relentlessly for an egalitarian society, gender equality and workers’ rights. He was the one who forced the state to make mention of the mother’s name in school certificates necessary.

“Dhamak Nagare Di” , “Chandni Chownk tu Sirhind Tak”, “Baba Bolda Hai”, “Kammiyan da Wehda” are a few of his very important and famous plays.

His theatre group also produced some world classics by Bertolt Brecht and Samuel Beckett in Punjabi, and he himself penned some of the most memorable dramas written in Punjabi language.

Gursharan Singh won several awards from Kalidas Samman and a fellow of the National Sangeet Natak Akademy.

‘Theatre transcends language and time’

2011-08-15T01:05:00.001+05:30

Ram Kumar Ramaswamy

Chandradasan lives and breathes theatre, as he puts it. He has become the face to reckon with, for theatre in Kochi.

His obsession is evident in his detailed and scholarly take on subjects that range from Kalidasa to Beckett, from Shakespearean times to the modern era.

“It all started in 1982 when I was studying at St Albert’s college in Ernakulam when I discovered my interest for theatre. Sadly, there weren’t many avenues for Kochiites to learn and shine in the field then. Kerala did not have a vibrant theatre scene like Mumbai or Delhi,” says Chandradasan.

He would hold long discussions with legends like Shankara Pillai of the School of Drama. Gradually, several ideas began to shape up, and they decided to form his own theatre production company.

Collaborating with Gramavedi, a theatre group from Vallarpadam that consisted of workers, labourers, carpenters and masons, they succeeded in staging three adaptations of Badal Circar’s plays in 1987-88.

Rajavinte Chenda, the adapted play gained much appreciation all over Kerala. Chandradasan was soon recognised all over Kerala as a director of plays.

In the late eighties he developed a desire for instituting a learning centre for theatre in Kerala. That was also the time his group staged plays of M.T. Vasudevan Nair and gained a lot of appreciation.

“We instituted our training school Lokadharmi in a humble temporary roofed premises in Tripunithura in 1991. Later, it moved to the Sanskrit College campus with the gracious help of K.G. Paulose, the former Vice Chancellor of Kalamandalam,” says Chandradasan.

Lokadharmi has been conducting theatre workshops on all Sundays unfailingly, till today at Changampuzha park at Edapally. Their plays have been staged across the country, and abroad, many more than a hundred times over.

Adaptations are his forte. Chandradasan feels that be it Euripides’ Medea or Vyasa’s Mahabharata, epics live forever, and the human entanglements of ancient times astonishingly fit for today’s world too.

However, he believes in adaptations because, a play clicks only if it connects with the viewer with a strand that runs through our culture, language and issues that plague today’s life.

In 2000, his team toured Greece to stage Greek plays following an invitation from the Greek government, and received great appreciation and support.

“Plays are about experiencing, and not exactly about the story alone. Times have changed and people’s perception has changed too. Today, we have such fantastic equipment, lighting, sound systems, make-up men and trained actors. Sadly, the plays of today are very dilute in nature,” says Chandradasan who feels that vernacular theatre of today has brilliant works that sadly go unnoticed by the majority of the population because it doesn’t have the support that English plays enjoy.

“A good play is that which connects you to the land, its emotions and transports you to a different plane. Theatre transcends language and time,” he says.

Courtesy Deccan chronicle Kochi, August 14, 2011

Soorya Krishnamoorthi, TM Abraham, PV Krishnan Nair to head Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi

2011-07-30T20:51:00.001+05:30

The Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi gets new office bearers. Soorya Krishnamoorthy, is appointed as the chairman, TM Abraham as the vice Chairman and Dr. PV Krishnan Nair as new secretary of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka academy.

Krishnamoorthy is the founder-director of the SOORYA Stage and Film Society, a unique organisation promotes Indian arts and culture which is renowned for organizing the Soorya Festival - the longest and one of the most prestigious cultural events in India - in which the finest and most accomplished artists in Indian classical dances and music participate.

Soorya Krishnamoorthy is a pioneer of the Light and Sound show in Malayalam that has completed 30 years. He has also written, conceived and directed various stage shows. He has directed plays including Melvilasam, Premalekhanam, and Parinayam

Earlier he has served as the director of the Kerala State Film Development Corporation, member of the National Film Award jury, the Kerala State Film Award jury, member of the Doordarshan Advisory Committee, the Expert Committee of the Department of Culture, Govt. of India to evolve the cultural policy of the country.

He had won President of India’s National Award for Stage Craft and Direction 1996. “Kalaimamani” Award for Stage Craft and Direction, "Special Recognition" Award for overall contribution in the field of art and culture 2004from govt of Kerala etc.

T M Abraham renowned director and playwright is coming back as the vice chairman of the academy for the second time. Earlier he was the Vice Chairman of the Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Academy during 2001–2004. Earlier he was a member of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Kerala Kalamandalam, an executive member of the Samasta Kerala Sahitya Parishad etc.

Abraham has published 14 books in Malayalam in various categories, including novel, drama, monograph, and translations. His important plays include Pernthachan, Pr akvukal Ippol karayunnnilla, Keeri muricha Kannu, Raktha bali and his directorial ventures include Madhavi (by Bhisham Sahni), Aham Aham (own script), Waiting for Godot, Antigone, Oedipus and Thughlaq.

He has won awards including the state award for direction in 1980. Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award 1981, K.C.B.C. Literary Award in 1994, V. T. Bhattathiripad award 2001 and the Senior Fellowship by Government of India, Department of Culture, in 2004 etc.

Dr. PV Krishnan Nair who had an earlier term as the secretary of Kerala Sahitya Akademi is the new secretary to the Nataka Akademi of the state.

Hope that the new bunch of people, their experience in organisational, creative and administrative fields will rejuvenate the Akademi and create new energy and focus to its manifold activities.

A thought for forests and nature

2011-07-21T01:00:00.001+05:30

Express News Service , The New Indian Express

KOCHI:� To propagate the message of nature conservation, ‘Mazhavillu’, a children’s theatre group, will showcase its new play ‘Chipko Chipko’ on July 24. Organised by Lokadharmi and Changampuzha Cultural Trust the play will be staged in Changampuzha Park, Edappally, at 6 pm.

Based on this year’s World Environment Day message — Forest, Nature at your service, the play was developed by the students during the summer camp. “The play is based on the lives of the 363 Bishnoi women who sacrificed their lives to protect trees in 1773.

“This is an attempt to make children aware of our culture as well as social realities that exist in our society,” said Shirly Somasundaran, director of ‘Chipko Chipko’. The protests by the Bishnoi women against felling of trees to build King Abhay Singh’s palace is considered the first attempt by women to safeguard trees in history. The play is set against a Rajasthani background. ‘Mazhavillu’ was officially inaugurated on December 15 with a premiere of children’s version of ‘Charandas Chor’.

‘Mazhavillu’ has produced many plays, including B V Karanth’s ‘Panjarasala’, ‘Chandrasekhar Kambar’s ‘Alibabayum 40 Kallanmarum’, ‘Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi’, based on the poem by Kuvempu which was designed and directed by Chandradasan, Rabindra Nath Tagore’s ‘Mughdhadhara’ and Arun Puthezhathu’s Tom and Jerry both directed by Sudheer Babu and ‘Girl in the Photograph’ written and directed by Shirly Somasundaran. The plays were performed in various festivals in Kerala and also in New Delhi and Ahmedabad.

Students from Government High school, Edappally, Vidyodaya School, Thevakkal, Government Girls High School, Bhavan’s Vidya Mandir and other schools who are with Mazhavillu will participate in the play.

Courtesy: The New Indian express .

Audition workshop for the new play Caucasiayile Chokku vattam

2011-07-16T19:04:00.001+05:30

LOKADHARMI announces the audition workshop for casting in our new play "Cokesiayile Chokku Vattam" an adaptation based on the play Caucasian Chalkcircle by Bretolt Brecht. We are looking forward for 15-20 actors (male and female) who has the passion, time and energy for theatre.

The initial phase of the workshop will equip the actors to act in a Brehtain play and introduce with the text and also explore for the possibilities of adapting it in a contemporary Kerala situation. This phase will take place on Sundays from 10 am to 2.00 pm at Changampuzha park Edappalli. The second phase will be the actual rehearsal and play preparation which will be in the evenings. the whole process will takes place a time span of almost an year.

The play will be designed and directed by Chandradasan.

Those who are interested can contact 09447414200. Your queries are most welcome. Musicians, artistes, and other technicians can also associate with this project.

Please spread this message..

Endgame' returns to Malayalam stage

2011-06-13T13:38:00.001+05:30

Special correspondent

KOCHI: Samuel Beckett's seminal play, ‘Endgame' is all set to make a much-desired comeback to Malayalam theatre. ‘Kadassikkali', an adaptation of the play in Malayalam, will be staged jointly by Lokadharmi centre for theatre training, research and performance, and the Centre for Heritage Environment and Development (C-HED) at the Town Hall here on June 30 at 7 p.m.

The Malayalam production is directed by Jithu Johny, a post-graduate student of theatre at the Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit in Kalady. Chandradasan, Lokadharmi director and eminent theatre activist, will don the lead role in the play. Actors Asha Devi, Sudheer Babu and Sijin Sukumar will also act in the play.

The one-act play, from the stable of the theatre of the absurd, problematises life's continuity and questions the meaning of familial bonds. It presents four physically-challenged people who are mutually dependent, but caught in an endless, bitter verbal duel. As in Beckett's other plays, stasis or stagnation in life forms a major theme in ‘Endgame' as well. The actions on stage are repetitive, almost ritualistic, reiterating Beckett's ‘habit is a great deadener' philosophy.

Written in the aftermath of the World War II that ended with a terrible nuclear tragedy, ‘Endgame' portends a life — read post-nuclear life — sans surprises. Even the death of a character fails to shock anyone. From their rants on stage, it appears to the audience that the characters shared a past, but a cheerful future doesn't appear to dawn for them. Its isolated setting points to a life without a social, cultural and environmental milieu

Courtesy: The Hindu daily 13th June 2011

The Legend remains, in bold strokes…

2011-06-10T01:32:00.016+05:30

SHOBHA MENON
The vigor of his brush strokes, the flow of colors, the ease in creating drawings, the bold lines and incredible palettes … there is only one artist, who can paint like the wind… MF Hussain!

Maqbool Fida Husain (17 September 1915 – 9 June 2011)

Celebrated Indian artist MF Husain, who earned both fame and wrath for his paintings, died in London today after being unwell for over a month. He was 95. The artist breathed his last at the Royal Brompton Hospital at 2.30 am local time.
M.F. Husain was born in Pandharpur on September 17, 1915 to mother Zunaib and father Fida. His mother died when he was three years old. His father remarried and the family moved to Indore where he did his primary education.

As a child, Husain learnt the art of calligraphy- practiced the Kulfic Khat with its geometric forms and loved to read poetry while he resided with his uncle in Baroda. After painting many countryside landscapes and completing his schooling in Indore, Husain decided to move to Mumbai to make his career in art. He joined the J.J. school of arts.

In 1937, he started his career painting cinema hoardings for a livelihood. . In Husain's own words: “We were paid barely four or six annas per square foot. That is, for a 6x10 feet canvas, we earned a few rupees. And apart from the New Theatre distributor, the others did not pay us at all. As soon as I earned a little bit I used to take off for Surat, Baroda and Ahmedabad to paint landscapes”. Given this bad pay, Husain tried other jobs as well. One of the best paying was a toy factory, where he designed and built fretwork toys.
In between, Husain got married to Fazila in the year 1941 and they had two daughters and three sons.

In 1947, Husain won an award for his paintings (Sunhera Sansaar) at the annual exhibition of the Bombay art society and this marked the beginning of a vibrant colorful career ahead waiting for this art maestro. Husain did a lot of art experimentation in his early years by blending different ethnic and mythological themes to create luminous art forms.

His creativity, style and innovation in paintings have made him reach the pinnacle in Indian art. F.N. Souza, a member of The Progressive Artist's Group, which was formed to give new dimensions to Indian art, invited Husain to become a member of it in 1948.

Progressive Artists Group, a group formed to explore a new idiom for Indian art, paved new pathways for Husain’s artistic career. Progressive group’s involvement exposed Husain to the works of Emil Nolde and Oskar Kokoschka and made a strong influence, which led him to make some remarkable works 'Re Between The Spider And The Lamp', 'Zameen and Man' etc. He then visited Delhi, where he encountered ancient Mathura sculpture and Indian miniature paintings. This was a turning point of his career as an artist as he assimilated ideas from Western and Indian art.

From 1948 to 1950 a series of exhibitions all over India brought Husain's work to the notice of the public.
In 1951 Husain travelled to China. In the following year he had his first solo exhibition in Zurich, and over the next few years his work was widely seen in Europe and the USA.

By 1955 Husain went on to become one of the foremost artists in India and was awarded the ‘Padma Shri’. In 1971, Husain was invited along with Pablo Picasso at the Sao Paulo Biennial. Apart from the several solo exhibitions, Husain has many studios in major metropolitans of the country. In 1973, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, in 1989, the Padma Vibhushan. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986.

Husain has also made feature films, like "Through the Eyes of a Painter" (1967) and "Gajagamini”(Director, Art Director, Actor -2000), the former winning the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2004, Husain directed and has also written lyrics for two songs of the film Meenaxi: Tale of 3 cities.

After a long career, in 1996, when Husain was 81 years old, controversy arose over paintings originally created in the 1970s which were interpreted as anti-Hindu. After legal cases and death threats in his home country, he was on a self imposed exile from 2006.

Husain had an extensive portfolio from painting to film, and he mastered in both art forms to the fullest… His calligraphic skills might have made it easy to use bold, expressive, quick brush strokes that created figures that narrated the stories from Epics or the culture of people in each landscape wherever he visited. His lines were very expressive. It voiced the images, in vigorously running horses, notes of a Veena player, or the path of enlightenment to Buddha. Colors in his palette were so apposite with the audacious lines, being a symbol of hope, when he painted Mother Teresa holding the orphan baby in her lap, a new reading of Pietà from the contemporary period. Works on different religions in India shows his mastery over painting in minimalist idioms.

His skill over the medium enabled him to capture the inner essence of the religion, culture or landscape that he was transcribing to his large canvases; the transition of the subject/predicament embodied was complete, impregnated with his own interpretation, still narrating the essence of the source.

Husain developed a unique style that combined the sensuous female form from the classical period of early India; the strong colors of the Pahadi miniatures; and Indian folk art. These elements have come to characterize Husain's signature style. Husain's line casts into motion his dynamic pictorial spaces; his brilliant colors envelop the space with symbolic and expressive values; and his distinct human forms transform the narrative on the painting surface into an intimate experience of poetry.

Now MF Husain's works will continue to be a challenge to the conservative thoughts. Let it be an open dialogue...

Note : Shobha Menon is a Indian born artist, now living in Philadelphia USA, who has been deeply inspired by MF Hussain

Wading through the world of colours

2011-06-04T18:44:00.001+05:30

K Surekha

Her paintings are dream-like and poetry flows from them just as visuals flood your imagination when you read her verses. Multifaceted but more passionate about painting, Philadelphia-based Shobha Menon was in the city, her home town, where she hopes to exhibit her work in the near future. Her new project is a series on women depicted in the epics. She looks at them from her own vision of life. “My attempts are to demystify moral notions, tear away the veil of holiness.”

She looks beyond the textual interpretation of women in mythology and shows how ‘his’ stories are not ‘her’ stories. How they were victims of male fancies and fantasies and tools to fulfil their pride and prejudice even as tradition paints them in colours of idealised women hood.

Shobha’s hands lead Gandhari, Draupadi, Madhavi and Sita out of the epics into their own world of introspection.

She is looking forward to showing her works in Delhi and Kochi. “I visit Kochi every year to connect with my root reality and visit art galleries and see as many performing arts as possible.” And when moved by them, paintings take shape. “When I saw Lokadharmi’s play ‘Madhavi’, I wanted to paint her,” says Shobha. Chandradasan is doing a play on Draupadi in which Shobha’s paintings will be incorporated. She is working on them. “I am creating nine large paintings (48” x 30”) for the play.”

They will be part of the narrative which is Krishna-centric and viewed in contemporary light. More than a production exhibition, the frames will serve as background, comment, create a particular atmosphere and link other episodes. Shobha is working on the series which is more of Pahadi and Kangra style of the north but recreated on a larger canvas. “I was the art director for Chandradasan’s first play ‘Theruvujatha’ based on Badal Sircar’s text and have known him since my Kalapeedom days in the mid 1980s.”

This time, her visit to Kochi coincided with the workshop of Mazhavillu, the children’s theatre of Lokadharmi. She was invited to do a session on the basics of art.

“Limited by space and facilities, we created masks using paper and recycled or casually available materials and objects. The kids were very clever and came out with mixed media masks. It was a great experience for me. The children explored their creativity and enjoyed playing with clay. It seemed like they had suddenly found freedom and joy when the clay took the shapes they desired.”

Though there is talent, art in India lacks many facilities that are available in the West, she says. Kerala’s art scenario is changing for the better with more and more art galleries coming up but artists have not ventured into setting up one. Unfortunately in Kerala, professional art groups don’t have a common space for interaction unlike in Philadelphia where there are many art centres that provide space for fine arts and performing arts at the same venue.

Shobha has studios at Philadelphia and San Fransico and does shows throughout the year. After completing MFA in Art History and Aesthetics from MS University, Baroda, and PhD, she taught art for two years. Later she worked for about 10 years in the IT field as graphics and IT consultant. She also had a stint with animation, web design and development. She believes her experience in all the fields helped her look at society and the world with a wider perspective.

“Right now, I am exhibiting at MCGOPA-SPP galleries at Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and Indo-American Council’s curated art show, Erasing Borders 2011, in New York. I am presenting a solo show “Behind the Fences…’ in Philadelphia from July 26 to August 4.”

Shobha likes to capture moods and emotions, internalised memories of myths and narratives, and the complexities and subtleties of human experience.

“The concept of core images that represent psychological dynamics has been important in relating my work with mythology. My works are best understood as a cultural construct with their own idioms formed by some universal values.” Though she prefers oil, she enjoys exploring other media. She loves looking at empty canvases and colours and enjoys the sensation of letting life’s mysteries and stories swirl around her. “Ultimately, I desire the visual work to offer a defined reading of my thoughts — past and present and a visual sensibility, a deep feeling to connect the viewer to the work.”

Shobha plans to return to her hometown for good.

Courtesy; The New Indian express daily on 4th June 2011.

Note; Shobha Menon is part of Lokadharmi and she had designed the brochures, posteres website, and booklets of the group. she had documented the productions, and she is also a member of the director board of Lokadharmi.

Badal Sircar (15 July 1925-13 May 2011).

2011-05-14T22:55:00.001+05:30

The legendary playwright and director, who revolutionalised Indian theatre with his lucid scripts with sharp direct political analysis and with a newer and simple form that made theatre close to the reality of the audience, passes away at his Kolkota home yesterday night. My salutations to the great inspiration, who vigorously propounded the alternative theatre, political in its form content and aesthetics, a direct and transparent theatre, that link the audience with the performance.

His plays including Evam indrajith, Michil, Pagla Ghoda Stale news, Saaari raat etc was questioning the integrity and honesty of the establishment and revealed the very base of hypocrisy on which the existing social structure is built upon. He related the incidents and characters to the day to day experiences of an average Indian and at the same time was analysing them in a universal perspective, as a continuation of history everywhere, the history of class conflicts and struggles. He was searching the human being as a continuum along ages, and surveyed the colonial history of India to discuss the current problems of the Kolkota youth. Thus he was specific at one level and at the same time was reading the political history of mankind as a continuum that made plays relevant and meaningful.

Badal Sarkar was born in Calcutta, studied civil engineering and a Master in comparative literature, started his career as a town planner in India, England and Nigeria. But his love was theatre and he started as an actor, moved to direction, but soon started writing plays, starting with comedies. His two year stay in London, acquainted him with the theatre of London especially the left theatre of people like Joan Littlewood, Anthony Serchio, and also the experiments in form by Richard Schechner and Polish theatre director Jerzy Grotowski. We can see that the works of Badal Sircar was derived from the special utility of space and loose placid style of Schechner, the physical theatre of Growtovsky who focused theatre on the body of the actor in concept and practices of ‘poor theatre’. Thus with the focus on physical theatre, a space out of proscenium, a loosely knitted structure, clear political understanding and analysis, a theatre which is closer to the lower middle class, linking history to the contemporary reality, he formulated his ‘Third theatre’ . These characteristics were very new in Indian theatre and differentiate the works of Badal from his contemporaries like Sombhu Mitra, Utpal Dutt, Mohan Rakesh, Girish Karnad, and Vijay Tendulkar. His angst-ridden Evam Indrajit (And Indrajit), written in 1963, first published and performed in 1965, a play on the "the loneliness of post-Independence urban youth with dismaying accuracy" became a landmark play in Indian theatre.

He started his acting career in 1951, when he acted in his own play, Bara Trishna, performed by Chakra, a theatre group. In 1967, he formed "Shatabdi" theatre group, and the first production he directed was Ebang Indrajit in 1967, a play about three people - Amal, Bimal, Kamal and a loner Indrajit.

Taking theatre out of the proscenium into public arena, he evolved the angan manch (courtyard stage) inspired by the direct communication techniques of Jatra rural theatre form. "Third Theatre", in form and principle, was a protest against prevalent commercial theatre establishment. Often performed in "found" spaces rather than rented theatre halls, without elaborate lighting, costumes or make-up, where audience was no longer passive but participatory, added a new realism to contemporary dramaturgy. At the same time retaining thematic sophistication of social committed theatre, he started a new wave of experimental theatre in Indian theatre. Starting with Sagina Mahato, which marked his advent into arena stage, the subsequent plays, Michhil (Juloos), Bhoma, Basi Khobor, Spartacus, etc. were performed in parks, street corners and remote villages with the audience sitting all around.

In 1976, "Satabdi", started performing at Surendranath Park (then Curzon Park) Kolkata on weekends; these open-air and free performances lead to his troupe travelling to nearby villages on other weekends, where it employed minimal props and improvised dialogues to involve audience further into the performance.

He broke the barriers between performers and spectators. According to him theatre must be a collective exercise to awaken and enhance the social consciousness of participants, including the viewers.

The plays like Baaki Itihaash (Remaining History) (1965), Pralap (Delirium) (1966), Tringsha Shatabdi (Thirtieth Century) (1966), Pagla Ghoda (Mad Horse) (1967), Shesh Naai (There's No End) (1969), all were performed by Sombhu Mitra's Bohurupee group.

He is one director and playwright who had a great impact in contemporary Indian theatre, almost a fanfare among theatre enthusiasts all over India, people travelling to Kolkota to meet Badalda, and do workshops with him, study his theatre, techniques that made the politics of the play crystal clear, and travelled back with increased energy and conviction about what India theatre should be. Many theatre activists like Probir Guha (Bengal), Balwant Thakur (jammu) etc, inspired by his work in form, content and political ideology expound their theatre and take his legacy beyond and forward.

I remember that it is the play “Theruvujadha” performed by Gramavedi Vallarpadam Kochi (1987) an adaptation of his Michil, launched me as a director of theatre. It is this play which was performed more than 300 times all over Kerala from cities to rural interiors placed me strongly in the theatre scenario of Kerala.

I remember the late eighties in Kerala were almost teeming with Badal Sircar and his theatre. Productions including Bhoma (Jose Chiramel), Evam Indrajith (Babu Aluva), Stale news (Paulson Thannikkal ) Beyond Hattamala (Surjith) etc was performed many times successfully.

Sircar directed his last play in 2003, and after that his movements were restricted after a road accident, but even many years in 2011, he continued performing at play readings and writing new works like adapting, William Shakespeare's Macbeth, two stories by Graham Greene and a novel, History of Love. According to him, reading plays is another way of reaching out to the audience, especially younger ones.

He was diagnosed with colon cancer in April 2011. He died on 13th May at Kolkata at the age of 85.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1972, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1968 and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship- Ratna Sadsya, the highest honour in the performing arts by Govt. of India, in 1997.

He was offered the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 2010, which he declined, stating that he is already a Sahitya Akademi Fellow, which is the biggest recognition for a writer.

The playwright was honoured with the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Award for lifetime achievement for 40 years of creative contribution to the country's contemporary theatre movement.

The first Ammannur Puraskaram, instituted by the Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi to honour leading theatre personalities at the national level for their lifetime achievement, in the memory of the late maestro of Kutiyattam, Guru Ammannur Madhava Chakyar, was given to Badal Sircar on the inaugural day of Itfok 2010, the International theatre Festival of Kerala at Trchur on December 22^nd 2010, and that was his last visit to Kerala.

When theatre goes more frenzied about the art craft and technique, gets more apolitical, and becoming ornamental and out of substance, the writings of Badal Sircar remains to re-educate the Indian theatre aspirant.

A workshop of chavittunatakam

2011-05-11T13:37:00.001+05:30

This video is recorded by Anne dubos, a French Scholar and researcher; this is from the workshop of Chavittunatakam for theatre actors conducted by Lokadharmi.

Watch out for Vinay Forrt

2011-05-03T15:36:00.001+05:30

Manu Vipin

Upcoming actor Vinay Forrt. KOCHI: With an innate talent, drive and passion for acting, Vinay Forrt is a name to watch out for in Mollywood. You must have noticed his acting prowess in the movie ‘Apporvaragam’ written by GS Anand and Najeem Koya, and directed by Sibi Malayil. The multi-starrer movie had actors Nishan, Asif Ali, Vinay Forrt and Nithya Menon in the lead.

Vinay’s debut Malayalam film was ‘Ritu’ directed by Shyamaprasad but he considers ‘Apporvaragam’ as a milestone in his career as the character of Narayanan in the movie was a challenging one.

“It was a bold character with shades of black but I enjoyed doing it and was well appreciated by the audience,” says Vinay. But he says there was a negative impact to it.

“I started getting more negative roles and I was not so excited about it,” says Vinay who has already acted in more than a dozen films and for a newcomer with no film background it is no easy feat. Luckily for him, the negative tag did not last long and you will soon see him in the lead in some of the movies slated for release in the next few months.

For Vinay acting is his first love. “I also love dance and martial arts,” says the actor who is more into contemporary dancing but is interested in all other dance forms as well. With basic training in all leading martial art forms he now longs to explore the mystical depths of kalaripayattu. A focused actor who is ready to put in all his efforts to the character that he portrays, Vinay says even as a child he was artistically inclined. But his parents and teachers failed to notice his passion.

Unlike many actors who entered the films just by chance, Vinay knew what he wanted to do with his life even as a nine-year-old. A native of Fort Kochi, Vinay says he had to battle all odds to pursue his passion.

“I studied in a conservative school. Other than academics it did not promote any extracurricular activities,” recollects Vinay.

When he was a student of Std IV, he joined the Bala Sangam and was a part of their Kala Jatha. “That was the beginning. I could travel a lot performing at many places. I was initiated into music and dance during my stint at Bala Sangam,” he says. His stint at ‘Lokadharmi- The Centre For Theatre Research And Performance’ headed by Chandradasan was a turning point in his life.

It is at Lokadharmi that he got the chance to enact good roles in several plays and could hone his acting skills. He even got selected as the best theatre actor and awarded national scholarship by the Department Of Culture and Human Resource Development for advanced training in theatre during 2004-2006.

“Apart from learning acting what I found in Lokadharmi was a community of like-minded people. The theatre group played a vital role in sustaining the creative spirit within me,” says Vinay.

It was during this time that Chandra Mohan Nair, former chief of the acting department of FTTI, came to Kochi to head an acting workshop in which Vinay also took part. “After seeing my performance in the play staged by Lokhadharmi titled ‘Porandi’ written by Kavalam Narayana Paniker, Nair asked me to apply for admission in the Film and Television Institute, Pune,” says Vinay who got the second position in the all-India entrance test of FTTI. There he got to learn from the stalwarts of Indian cinema. He also did roles in short films like ‘Show Must Go On’, ‘Paper Boat’, ‘Maram Peyyumbol’, ‘Totha Maina’, ‘Man With An Axe’, ‘Lost Kingdom’, ‘Lonesome Colours’, ‘Carchu FX’ among others.

The character in ‘Ritu’, which he got soon after passing from the film institute, gave Vinay the much deserved break that he was looking for. Before ‘Ritu’ he had acted in an yet to be released Hindi feature film titled ‘Chatak’ directed by Reema Borra who has worked as an assistant to Rakeysh Om Prakash Mehra. Vinay also acted in Anup Kurien’s film, ‘The Hunt’ before entering Mollywood. “It was a great learning experience. I could shoot with one of the versatile actors in the country, Naseeruddin Shah, for four days,” says an excited Vinay. Watch out for Vinay in the movie ‘Kanakompathu’ in the lead role. In ‘Karmayoji’ by V K Prakash based on the theatrical adaptation of Hamlet, Vinay again has a challenging role. “The acting pattern is different in the movie. It is more theatrical,” he says.

There are many more movies up his sleeve and each role is different. “From an auto driver to a DJ, you will find me in a variety of roles soon,” says Vinay.

Apart form acting, Vinay is also doing anchoring for a reality show on Surya TV. No doubt he has unpredictable work schedule, yet he is finding time to keep alive his passion for theatre as well. We wish this young talent, all the very best.

Courtesy Express News Service : 03 May 2011

Putul Yatra - 6th India Puppetry Festival, at Guwahati from 22-30 April

2011-04-21T20:51:00.001+05:30

Guwahati, 21 April, 2011: Sangeet Natak Akademi, National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama, New Delhi in association with Srimata Shankaradeva Kalakshetra and Cultural Affairs Department, Govt of Assam will be organizing the 6^th India Puppetry Festival, PUTUL YATRA from 22 -30 April 2011 at Guwahati, Assam.

Hon’ble Governor of Assam, Shri Janaki Ballav Patnaik has kindly consented to inaugurate the festival on Friday, 22 April, 2011 at 6 pm at Ranghar Bakori Manch, Srimata Sankaradeva Kalakshetra, Panjabari, Guwahati Assam.

The inaugural programme includes a special combined presentation by puppeteers of India followed by Aladin, a contemporary Puppetry Production of Calcutta Puppet Theatre, directed by Suresh Dutta.

Some of the well known celebrities of Indian Puppetry who are attending this festival include Dadi Pudumjee from Delhi, Suresh Dutta from Kolkata, Puran Bhatt from Rajasthan and Anurupa Roy from Delhi. Altogether 47 puppetry troupes of the country are taking part in this 9 days festival. These includes troupes from states like Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Assam, Manipur, Tripura, UP, Delhi Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka.

The details of the programme may be seen at www.sangeetnatak.gov.in. Briefly speaking, the Festival performances are from 22 – 30 April 2011, Puppetry Exhibition from 23-30 April 2011, Workshop from 23-29 2011 and Interaction from 24 April 2011 onwards.

It is noteworthy that the Festival Performances will be at Guwahati from 22-30 April and will also be held from 26 April to 5^th May 2011 at Shillong, Aizawl, Silchar, Agartala, Lakhimpur, Itanagar, Sipajhar, Majuli, Dimapur, Dhubri, Cooch Behar, Geyzing.

For details contact: Mr. Sasanka Gupta Kashyap – 098640-71544 and Mr. Uday Sahay - 09811418283

A Case for Theatre in Service of Humanity -Jessica A. Kaahwa, Uganda

2011-03-27T16:23:00.001+05:30

World Theatre Day Message 2011 - Jessica A. Kaahwa

Today’s gathering is a true reflection of the immense potential of theatre to mobilize communities and bridge the divides.

Have you ever imagined that theatre could be a powerful tool for peace and reconciliation? While nations spend colossal sums of money on peace-keeping missions in violent conflict areas of the world, little attention is given to theatre as a one-on-one alternative for conflict transformation and management. How can the citizens of mother-earth achieve universal peace when the instruments employed come from outside and seemingly repressive powers?

Theatre subtly permeates the human soul gripped by fear and suspicion, by altering the image of self - and opening a world of alternatives for the individual and hence the community. It can give meaning to daily realities while forestalling an uncertain future. It can engage in the politics of peoples' situations in simple straightforward ways. Because it is inclusive, theatre can present an experience capable of transcending previously held misconceptions.

Additionally, theatre is a proven means of advocating and advancing ideas that we collectively hold and are willing to fight for when violated.

To anticipate a peaceful future, we must begin by using peaceful means that seek to understand, respect and recognize the contributions of every human being in the enterprise of harnessing peace. Theatre is that universal language by which we can advance messages of peace and reconciliation.
By actively engaging participants, theatre can bring many-a-soul to deconstruct previously held perceptions, and, in this way, gives an individual the chance of rebirth in order to make choices based on rediscovered knowledge and reality. For theatre to thrive, among other art forms, we must take the bold step forward by incorporating it into daily life, dealing with critical issues of conflict and peace.

In pursuance of social transformation and reformation of communities, theatre already exists in war-torn areas and among populations suffering from chronic poverty or disease. There are a growing number of success stories where theatre has been able to mobilize publics to build awareness and to assist post-war trauma victims. Cultural platforms such as the “International Theatre Institute” which aims at “consolidating peace and friendship between peoples” are already in place.

Jessica Kaahwa, Ph.D., possesses a long and varied career in facilitation and designing of participatory communication methodology for development. She currently lectures in the Departments of Drama and Literature at Makerere University, which is where she also received her Masters degree. Widely traveled, Dr. Kaahwa’s undergraduate degree is from University of Benin, Nigeria where she also worked as a broadcaster with the External Service – Radio of Nigeria. Dr. Kaahwa went on to study Theatre History, Theory and Criticism at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she received her Ph.D. in 2001. Dr. Kaahwa has been the architect of a number of national initiatives that have sought to use theatre and media as a constructive force in conflict settings and for health improvement. She has and continues to experiment with theories that expand the discourse on theatre practice. A good example is her recent experimentation with “Theatre for Personal Meaning” and “Theatre for Conflict Communication.” She is currently working on integrating “Process Theory” into Theatre Therapy practice.

Dr. Kaahwa is a great believer in “teaching by doing” and has in recent years, conducted training facilitation for both international and national organizations.

Celebrating theatre

2011-03-27T16:13:00.001+05:30

ANUPAMA RAJU

Preview The annual National Theatre Festival begins in Kozhikode on March 27.

Scenes from ‘Peer Gynt' (above) and ‘Lankalakshmi.'(below). Photos: H. Vibhu and S. Gopakumar

What does quality mean in creation? How does one understand quality in art from different perspectives?

These questions give way to some of the most varied and interesting plays that will be showcased as part of the National Theatre Festival scheduled to begin on March 27 in Kozhikode. This sixth edition of the National Theatre Festival is striking for the variety it brings, says Abhilash Pillai, director of the festival.

Ranging from the most popular to the most experimental, to the most ‘modern' to the most ‘traditional,' the festival has brought together plays and theatre forms from different corners of the country, he says.

Explaining the rationale behind the selection of plays, Pillai points to a parallel between the commercial and art worlds. We see how in the first, a new product with no history whatsoever takes over the market and wins over consumers.

Rich theatre history

“We wanted to see if something similar could happen with theatre,” he adds. This becomes relevant especially since theatre has a rich history in India and bringing together diverse theatre forms is part of this exploration.

The eight-day festival organised by the Information and Public Relations Department, Government of Kerala, features various theatre forms like puppetry with live actors, non-verbal theatre, multi-lingual plays, street theatre, physical theatre, a one-woman show, a musical production and so on.

There is also traditional theatre such as Jatra (a traditional Bengali folk theatre form).

The plays are…

Plays from groups based in Kerala will include Kavalam Narayana Panicker's ‘Oorubhangam,' Oxygen Theatre Company's ‘Peer Gynt,' directed by Deepan Sivaraman, Lokadharmi's ‘Lankalakshmi,' directed by Chandradasan, Deshaposhini's ‘Madhyadharanyazhi,' ‘Kalamkari,' directed by Sreeja Arangottukaran and ‘Jeevacharithram,' directed by S. Sunil Kumar for Central Theatre, Payyannur. Those from outside Kerala are ‘Archee Kaal,' ‘Roop Aroop,' ‘Sonata,' ‘Aaj Rang Hai,' ‘Aarambh,' ‘Mire Masignghja,' ‘Ms. Meena,' ‘All About Women' and ‘About Ram.'

A selection committee – a first in the history of the festival – has put these plays together says Pillai, pointing to how the festival has become more mature at an organisational level.

Also, the variety of the festival allows it to bring in emerging forms like ‘live art' in which you engage your actual life in an installation, he says. In contemporary Indian theatre, there is a movement towards this form where there are no characters or plot – art is engagement rather than entertainment or a statement.

Underlining the need for more such theatre festivals, Pillai who is also Dean of Academics, National School of Drama, notes that the government and corporates should work together to promote and develop theatre in India. Compared to other art forms like cinema or other literary genres, theatre has not moved much, he feels.

At the same time, there is also a keen audience for this genre even today, which is why the National Theatre Festival is a reason to celebrate – not only for Kozhikode.

This sixth edition of the National Theatre Festival is striking for the variety it brings. Abhilash Pilla

courtesy .The Friday review of The Hindu, 25th March 2011

It’s time to play!

2011-03-27T01:24:00.001+05:30

A still from the play, Lanka Lakshmi

T.S Preetha

The curtain falls to a thunderous applause.

The lights come on, but there is no scramble to get to the exit. People linger on, still mesmerised by the splendour of the show and the experience of watching a stellar performance on stage.

Yes, theatre is back in vogue in Kochi, successfully gratifying the appetite of a crowd fed on a diet of commercial films.

As we celebrate World Theatre Day today, Kochi is well-hooked to the idea of an evening out to watch a play. But amidst this euphoria, practical problems do pop up, like the unavailability of a venue with good acoustics.

Kochi is yet to get a performing centre like the Prithvi Theatre in Mumbai or the Ranga Shankara in Bengaluru. But unlike the 90s, the city is waking up to a host of plays being staged in various centres — JTPac, Changampuzha Park, the Fine Arts Hall and so on.

Lanka Lakshmi and Hayavadhana were two plays that brought much acclaim when they were staged in the city this year.

“Kochi does not lack actors or scripts. What we need is a good space and a support system. Language is no issue now; many plays in English are staged here. But we have to build a theatre culture where people do not mind buying tickets to watch a play,” says Prof Chandradasan, director of Kochi-based theatre group, Lokadharmi that revolutionised the theatre scene in the state with a slew of path-breaking productions.

The Corporation has been sitting idle for years on a proposal to construct a performing centre in Pachalam, off Kochi, on a three-acre plot. Today, a major problem that is faced by theatre groups is the high rent charged by premium venues in Kochi.

Unlike in Bengaluru, where the Ranga Shankara can be booked for Rs 2,500 a performance, there is no such venue in Kochi.

“We should also have plays that deal with lighter themes, like the one based on the novel, Five Point Someone. The scene in Kochi is active now, but we still have a long way to go,” says Muthumani, who played Mandodhari in Lanka Lakshmi. Muthumani has been part of the theatre scene for over 10 years and sees a change in Kochi’s theatre scene over the last couple of years.

Interestingly, more youngsters are entering the acting profession, either through theatre clubs in schools or workshops during the holidays. But many find it difficult to stay on in this field.

“This is not an income-generating career, but we are all here because of our passion for theatre,” says actor Sandhaya Balasuma, one of the lead actors in Hayavadhana.

The city will be active with theatre workshops once the summer holidays begin next week. And a number of plays are scheduled to be staged here, giving Kochi’s evenings a whole new dimension

Courtesy Deccan Chronicle Kochi, 26 March 2011

Workshop on Emotions to images with Annushka Dal Maso from Finland

2011-02-12T23:03:00.001+05:30

A workshop on body language and emotion will be held tomorrow from 10.00 am to 1.30 pm for actors of Lokadharmi and Mazhavillu, at Vyapari Vyavasai assoscation hall Edappalli with Annushka Dal Maso from Finland. Annushka is a trained photographer whose special interest is theatre photography, and focuses herself on the link between body, movement and emotive expression of actors. She will like to explore the indian way of acting where the body and expression are mutually related and is evident. As background material she will be using selected folk tales from Kerala. From the workshop a few actors will be selected to join her in a photography project on indian acting, titled ‘emotions to images’

Kinnara Yogi postponed at ITFoK 2010

2010-12-25T18:52:00.001+05:30

The play Bommanahalliyile Kinnara yogi that was scheduled at 7.00 pm at Bharath Murali Auditorium at International theatre Festival 2010 at Trissoor Kerala is postponed to 9.00 pm on 29th of December 2010. This is the result of the rescheduling of the plays after the death of the former chief minister of Kerala K.Karunakaran….

Kinnara Yogi travels to Thiruvananthapuram on 23rd and to ITFoK-2010 Trissoor on 25th

2010-12-23T05:33:00.003+05:30

The play BOMMANAHALLIYILE KINNARA YOGI by Mazhavilu/Lokadharmi will be performed at Thiruvananthapuram at 6.30 pm on 23rd December at suryakanthi Auditoriam, Kanakakkunnu palace in connection with the national book exhibition of Kerala Bala Sahitya Institute. This is the second show of this play at Thiruvanathapuram; the first being at Soorya Festival.

The international Theatre Festival of Kerala ITFoK 2010 will feature this play at 7.00 pm on 25th of December, at Bharath Murali open air theatre, located at Trissur, Kerala.
This play is enacted by Children of Mazhavillu- the children’s theatre group of Lokadharmi Kochi, written designed and directed by Chandradasan, based on the beautiful and imaginative adaptation of Browning’s Pied Piper, by the Kannada poet Kuvempu. 32 children perform in this musical spectacle with their energetic movements enjoying every moment on stage, singing, dancing, enacting with lot of fun, wit, satire, humour, histrionics and mischief.
The cast AISWARYA.M • ALEX.J.PULIMOOD •AMAR MOHAN •ARAVIND AJAY • ARAVIND.R • ARUN.A • ASWATHY.K.S • JAYASURYA.J • GOURI KRISHNA • GOVIND NAMBIAR • GOWRI MURALI • INKITA INESH • JAYABHAMI.J • JEYASURIYAA.M.A • K.DEVASREE MOHAN • K.N.DHRUVAKUMAR • K.N.MEENAKSHI • KIRAN XAVIER • MANUTIOUS • NIKHIL VISHWAM • RAMAKRISHNAN • RITHUL • ROHIN.K • SABAREESH.M.A• SREENANDINI R PRASAD • UNNIMADHAV EDANILATH • UNNIMAYA EDANILATH • VIJAY KRISHNAN • MALAVIKA MURALI &ASHWIN

The Credits are; Manosh (Art & Properties), Jolly Antony (Set), Kishore.NK (Live Percussion), Reju Gregory & Adrian R Gregory( Harmonium, Key Board, & Guitar), Apoorva & Nandini (Vocal Support), Shirly Somasundaram & Rema.K Nair, (Make Up & Costume), Sarath R Nadh (Direction Assistance), Gireesh Menon (Music & Lighting) and Charu Narayanan (Stage In Charge). The Play Is Produced By Mazhavillu, the Children’s Theatre Of Lokadharmi, Scripted, Designed and Directed by Chandradasan
This is the 5th and 6th show of this production respectively.

Whose Effigy did we burn that Friday, anyway?

2010-12-10T23:21:00.001+05:30

Aleykutty Joseph

This morning, as usual, I opened my Bible at random to listen to the sweet whisper of my Abba, my Father God. This is a habit I’ve acquired from my earthly father, who used to believe with a faithful certainty that the Word of God that he received at the profound hours of daybreak would surely have a personal message for him. I too have learned this technique of listening to God thus at the wee hours of dawn. But it took me quite some years to acquire this precious skill – the years it took had the distance from Virginia Woolf to Ruskin Bond – from the dark dungeons of those notions about patriarchal tyranny to the soothing aurora of paternal affection! Yeah, that’s the same distance I had to trudge from Freud and Jung to Viktor Frankl and Stephen Covey. So today, as I opened my Bible, the Word that captured my eyes was a part of a prayer from the Book of Wisdom :

On You they called when they were thirsty

And from the rocky cliff, water was given to them,

From hard stone a remedy for their thirst

Thus what had served to punish their enemies

Became a benefit for them in their difficulties,

Whereas their enemies had only the ever-flowing source

Of a river fouled with mingled blood and mud,

To punish them for their decree of infanticide

You gave your people , against all hope, water in abundance.

(Wisdom 11: 4-7, The New Jerusalem Bible)

My Father’s profound whisper swept over me like a gentle breeze. I highlighted the lines in fluorescent green. I could sense that this Word was in fact decoding for me the mysterious joy ( of course mingled with tears) I experienced as I stood watching an effigy burning last Friday.

We were just coming out of the auditorium (Bharatha Mata College, Kochi) that Friday night,after watching a bewitching drama ‘ Bommanahalliyile Kinnara yogi’ ( a drama adaptation in Malayalam of Kovembu’s re-reading of Pied Piper by ‘Mazhavillu’ children’s theatre.It was part of the cultural evening of the international seminar on 'Re-Reading Classics in Children's Literature', organized by the Dept. of English of Bharata Mata college. ) It was with a great sense of wonder that I watched that beautiful poem on stage, enacted by a troupe of brilliant children. The play began with the chorus, dressed in rural Indian costumes, wailing the aridity of the land and of the various oppressions they suffered under their apathetic ruler the “gowda”. But most of all, they bewailed with an intuitive apprehension arising from their herd instinct, the irksome pestilence of a herd of rats. The aggravating little rodents appeared “shrieking and squeaking” in their black, brown and grey costumes, with conspicuously prominent ears and their extra-large rat faces, which they literally carried in their hands, as though those were some infernal instruments with which they gnawed away the very elements of life.

Into this dark chaos – interposed throughout with every possible humour only children can provide – comes the strange figure of the yogi. He makes his arrival with drummers and singers , giving it the colour of a local temple festival. The painted face of the yogi radiated the needed charm ( the fiery expression on the face of the child artist reminded me of the Malayalam actress Manju Varrier).

Finally , when we thought the drama had ended, the boy who took the role of gowda announced that the drama does not end there. He proclaimed that the responsibility of bringing back the children, whom the yogi had charmed away into some distant lands, lay not only with them, but also with us the audience (decode it as 'adults', if you feel like it) . So with the burden of the responsibility of bringing back the children gnawing at our inner beings, we slowly made our exit. And as we silently stepped on to the front yard of the auditorium, we found them, the children ( Oh, the joy of discovery!). All the actors, with gentle dancing steps, were circling round an effigy, and they were chanting the mesmerizing song of the yogi. Eventually (may I dare to say, “at the fullness of time”), the girl who enacted the yogi’s role came forward from amidst the chanting choir and asked permission from everyone to burn down the effigy. With everyone’s consent the child lit the effigy with a flaming torch and burned it down. Then they all danced away with shouts of joy , turning the whole event into a campfire.

And that was the moment I sensed tears rolling down my cheeks. I realized with a shock that I wasn’t just witnessing a death. In fact I was experiencing the death of many a gnawing vermin within my own being. They fell crackling into ashes. I could almost name some of those creatures that fell dying in my heart – prejudices, irrational fears, pride and its accompanying vices.

And I stood there wondering : “ Whose effigy were we burning , anyway?"
My Father’s profound whisper sweeps over me like a gentle breeze.

"Dreams come true, to those who are faithful", so I mused as I walked out of the gates of Bharathmatha college, Kochi on Friday night.I had just watched the play, "Bommanahallyile Kinnarayogi" a Malayalam adaptation of Kovembu's Kannada play based on Browning's Pied Piper.

courtesy http://eluraj.blogspot.com; photos by Chandradasan from the performance of the play at Swaralaya theatre festival Palakkadu Kerala.

A Folk Theatre Culture for Today: Lokadharmi Theatre Group Interview with Chandradasan Interviewed by Lissa Tyler Renaud

2010-12-06T23:51:00.001+05:30

Click on the link to read my interview with lissa Tyler Renaud in the the journal Critical stages,the IATC web journal. (IATC is a non-profit, Non-Governmental Organization of UNESCO)

http://www.criticalstages.org/criticalstages3/entry/A-Folk-Theatre-Culture-for-Today-Lokadharmi-Theatre-Group-ndash-Interview-with-Chandradasan?category=10

Bommanahalliyile Kinnara yogi at Swaralaya Festival Palakkadu.

2010-11-22T00:06:00.001+05:30

The play BOMMANAHALLIYILE KINNARA YOGI performed by Mazhavilu/Lokadharmi is invited to perform in the Swaralaya festival Palakkadu. The show is on the eve of 25th of November.

This play is enacted by Children of Mazhavillu- the children’s theatre group of Lokadharmi Kochi, written designed and directed by Chandradasan, based on the beautiful and imaginative adaptation of Browning’s Pied Piper, by the Kannada poet Kuvempu. 32 children perform in this musical spectacle with their energetic movements enjoying every moment on stage, singing, dancing, enacting with lot of fun, wit, satire, humour, histrionics and mischief.

The narrative of the play is straight, simple, and transparent that is relating to the hilarity and humor of the narration. The performance language is designed so as to give the space for creativity and the histrionic talent of the children, the whole process of rehearsal was exhilarating to the little actors; a scheme of rehearsal and play making that was more process oriented than the product, still resulting in a performance that was highly rewarding to all who participated, that includes the audience.

The story of the pied piper is narrated direct and simple in this transparent and candid presentation; it is attempted to create a cosmos of the exuberance, earthiness, and hurdles of the rural life where various ecosystems co-exist. The people, Gowda and his men, artist/singers, Bhattas, cat, dog, rats, river and hills coexist to form a complete and balanced universe, mutually complimenting and completing.

The play is basically designed for a proscenium, but extends beyond even to the outside of the theatre in the finale scene. The actors assemble around the installation of a Yogi effigy pronouncing that the story of Yogi happened many years before. As a tribute the Yogi story is performed every year and to end the performance they set fire to the Yogi effigy, as reminiscent in Ramleela and many other ritual performances.

The performance structure design and form is derived from many narrative forms from various living traditions. The first part is more hilarious, humorous, and slapstick; the entry of Yogi shifts into a musical narrative where the actors, sing, dance and perform the characters. Use of imaginative sets, properties and music suggest the space, characters, time, as well as the cultural/ political implications of the play.

The cast include Jeyabhami-Gowri Murali-Inkitha Inesh-Gouri Krishna, Varada, Sreenandini, K. N Meenakshi, K.Devasree Mohan, Unnimaya, Aishwariya.M., Amal, Unnimadhav, Jeya Sooriya M.A, Jayasuriya J, Arun A , Aravid Ajay, Sabareesh M.A, Ramakrishnan, Rithul, Rohin K , Diljaz, Nikhil Vishwam, , K.N. Dhruvakumar, Alex.J.Puimood, Aravind.R, Kiran Xavier, Amar Mohan, Govind Nambiar, Vijayakrishnan, Ganesh, Mahadevan, and Malavika Murali

The Credits are; Manosh (Art & Properties), Jolly Antony (Set), Kishore.M (Live Percussion), Reju Gregory & Adrian R Gregory( Harmonium, Key Board, & Guitar), -Aarsha Chandanavattam , & Apoorva (Vocal Support), Shirly Somasundaram (Costumes), Rema.K Nair, (Make Up & Costume), Sarath R Nadh (Direction Assistance), Gireesh Menon (Music & Lighting) and Charu Narayanan (Stage In Charge). The Play Is Produced By Mazhavillu, the Children’s Theatre Of Lokadharmi, Scripted, Designed and Directed by Chandradasan

This is the 4th show of this production.

Desh parva ends with Ghasiram Kotwal by Rajinder Nath

2010-10-13T00:36:00.001+05:30

Desh Parva, the festival of Performing arts of India comes to end with the performance of Ghasiram Kotwal directed by Rajiv Nadh.The repeat show of Ashish Vidyarthi is the other attraction of the day. The details about the program on 13th October is as:

Kul Varnika : 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Meghdoot III (Entry ticket)

1.Ashish Vidyarthi:

His presentation is based on verses from “A City’s Death by Fire” by Derek Walcott from St. Lucia. The presentation is about the repercussions of anger and hatred, its impact on culture, on people of every faith and belief. Yet, there is a silver lining, of the ability of the human being to reinvent himself and create a bright future from the very embers that burnt down everything

Preethi Athrye:

Her presentation is based on a poem of D’Lo, a Sri Lankan political theatre artist, writer and director. Apart from being a comedian and music producer, D’Lo loves to make people laugh and think --- and that in no particular order.

Nritya Rupa: 5.30 pm Meghdoot I (Entry free)

BHARATNATAYAM: Artists: Kanaka Shrinivasan’s group Presented by Nrithyaranjani

Bharatanatyam of Tamil Nadu in southern India has grown out of the art of dancers dedicated to temples, and was earlier known as Sadir or Dasi Attam. It is the first of India's traditional dances to be refashioned as a theatre art and to be exhibited widely both at home and abroad. Bharatanatyam rests on principles of performance and an aesthetics set down in classics such as Bharata's Natyashastra. It has a rich repertoire of songs in Telugu, Tamil and Sanskrit. Bharatanatyam has a highly evolved language of nritta, abstract dance, and nritya which unfolds the narrative. The themes have a wide range spanning human and divine love, and are generally classed under the rubric of shringara (romantic love) and bhakti (devotion). The music of Bharatanatyam belongs to the Carnatic system of southern India.

Bharatanatyam is presented here by disciples of Kanaka Srinivasan, a leading Bharatanatyam dancer based in Delhi. Kanaka Srinivasan is the recipient of honours including the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

KATHAK: Presented by Kathak Kendra of Sangeet Natak Akademi

Kathak is the principal dance of northern India, widely practised in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, and parts of western and eastern India . Expanding and refining its movement and vocabulary of expression, this art possibly transited to a courtly milieu in medieval India, and achieved its finest flowering under Mughal rule. Later, in the nineteenth century, the princely courts at Lucknow, Jaipur, Raigarh, and other places emerged as leading centres of Kathak dance.

Kathak's thematic content today straddles various worlds, even though the lore of Krishna still has a special place in its repertoire. Kathak is characterized stylistically by its footwork and pirouettes, and is pre-eminently a dance of rhythm-play. The music of traditional Kathak consists of the Thumri and other lyrical song-forms, and the essential musical instruments are the Tabla, Pakhawaj, and Sarangi.

Kathak dance is presented in the festival by Kathak Kendra, New Delhi, a constituent unit of Sangeet Natak Akademi. It is a leading institution in the teaching of Kathak dance.

Natya Darshan : 6.30 pm Shri Ram Centre Auditorium (Entry ticket)

GHASIRAM KOTWAL (Hindi)

Written by Vijay Tendulkar

Direction: Rajinder Nath

Presented by National School of Drama( New Delhi)

Act One
After Ganesh Vandana, the Sutradhar and the Chorus dressed as Brahmins describe the degenerate condition of the society during the rule of the Peshwa chieftain Nana Phadnavis.

The Brahmins arrive at the Kotha of Gulabi Bai where Nana sprains his foot while dancing with Gulabi Bai. Gulabi Bai’s Kanauji Brahmin servant Ghasiram saves him from falling on the ground. Nana is highly pleased and presents him with a necklace. However, Gulabi Bai and the gangsters of the Kotha forcibly snatch the necklace from Ghasiram, and the Pune Brahmins conspire to declare Ghasiram a thief. He is publicly humiliated and beaten up by the police, with the result that he is angered and lusts for revenge. Ghasiram uses his beautiful daughter, who is forced to submit to Nana’s desire in order to secure for her father the office of Kotwal of Pune. Finally, Ghasiram becomes the Kotwal. For Nana, it is nothing but a cold political move.

Act Two

As Kotwal, Ghasiram indulges in high-handed acts of vengeance. He becomes a tyrant for his foes, the Brahmins of Pune. Nana remarries for the seventh time and his new wife is but 12 years old. This shocks Ghasiram. His burning desire to take revenge crosses all limits. Some Brahmins who were alleged to have stolen some fruits are imprisoned in a small room, where a few of them die of suffocation. The Brahmins raise the banner of revolt against the Kotwal. Now Nana also wants to get rid of Ghasiram. Nana orders that Ghasiram be paraded through the city and hanged. After the cold-blooded killing of Ghasiram, Nana delivers a highly charged speech, thus remaining at the centre of affairs in the play.

The play is directed by Rajinder Nath, and presented by the National School of Drama Repertory Company, New Delhi.

Ratan Tiyyam and Ashish Vidyarthi Performs in Desh Parv…

2010-10-12T01:05:00.001+05:30

Desh Parv - Programme on 12th October, Tuesday
Kul Varnika : 11:00 am – 1:00 pm Meghdoot III (Entry ticket)
1. Ashish Vidyarthi:
His presentation is based on verses from “A City’s Death by Fire” by Derek Walcott from St. Lucia. The presentation is about the repercussions of anger and hatred, its impact on culture, on people of every faith and belief. Yet, there is a silver lining, of the ability of the human being to reinvent himself and create a bright future from the very embers that burnt down everything
2.Preethi Athrye:
Her presentation is based on a poem of D’Lo, a Sri Lankan political theatre artist, writer and director. Apart from being a comedian and music producer, D’Lo loves to make people laugh and think --- and that in no particular order.

Nritya Rupa: 5.30 pm Meghdoot I (Entry free)
SATTRIYA: Presented by Sattriya Kendra of Sangeet Natak Akademi

The Sattriya dance has evolved out of performances that took shape in the vast network of sattras or monasteries that were established in Assam since the sixteenth century, when the Vaishnava movement led by Shankaradeva (1449-1568) swept the land. Dramatist and composer as much as social and religious reformer, Shankaradeva was the fountainhead of this great array of performance forms, and created a corpus of songs and dance-dramas that constitute the core of the edifice. It has subsequently been built up by the service of generations of artists at the sattras, whence a theatre art of the present day has emerged in recent times. The non-monastic Sattriya dance today is mainly the preserve of the laity.

Naren Chandra Baruah, and Ghana Kanta Bora Borbayan’s group will be performing Sattriya dance.

CHHAU: Presented by Chhau Kendra of Sangeet Natak Akademi

The Chhau dance in its origin is the dance of indigenous peoples inhabiting a broad tract of land that today spreads over the States of Orissa, Jharkhand, and West Bengal in eastern India. In its content and technique, it bears the impress, successively, of the life of a hunting-gathering people in awe of nature, martial arts that evolved as the land was colonized by native rulers, and wider contacts in the modern period assimilating Chhau dance in the broad Indic tradition of natya.

Chhau dance is being presented by Chhau Kendra, Jamshedpur.
Natya Darshan : 6.30 pm Shri Ram Centre Auditorium (Entry ticket)
WHEN WE DEAD AWAKEN (Manipuri)
Written by Henrik Ibsen
Direction: Ratan Thiyam

When We Dead Awaken is Hendrik Ibsen’s last play. Arnold Rubek, a sculptor who has made a name for himself through his creations, cannot find peace. He is ill at ease with his wife Maja, who is drawn to Ulfhejm, an uncouth hunter. Irene, a beautiful woman from Rubek’s past, enters his life. She leads him to a mountaintop. An avalanche kills both of them as they approach the summit. In the valley below, Maja sings exultantly.

In Ashibagee Eshei, the Manipuri adaptation of this play, Rubek becomes Shaktam Lakpa or Sculptor; Irene becomes Shaktam or Image; Maja becomes Shakhenbi or Beautiful Woman; and Ulfhejm becomes Lamlanba or Stranger. Other minor characters are left out.

Scenes from the three acts of the original play are picked up and interpolated without altering the storyline and disrupting the continuity. However, to retain the spirit of Ibsen, no alteration is made to his dialogues.
The play opens with Shaktam Lakpa and Shakhenbi talking and arguing about their incompatibility even long after their marriage. They then part to be with the persons of their choice. Shakhenbi leaves in the company of Lamlanba while Shaktam Lakpa stays behind with Shaktam, the long-lost woman from his past.
Shaktam Lakpa and Shaktam talk fondly of the bygone days recalling the time they had spent together. She had stood before him revealing her beauty to enable him to create The Resurrection Day sculpture figured in the likeness of a young woman, awakening from the sleep of death.

Shaktam is an image, yet has much that is human in her. His lost memories and desires to be with her awakened, Shaktam Lakpa, caught in an acute existential crisis, follows Shaktam to a mountaintop. An avalanche sweeps them away.

This play is directed by Ratan Thiyam and presented by Chorus Repertory Theatre of Imphal. Ratan Thiyam is among the foremost directors on India’s theatre scene today, with several renderings of worked drama in Manipuri’s own theatrical idiom.

Director’s Note:

Inspired by the central idea of Ibsen’s last play When We Dead Awaken, this piece of work concentrates only on the thematic content; it does not subscribe to the idea of either a realistic plot or normal structure.
The performance is designed to express the internal entanglement of characters without distorting the original idea, using selected dialogues without any change from the original text.

In doing this play, I just wanted to know a different Ibsen with imagery, fantasy and ecstasy – far away from the realistic, conventional mould where the performance becomes more subtle, symbolic, suggestive and stylized.
It was not easy for me to prepare a performance text for this. But I have enjoyed immensely playing the hide-and-seek game with the genius during the making of this performance and in the process of interpreting it.
-- Ratan Thiyam

Sangeet Marg: 8.45 pm Meghdoot I (Entry free)
Percussion Ensemble ‘Laya Shakti ’
Presented by Rashid Mustafa & Group

Outrageous, Hilarious, Unassuming…

2010-10-11T17:32:00.001+05:30

It was all surprises, pure entertainment, and pure theatre in its raw rustic energy. The 150 minutes of musical (!) Vastraharan in Malvanai dialect of Marathi, performed by Bhadrakalai productions Mumbai, written by G. Gavankar and directed by late Ramesh Randive, was a comedy of all sorts. A play that was first performed by a group of amateur actors who are mill workers, now completed 5130 shows (inclusive of yesterdays as Sri Ram Centre. It was first performed in Mumbai in 1980, and is continuously running as the biggest hit on the commercial Marathi stage.

The plot is simple. A group of village actors’ initiated by an enthusiastic village chief at the helm of affairs and a school teacher as the director have rehearsed immensely to perform the Vastraharan act of Draupadi from Mahabharata as a musical. And it is the time of performance and all sorts of errors that can be possible along the production and performance of a play takes place one after another. As the musical is about to start news come that the music party has gone to perform for a funeral of an old lady who died at the age of 92 and will not be available for the musical!.Then comes the actor in the costume of Arjuana fully drunk and wavering on his feet – the justification is that the local barman has told him that no great actor of the past has ventured the stage without a drink!

Then it is all comedy, comedy of errors, errors of all sorts – comedy of action, situation, caricaturing, cartooning, verbal comedy, wits, satire, mispronunciation, mistaken entries, ridiculing the current political situation (when the prompter corrects the dialogue of one actor, the village head warns that he can say anything and be careful with him, since he is a politician belonging to the Maharashtra Navanirman Sena !). None including the actors, musicians, politicians including Raj Thakeray and Manmohan Singh, not even commonwealth games and Konkan Railway were spared! Dhrutharashtra is called as Maharashtra, the actor acting as Lord Indra gets possessed and demands a dance by a Lavani dancer (he has spotted one in the audience), Vidura comes smoking a beedi, the blind king Dhrutharashtra wearing a glass, and Durytodhana without a headgear, (the actor acting the role of a servant has put up glittering costumes, and ornaments including the crown!), etc to list a few incidents that initiates laughter. And finally the ‘the wife of Draupadi’ has given birth to a boy child after 7 girls and the actor is fully boozed in happiness and is missing, leaving the Lavani dancer to enact as Draupadi. She has to just appear at the right time, with loosened hair, crying and the rest other actors will do, she has to simply finish the act and leave; very simple!

But at the last moment Dussasana do not agree to derob since he will not touch the Sari of another lady other than his own wife. Suddenly he goes all moral and quits the costumesand headgear of Dussasana (the real motif is that his wife will kill him if he dare to touch another lady!) Then who will do the disrobing? There is a competition between the director and the village head for that role – both are charmed by the Lavani dancer for sure- but the wife of the village chief appears and a quarrel –typically feminine!- between the dancer and the wife of the chief follows; a real fight between the Malvani lady with a Kohalapuri damsel, and it is the wife of the village chief finally attacks Draupadi and the throne of Dussasana is placed on her head!

The play is so simple and unassuming. We can say it is Brehtian since everything is open and exposed no melodrama, neither catharsis. We can say this is a postmodern dissemination of a society and a discourse on play making itself. But the play itself is unassuming and direct as possible; it is the sheer show of actors, their histrionics, body language with perfect timing, negation of all aesthetics and concerns regarding the form and structure. At times we can say that there are excesses and playing out for the clap of the audience; after all who decides the border and limits?

Kutiyattam by Margi Madhu and Nangiar Koothu by Margi Sathi

Margi Madhu and Margi sathi represented the oldest living theatre form Kutiyattam in the festival of performance festival. Madhu selected to perform Sankhaksheeravapussu .. from Balacharitham written by Bhasa, a piece usually used for the Arangettam (the first performance). This act gave him the [possibilities to portray varied emotions including veera, Bheebhalsa, Karuna, etc. The three avatars of lord Vishnu (Narasimha, Vamana, and Rama) are crammed into the 80 minutes of his performance. Out of the three different segments the Mahabali –Vamana episode stood out. The form of Kutiyattam that allows transforming from one character to another, to travel in time forward and backward, from response to cause, from reaction to action and backward, present to past,from moments of brisk action to stillness, from the loud percussion on Mizhavu to silence, externalizing the internal rhythm etc was apparent in the show. The death scene of Ravana echoed the famous death scene of Bali enacted by the legendary actor Ammannoor Madhava Chakyar.

Margi sathi opted to enact the Seethaswayamvaram and pertained to the classical and controlled style of Nangiarkootu tradition convincingly.

Dance of the Deserts – Kamal Jabri and Group

By the late evening Music Ensemble ‘Dance of the Dessert’ performed by Kamal Sabri & group displayed a rare combination of sarangi with the vocal and ably assisted by percussion to portray the prangs of the desert, its rhythm, loneliness, vast dunes, and the feel of fast wind that blows, all in terms of the reverberations of music created by the fast moving fingers on the strings of Sarod and rhythm instruments. The ‘Caravan’, which took the audience from the deserts of Rajasthan to the deserts of the middle east was quite imaginative in concept and exemplary in execution.

Navtej Singh Johar presented “The grass is singing”, the first and one of the greatest books of on Doris Lessing. This novel, written almost entirely in the form of an extended flashback, details the mental, spiritual, financial and marital disintegration of Dick and Mary Turner, white farmers struggling to make a living off a sun-baked farm in South Africa. Navtej Johar is a Bharatanatyam exponent and a choreographer, whose work freely traverses between the traditional and the contemporary.

Priti Patel’s presentation is based on the verses of Bangladesh’s Poet Jasimuddin’s ‘Nakshi Kanthar Math’. The work has been hailed a masterpiece because of its simplicity, its charm and its deep humanity. In this saga of loss and separation, hunger and frustration, the villager displays the values of constancy, courage, love and hope. Observed SNA’s Secretary, Jayant Kastuar, “Navtej Johar’s treatment of a complete novel on a theme of racist Africa in a short performance was bold & successful. On the other hand Priti Patel’s rendition of Jasimuddin’s poem from Bangladesh in her inimitable Manipuri style fused with Bengali rendition was very touching.”

Earelier there was a show of Manipuri dance- a meditative and introvert from by itself. The dancers seem to be in an act of communication with the surroundings and the ultimate and are not in touch or aware of the audience. The movements are circular and continuous, each merging into the other. The Pung, a drum, and flute are the principal instruments used in Manipuri dance.

Kuchipudi is an all-male dance-drama tradition that takes its name from Kuchipudi village in Krishna district, Andhra Pradesh Students of Jayarama Rao trained in the Kuchipudi Dance Academy performed Kuchipudi dance in the festival.

“The Manipuri tradition of Sangeetam and Raslila is part of the living culture of the state took us to great heights of ecstasy in today’s performance, while Kuchipudi performers of Andhra tradition, dazzled the audience with their verve and vivacity. Each tradition presented in exclusively designed stage sets”, said Jayant Kastuar.

Photos : Chandradasan

Shakuntalam directed by Kavalam at Desh Parv

2010-10-11T00:28:00.001+05:30

Navtej Singh Johar bases his presentation on Doris Lessing’s novel, “The grass is singing”. This novel, written almost entirely in the form of an extended flashback, details the mental, spiritual, financial and marital disintegration of Dick and Mary Turner, white farmers struggling to make a living off a sun-baked farm in South Africa.

Priti Patel, Kolkata:
Priti Patel’s presentation is based on the verses of Bangladesh’s Poet Jasimuddin’s Nakshi Kanthar Math. The work has been hailed a masterpiece because of its simplicity, its charm and its deep humanity. In this saga of loss and separation, hunger and frustration, the villager displays the values of constancy, courage, love and hope. There are few who can dignify, as Jasimuddin does, the common folk by the quality of their love, and few who can enhance a poem by its power to portray that love.
Nritya Rupa: 5.30 pm Meghdoot I (Entry free)
ODISSI: Presented by Ranjana Gauhar’s group
Odissi dance belongs to the State of Orissa in eastern India, where it was performed in its rudimentary form as part of temple service by maharis or female temple servants. This traditional dance was remoulded as a theatre art towards the middle of the twentieth century incorporating elements from various other forms of dance in Orissa and also representations of dance in Orissa’s medieval sculpture, painting, and literature. In its remodelled form, Odissi dance has spread quickly across the country and thence the wider world.

The Vaishnava faith of Orissa is at the heart of Odissi dance and the lore of Krishna and Radha supplies its episodic content. Love lyrics from Jayadeva's Sanskrit work Gitagovindam thus have pride of place on the Odissi dance repertoire, together with songs in Oriya by medieval and early modern poets such as Upendra Bhanja and Banamali Das. These are interpreted by the dancer employing a grammar of hand gestures of hastas. A codified footwork of padabheda, gaits and walks termed chali, and spins or bhramaris are other components of the technique of Odissi dance. Created as it has been partly from sculptural representations of dance, Odissi in its performance often appears sculpturesque, particularly in its graceful tribhangis or the firm, square stance called chowk. The movements are soft and graceful. The dancer is supported by a singer, a drummer who plays the Pakhawaj, and accompanies on the flute and plucked strings. The dance conductor also sits with the musicians reciting rhythmic syllables and keeping time with his cymbals.

Odissi is being presented by the Utsav Cultural Society and is performed by Ranjana Gauhar’s disciples. Ranjana Gauhar is a leading dancer who has performed extensively and choreographed several dance-dramas based on Odissi and Chhau dances. She is also a dance teacher who has been a visiting lecturer at the Summer Academy, Berlin. She has produced several documentaries on dance. The Utsav Cultural Society, founded by Ranjana Gauhar, is a non-commercial, non-governmental cultural institution aiming to preserve, promote, and propagate the performing arts of India

MOHINIATTAM: Presented by Trikala Gurukulam

Mohiniattam, which belongs to Kerala in southern India, takes its name from the mythic enchantress Mohini. It is a dance of feminine grace, and has grown out of performances connected with Kerala's temples. The prince Swati Tirunal of Travancore, a patron of arts and an artist himself, was one of the chief architects of the dance in the nineteenth century, and composed a large repertoire of songs which accompany the performance. Characterized by femininity, Mohiniattam has no heavy steps or rhythmic tension: the footwork is gentle, soft, and sliding. The dancer's body rises and falls with an easy grace, with the emphasis mainly on the torso. Restraint in movement is the hallmark of the dance. Mohiniattam uses rhythms that are special to Kerala; the rhythmic syllables used are those of the Maddalam, a drum which provides accompaniment for female roles in the Kathakali theatre. The main percussion instrument in the performance is the Edakka. The other musical instruments are the Mridangam, the Veena, the flute, and the Kuzhitalam or cymbals. The oscillations in the melody accord with the movements in the dance.

Mohiniattam is being presented by Trikalaa Gurukulam, an institution established by Deepti Omcherry Bhalla, a dancer based in Delhi. Deepti Bhalla learnt Mohiniattam under Kalyanikutty Amma, and has presented recitals at leading dance venues. Awarded a Ph.D for her thesis on the Sopana music of Kerala, she is currently Professor of Carnatic music at Delhi University. Trikalaa Gurukulam is perhaps the only institute in Delhi which provides training in both Carnatic classical music and the Sopana Music of Kerala. The institute provides training in Mohiniattam also. Trikalaa’s dance repertory has given several group presentations in important festivals like the Konark Fest in Bhubaneshavar, Chamba Shastrabdi fest in Chamba, etc. The artistes performing Mohiniattam are Deepti Omchery Bhalla, Swapna Nair, Lavanya Devi, Priya Bhaskar, Aishwarya Radhakrishnan, Amrita Vijayan. The accompanying members of the orchestra are as follows: Vocal – Radhakrishnan, Mridangam – Vetri Bhupati, Eddaikka – Sateesh Poduval, Veena – Geeta Mohan.

Desaj : 6:00 pm Kathak Kendra North Delhi (Entry free)
PUPPETRY: Aakar Puppet Theatre Presented by Putul Kendra
Natya Darshan : 6.30 pm Shri Ram Centre Auditorium (Entry ticket)
SHAKUNTALAM (Sanskrit)
Written by Mahakavi Kalidasa
Direction: Kavalam Narayan Panikkar

Abhijnana Shakuntalam of Kalidasa is based on the Sakuntalopakhyana of the epic Mahabharata. The original play is in seven acts. The present production is an abridged one depicting the love between Dushyanta, king of Hastinapura, and Sakuntala. The scene of the first four acts takes place in sage Kanva’s hermitage at the foot of the Himalayas. Later the scene shifts to Dushyanta’s palace.
King Dushyanta is in the forest with his retinue, engaged in a royal hunt. As he is about to shoot a deer with his arrow, an ascetic asks him to refrain from it, informing him that the animal belongs to the ashrama or hermitage of the sage Kanva. In the ashrama he comes across three girls watering flowering plants. At first sight, the king falls in love with one of them, Sakuntala, the adopted daughter of Kanva. The king determines to encamp there, drawn by his passion. Sakuntala is also struck by the grace and charm of the visitor.
The king is introduced in a love-sick condition by his bosom friend Madhavya, the Vidushaka, to Sakuntala. In the ensuing scene, we find the hero and the heroine in love.
There follows the union of the lovers in the traditional gandharva marriage, and the king adorns Sakuntala’s finger with a signet ring which establishes his identity.
After the King leaves her to go to his kingdom, Sakuntala is alone in the hermitage, lost in thoughts about her lover. Thus brooding, she fails to offer proper hospitality to sage Durvasa, who visits the hermitage as a guest. The hot-tempered sage curses her that she would be forgotten by the person whom she was contemplating. Her friends Anasuya and Priyamvada plead Sakuntala’s absent-mindedness. Then the sage modifies the curse by saying that the curse would cease to have any effect on Sakuntala’s producing some token of recognition.
Kanva approves the gandharva marriage and sends Sakuntala to her husband with Gowtami and two of his disciples.
At the royal palace, the king denies all knowledge of his relationship with Sakuntala. Sakuntala fails to arouse the king’s memory. As a last resort, she wants to show him the signet ring which was given to her at the time of parting; but unfortunately it had slipped off from her finger during the journey. Finally she is driven out of the court.
Finally, the lost ring is recovered and the king regains his memory of Sakuntala. Sakuntala and the King are united once again.
This play is directed by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, a major interpreter of Sanskrit drama on the modern stage. It is presented by the theatre group Sopanam of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, founded by him.
Director’s Note:
The first textual reference Mrgaya vihari parthivo dushyantah, clearly indicates the king’s disposition and the reaction of his subjects to his hunt. The second passage appearing at the end of the text Prakrti hitaya pathiva is coupled with this to interpret the play afresh. Prakrti hita is Praja hita, (welfare of the people), to which the king is bound by duty. It is evident from the text that Dushyanta’s hunt, which started with a hunt for the animal, ultimately culminated in the hunt of the poor girl Sakuntala. Sakuntala is also another deer of the forest; the text leads you to the contextual acting by which Sakuntala represents nothing but nature.
Another point to be noted is that there is an interaction between the group and the individual – the king and the people at large – one complementary to the other, both moving in a causal chain. Dushyanta feels that he has nothing to bind him as he dabbles his own fancy in the sacred precincts of the hermitage. So he does not heed the caution from his people. Slowly, by the end of the third act, he responds to the sentiment of the group; but by then he is quite deep in his commitment. We find that the same people, and not her mother, the apsara Menaka, give refuge to Sakuntala when she is thrown out by her lover. In the final scene of reunion, the same people kindle the king’s memory by handing over the signet ring to him.
The limit of one’s own rights irrespective of whether one is the ruler or the ruled has to be laid down by some authority, lest the social equilibrium be disturbed. Whichever age we belong to, the problem repeats itself in different contemporary dimensions.
Sangeet Marg: 11:00 am Meghdoot II (Entry free)
VIDYAPATI SANGEET OF BIHAR
Presented by Kunj Bihari Mishra & Group, Madhubani
Vidyapati Sangeet of Bihar is based on the love songs of Vidyapati, a fourteenth century poet, composed in Maithili, a regional language of Bihar in Eastern India. His songs treat Radha and Krishna as ideal lovers, and their love, being the theme of the classical Vaishnava poems, is essentially romantic in nature. Vidyapati's songs depict the unenjoyed pleasure of love and romance which apparently seem to be sensuous and sensual, but there is a touch of fine, delicate supramundane love which never comes under the surveillance of the casual readers of romantic taste. A true devotee of Krishna, who has ‘exclusive love' in his heart, never senses any sensuality in Vidyapati's love songs. Vidyapati is considered to be the pioneer in introducing lyricism in poems composed in a regional language. His Padavali is a temple of cadence, where the duly regulated rise and fall of voice makes one oblivious of himself. Because of this musical quality, the songs in his Padavali are very popular in India, especially in his native state Bihar. These have become folk songs in Mithila only due to this lyrical quality. Vidyapati's songs are sung with different ragas and talas and fully imbibe the atmosphere of classical music.
Vidyapati sangeet is being sung by Kunj Bihari Mishra. Kunj Bihari Mishra is a singer of the Mithila region of Bihar who presents traditional and folk songs with a touch of classical music. He is a well-known exponent of Vidyapati Sanget and has performed widely across India. The accompanying artists are: Govind Bihari Mishra – Vocal Support, Chandra Mohan Mishra – Vocal Support, Sajjan Kumar Jha – Jhallar, Parshuram Singh – Pakhawaj, Ashok Yadav – Dholak, Mithleash Mandal – Manjeera, and Arun Kumar Mallick – Tanpura.

SOPANA SANGEET OF KERALA
Presented by Kavalam Srikumar
Sopana Sangeet literally means the music sung at the sanctum sanctorum of the temple. It has a wider connotation signifying the traditional music of Kerala, as it presents the regional ethos.
In its musical form per se, it is preserved in the temples to accompany the rituals. This is known as Kotti Padti Seva. Apart from the pure musical form, it assumes its visual linkage in Kalamezhuthupattu (the music describing the figure of the Goddess Kali on the floor, made with powder in five natural colours).
Sopana music in its applied form emerges into different dimensions and its specialties are varied according to the synergic requirements of each discipline. It ranges from Mudiyettu (ritual drama) to Kathakali through Krishnattam and Mohiniyattam.
The form with all the variations in applications postulates certain basic tenets which find a legitimate place for it as an organic system which justifies the essential inter-relationship of the kinetics related to the audio-visual tradition of the region.
Sopana Sangeet is being performed by Kavalam Sreekumar. He has performed in prestigious festivals in India and abroad. Winner of many awards, he has lent his voice to many Malayalam films also.

8.45 Meghdoot I (Entry free)

MUSIC ENSEMBLE ‘Dance of the Dessert’
Presented by Kamal Sabri & Group

Gubbi Veeranna Reincarnated…

2010-10-10T17:12:00.001+05:30

It was all Karnataka in Desh parv yesterday, 09^th of October. At Sriram centre the legendary play Sadarame by Gubbi Veeranna and his company theatre in the 1940’s was reproduced by Spandana Bangalore directed by none other than B Jayashree, the granddaughter of Gubbi Veeranna. She directed the play as well acted the role of Kalla (Thief) that Gubbi Veeranna himself acted. The play was produced true to the traditional style of the company Sangeetha Natakam of those bygone years, with actors singing, painted Curtains, costumes, and comedy, but abridged. Thus it gave an opportunity for the theatre enthusiasts to have a feel of those bygone days and its theatre sensibilities. Of course there was restraint in the glittering of the costumes, the set becoming more three dimensional and lighting that patched the modern knowledge of theatre, and actors somehow feeling uneasy to sing and act out extravagantly. The greatest thing about the whole evening was of course see Jayashree act out the role of a male thief very passionately and with ease as a tribute to her grandfather…It seems emotional and personal gratifying for her in the whole act itself and a delight for the audience to watch.

The story line of the play written by B.N Shastry based on a folk tale is simple. Prince Jayaveera is not interested in the worldly life or in ascending his father’s throne, and is quite content to be pursuing philosophy. However, this changes when he meets Sadarame, a beautiful, innocent middle-class girl, and succeeds in marrying her. And that is when all their troubles begin. Even as hardships challenge young Sadarame, she overcomes every hurdle with her intelligence, and the play ends on a happy note.

And the day was almost excelled by Karnnataka artists. A Yakshagana performance KARTHAVEERYARJUNA KALAGA was performed by Sri Idagunji Mahaganapati Yakshagana Mandali, Keremane under the direction and choreography by Keremane Shivananda Hegde.

Yakshagana is a generic term referring mainly to a traditional form of Kannada theatre predominant in coastal Karnataka, variants of which are found in other parts of the state as well, under names such as Bayalata, Dasavatar, and Bhagavatara Ata. The distinct identity of the form is the Bhakti movement that provided an ideological framework and structured and the second is Bhutaradhane – ritual forms of the Dakshina Kannad region from which Yakshagana borrowed elements of dance, costume, make-up, and movement pattern. Yakshagana absorbed these variegated influences; it began to evolve its unique style, growing into a lively medieval entertainment.

Yakshagana can take place virtually in any open space and is financed by patrons or the village community. Usually a troupe consists of one or two singers (Bhagavatas), at least three instrumentalists – a maddale drummer, one for chende, and one to provide the drone on a harmonium – and ten to fifteen actors playing both male and female roles.

Yakshagana has developed an elaborate system of metrical compositions, postures, and choreographic patterns. It lays emphasis on the entire body rather than just the hands and face. Likewise, the speech ranges from the musical-rhetorical to normal conversational, the make-up from mask-like ornamentation to the bare minimum, and the costumes from large headdresses and decorations to ordinary dhotis and turbans.
The battle between the demon King Ravana and Karthaveerarjuna was performed with all the characteristics of this powerful and spectacular theatre form with ease and élan.

The morning session of the ongoing cultural extravaganza of Sangeet Natak Akademi echoed with soothing musical performances. The performances included Odissi Sangeet presented by Ramhari Das & group and Haveli Sangeet presented by Chandra Prakash.

Odissi music, primarily practiced in the state of Orissa, belongs to the Udramagadhi branch of ancient Indian music. In its present form, Odissi music gives great importance to the lyric, where words are required to be sung without fragmentation or distortion. The Odissi style of music has some similarity with the Hindustani Dhrupad style. The percussion instrument used, the Mardal, is also similar to the Pakhawaj. Odissi is thus a very old classical style of music with specific ragas, talas, and its own special style of rendering of lyrics and melody.

Haveli Sangeet or the Music of the Lord's House is Vaishnavite temple music which originated in Braj in the early sixteenth century as an integral part of worship in the temple of Sri Nathiji or Lord of Govardhan (Krishna). Haveli Sangeet actually refers to the music performed in the Haveli temples (‘house’ or ‘mansion’ in Persian) that predominates in Rajasthan.

Observed SNA’s Secretary, Jayant Kastuar “Odissi Sangeet by Guru RamHari Das & group gave us a glimpse of its rich sahitya and its linkages with the Jagarnath Temple of Puri”.

The afternoon session of Desh Parv consisted of folk dances form various states of India making the spectators dance to its beat.

“Desh Parv”, the 10-day festival of performing arts of India promises to offer the citizens and the international tourist’s unique bouquet of Indian music, dance, theatre, folk, and narrative arts.

Desh Parva 10th October

2010-10-10T00:09:00.001+05:30

Desh Parv has been divided into five segments namely Kul Varnika ( Commonwealth literature in performance), Desaj (Diverse expressions of the nations), Nritya Rupa (Dances of India) Natya Darshan (A vision of theatre in India), Sangeet Marg ( Paths of Indian Music) encompassing all forms of performing arts. The details about the five art forms are as:
Kul Varnika :
      11:00 am – 1:00 pm Meghdoot III, SNA New Delhi
      Navtej Singh Johar, Delhi:
Navtej Singh Johar bases his presentation on Doris Lessing’s novel, “The grass is singing”. This novel, written almost entirely in the form of an extended flashback, details the mental, spiritual, financial and marital disintegration of Dick and Mary Turner, white farmers struggling to make a living off a sun-baked farm in South Africa.
             Priti Patel, Kolkata:
Priti Patel’s presentation is based on the verses of Bangladesh’s Poet Jasimuddin’s Nakshi Kanthar Math. The work has been hailed a masterpiece because of its simplicity, its charm and its deep humanity. In this saga of loss and separation, hunger and frustration, the villager displays the values of constancy, courage, love and hope. There are few who can dignify, as Jasimuddin does, the common folk by the quality of their love, and few who can enhance a poem by its power to portray that love.
Nritya Rupa:
      6.00 pm Kathak Kendra North Delhi
      Kathak
          &
      8.45 pm Meghdoot I
      Manipuri: NATASANKIRTANA & VASANT RAS
     KUCHIPUDI: Presented by Jayarama Rao’s group
Natya Darshan :
      6.30 pm Shri Ram Centre Auditorium, New Delhi
      VASTRAHARAN (Marathi- Malvani dialect)
      Written by Gangaram Gavankar
      Direction: Ramesh Randive

In a small village of Konkan called Revandi, the villagers have gathered to perform a story from the epic Mahabharata, that of Draupadi Vastraharan – the disrobing of Draupadi. The village Head Tatya Sarpanch is at the helm of affairs, while the village teacher, Joshi Master is the director. Tatya is keen that people from all over the region watch his play and shower praise on him. He is doing his utmost to get the act together. After rigorous rehearsals for a month and a half, the play is now ready to be staged.

The amateur actors of the village are bursting with enthusiasm to put up the play, but they have their whims and fancies coupled with tricky, badly-timed real life situations. As a result, the drama that happens behind the scenes turns out to be far more theatrical than the actual play. Vastraharan is the fun-filled, humorous story of that drama.
Every traditional play in Maharashtra starts with Nandi, or invocation to the gods. As the Nandi is about to start, they find the musicians missing. They have been whisked away to perform at the funeral of an old woman of the village who has died at the age of 100. So what happens to the music of the ‘musical’ Vastraharan?

The man playing Draupadi gets the news that his wife has given birth to his eighth child – a son after seven girls. He leaves the stage, runs home and gets dead drunk! Who then plays Draupadi?

The actor playing Lord Indra gets actually possessed by a god (!) and ‘demands’ that the Tamasha dancer sitting in the audience perform for him. Is his demand met?

Dusshasan, the villain who is supposed to do the disrobing, refuses to disrobe the new Draupadi. Who then fills his place?

The play is directed by Ramesh Randive, and is presented by Bhadrakali Productions, Mumbai.

Director’s Note:

First staged in 1980 as an amateur play with mill workers as actors, Vastraharan had no pretension to any form or style. Its mainstay was the raw energy, humour and innocence of its actors. In spite of being entrenched in a small region of coastal Maharashtra, it did not draw from any folk tradition or style. The narrative structure being a play within a play, it was necessary to have a stage as well as backstage for the story to unfold. One innovative idea was to have only ribbons hung on the stage in place of the curtain so that the ‘action’ on stage is seen.
To borrow the words of noted author and playwright P.L.Deshpande, Vastraharan is a desi (native) farce.
-- Ramesh Randive

11:00 am Meghdoot II
KUTIYATTAM: Sanskrit theatre tradition of Kerela

Kutiyattam is an ancient form of Sanskrit theatre still extant in Kerala. A reference to Kutiyattam in Cilappatikaram, the famous Tamil poem dated between the second century BC and fifth century AD, provides valid evidence that it came into existence about 2000 years ago. Men (Chakkiyars) and women (Nangiyars) act Kutiyattam in kuttampalam theatres constructed in accordance with the prescriptions set down by the Natyasastra.

Kutiyattam presents only certain ankas (acts) from classics by famous Sanskrit playwrights like Bhasa, Kalidasa, Sudraka, Harsha, and Bodhayana. The acting preserves the fourfold conventional aspects of abhinaya: vacika (vocal), angika (physical), sattvika (psychological), and aharya (decorative). Footwork and choreography are rhythmic, to the beat of percussion. The language is exclusively Sanskrit and the enactment a prolonged process over a number of nights, taking several hours each night through extensive elaboration of single words and lines – the most important part of acting Kutiyattam.

Kuttiyattam is being presented by Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Kuttiyatam Kendra at Thiruvananthapuram. Margi Sathi and Margi Madhu Chakyar, two of the leading exponents of Kutiyattam, are featured. Margi Sathi trained at Kerala Kalamandalam under various gurus. She has travelled widely and performed extensively both within the country and abroad. Margi Sathi performed at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris before a specially invited assembly to mark the UNESCO’s proclamation of Kuttiyattam as a World Heritage Art. She has received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award besides other honours.

Margi Madhu also trained under several gurus and has performed extensively within the country. He has also participated in major national and international seminars and presented papers on Kuttiyattam. He is currently teaching in the Department of Theatre, Sreesankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, Kerala.

For details contact:
Ruchi Dayal: 9718265679

Nagamandala by Neelam mansigh Chaudhary and Qwwali by Warsi brothers excelled…

2010-10-09T13:56:00.001+05:30

Day 5 of Desh Parva (Festival of Performing Arts) of Sangeet Natak Akademi– Out of all the performances Nagamandala directed by Neelam mansingh Chaudhari and Qwwali sung by Warsi brothers excelled.

Day 5 of Desh Parva captivated the audiences by the performance of NAGAMANDALA in Punjabi was staged at Shri Ram Centre. It was written by Girish Karnad and directed by Neelam Man Singh Chowdhary.

The story revolves around an unhappy bride who fills her lonely hours by conjuring fantasies, dreams and illusions to give meaning to her life. These stories then acquire a life of their own and start happening independently of her. Such is the power of the unconscious that a frivolous wish or fantasy can take on a life of its own, and Karnad uses the format of a folk tale to refer to this process. The story in the play about a snake becoming a lover after drinking a magic potion can be interpreted at many levels. Each character in the play has an unarticulated gesture and action.

Said Mr Kastuar The secretary of SNA, “Nagamandala one of the recent works of the great Kannada playwright Girish Karnad was admirably portrayed with Punjabi sensibilities by Neelam Man Singh Choudhary”.

By the late evening there was QAWWALI which was presented by Warsi Brothers at Meghdoot Theatre. Qawwali is a form of devotional song special to India and Pakistan, rooted in the Sufi musical tradition which dates back to the 13th century. Quawwali is generally credited to the genius of Amir Khusrau. The lyrics are in Persian, Urdu or Hindustani, the themes mystical love, praise of Allah, the Prophet or the Sufi saints.
The Warsi brothers, Nazeer Ahmed Khan Warsi and Naseer Ahmed Khan Warsi, belong to the Qawwal Bachchon ka Gharana, and are known for the purity of the ragas they render. Both the brothers perform regularly on All India Radio.

“In the performances of Warsi Brothers of Hyderabad, the tradition Qwwali had both the dignity of Bhakti Sangeet as well the vibrancy of the popular appeal, shared Mr Kastuar”.

The music took the audience to a bliss with the elaboration of the music, and the meaning that addressed to the seculat tones of the country which was concluded with the singing of ‘Raghupathi raghava Rajaram’…

The afternoon session of Desh Parv consisted of folk dances form various states of India making the spectators dance to its beat. They were: Karadi Majalu (Karnataka); Dhimsa (Andhra Pradesh); Jat Jatin (Bihar); Cheraw (Mizoram); Garbo (Gujarat); Korku ( MP); Paraja (Orissa); Hozagiri (Tripura); Ghasiyari (Uttarakhand); Raibense (West Bengal) Santhali ( Jharkhand). In Desaj, the performances of Bihar and Jharkhand together with the other states drew a great applause. Prof Munde and his group of Santhali artists from Jharghand sang and danced to create a peaceful atmosphere of vibrant tribal life in the Nationalist capital.

The action was not just limited to central Delhi. As a part of the celebrations, a slew of dance performances were presented at the “Kathak Kendra” in north Delhi. They were a part of the “Nritya Rupa” segment. They staged Kathak.

In the morning sesssion of Kulavarnnika, Shagan Bhutani and Tripura Kashyap performed to their own distinctive styles, adaptation of poems from poems of Albert Wendt’s Dennis Brutus respectively .

Shagun Butani’s presentation which was based on New Zealand poet Albert Wendt’s poem, “Door”, which was published in 1984 as a part of his collection, SHAMAN OF VISIONS. There is a door everywhere. And, as the poet says, a door knows that it is all other doors. As in many of his other poems, Door also meditates on the relationship between abstract and physical qualities of the object and the individual, and contains the ideas of both rootedness and transience which, although ambivalent as elements, demand recognition. The dancer created a visual language from the movement and masks of Saraikkala Chau.

Thripura did three short pieces, each in its own distinct context and mood, and hence demanding an independent interpretation. They range from dense verse to the extraordinary sparseness of great philosophical truths. As observed by SNA’s Secretary, Jayant Kastuar “Kulvarnika concept of performance on Commonwealth literature gained a new dimension in Tripura Kashyap’s work on three poems of South Africa represented in her innovative style”.

About Sangeet Natak Akademi

The Sangeet Natak Akademi - India's national academy for music, dance and drama - is the first National Academy of the arts set-up by the Republic of India. It was created on 31st of May 1952.As the apex body specializing in the performing arts of the country, the Akademi also renders advice and assistance to the Government of India in the task of formulating and implementing policies and programmes in the field. Additionally, the Akademi carries a part of the responsibilities of the state for fostering cultural contacts between various regions in India, and between India and the world.

Desh Parva- Festival of Performing Arts of India;Cultural Activities during CWG 2010 (program for the 9th October)

2010-10-09T10:46:00.001+05:30

Sangeet Natak Akademi begins its 10-day festival. Promises a visual treat of Indian performing arts - music, dance, theatre, folk and narrative arts. Join the celebration around the Commonwealth Games.
“Desh Parva” a 10-day festival of performing arts of India promises to offer the citizens and the international tourists an eclectic collection of Indian music, dance, theatre, folk, and narrative arts.
Tomorrow’s Programme (9th October, Saturday)
Desh Parv has been divided into five segments namely Kul Varnika ( Commonwealth literature in performance), Desaj (Diverse expressions of the nations), Nritya Rupa (Dances of India) Natya Darshan (A vision of theatre in India), Sangeet Marg ( Paths of Indian Music) encompassing all forms of performing arts. The details about the five art forms are as:
Kul Varnika :
11:00 am – 1:00 pm Meghdoot III
Tripura Kashyap, New Delhi: Tripura Kashyap based her presentation on three short and powerful poems of Dennis Brutus -- each in its own distinct context and mood, and hence demanding an independent interpretation. They range from dense verse to the extraordinary sparseness of great philosophical truths. And, they demonstrate an ascent of the spirit from absolute despair and destitution to a yearning for peace, and finding the solution in an unconditional universality of woman, man and God. For eventually, as the poet concludes, even God cannot exist without either woman or man, much as the ocean cannot exist without its waves, its foam or its spray.
Shagun Butani, Delhi: Shagun Butani’s presentation is based on New Zealand    poet Albert Wendt’s poem, “Door”, which was published in 1984 as a part of his collection, SHAMAN OF VISIONS. There is a door everywhere. And, as the poet says, a door knows that it is all other doors. As in many of his other poems, Door also meditates on the relationship between abstract and physical qualities of the object and the individual, and contains the ideas of both rootedness and transience which, although ambivalent as elements, demand recognition.
Desaj :
6: 00 PM Kathak Kendra North Delhi
Garbo (Gujarat); Korku ( MP); Praja (Orissa); Hozagiri (Tripura); Ghasiyari (Uttarakhand); Raibense (West Bengal) Santhali ( Jharkhand); Phag ( Haryana); Dandia Raas ( Gujarat)
Natya Darshan :
      6.30 pm Shri Ram Centre
            SADARAME (Kannada)
           Based on a Kannada folk story

Karnataka’s Telugu-speaking Vaisyas came in for unbelievably devastating satire in Sadarame. The Kannada play, done in the company drama style of Gubbi Veeranna (1890-1953), tells the story of the charming Sadarame, daughter of greedy trader Bangaru Setty, and her adventures through a marriage and two subsequent suitors. Spandana was perhaps best equipped to revive the play as its moving spirit B Jayashree is Veeranna’s granddaughter and inheritor on his legacy. Trained at the National School of Drama, Jayashree had moved away from the costume drama of her grandfather’s time to fashion a folk-inspired theatre idiom of her own. She must have been happy the theme of this year’s Ranga Shankara festival company musicals gave her an opportunity to return to her roots.

The costumes (mid-20th century, Ravi Varma-inspired), the sets (painted backdrops, doorways with plastic flowers and creepers), choreography (black and white movie-inspired) and music (raga-based) harked back to a style of drama that is extinct.

    8.45 pm Meghdoot I
Yakshagana KARTHAVEERYARJUNA KALAGA (Traditional Theatre of Karnataka) An episode from the epic Ramayana
Sangeet Marg :
11:00 am Meghdoot II
      ODISSI SANGEET OF ORISSA
      Presented by Ramhari Das & Group
                          &
      HAVELI SANGEET
     Presented by Chandra Prakash
For details contact:
Ruchi Dayal: 9718265679
Rahul Sharma: 9810259021

A HEART PLAY – ORU HRUDAYA NATAKAM

2010-09-25T01:21:00.001+05:30

Lokadharmi performs a clown play named ‘A Heart play – Oru Hrudaya Natakam’ on Saturday the 25th of September; – on the eve of the world heart day, at DH Ground Ernakulam (5.30 pm) and at Oberon Mall (8.00 pm)

The play is produced and presented by Medical Trust hospital, Ernakulam and is performed by Sudheer babu, Zumesh Chittooran, Pradeep chittoor, Charu Narayanan, Kannatte Kalesh, and Sanosh Palluruthy. The crew behind are, Costumes – Joy PP; Lights – Gireesh Menon, Sound Control- Jebin Jesmes; Art & Properties - Laiju Sreevalsan, Script - Madan Kolavil & Sudheer Babu , Music Bijibal, design & direction Chandradasan

The performance uses the body language of clowning, and directly interacts with the audience, to address the necessity of a lifestyle that suits the health of a heart. The play focuses on the potential threats of smoking, excess alcoholism, obesity, new generation work and food culture, lack of exercise etc that may be potential reasons for a block and heart failure.

Humour, and clowning along with situational comedy gives the entertainment; but care is taken to make sure that the message reach the audience.

The program will be attended by the minster Jose Thettayil and Kaithapram Damodaran Nambuthiri at DH Ground Ernakulam.

This performance is part of the social educational/outreach program of Medical trust Hospital and Lokadharmi.

Director's actor

2010-09-15T17:46:00.001+05:30

LIZA GEORGE

Vinay is driven by his passion for cinema and theatre.

This guy from Fort Kochi created a ripple in Shyamaprasad's ‘Ritu.' Although the movie had him starring in just two or three scenes, his role as Jamal had the audience sit up and take note of this young actor. His next release, Sibi Malayalil's ‘Apoorva Ragam,' created waves. In the role of Narayanan, Vinay with his bold, bald look won accolades.

“I think people appreciated the role because it was realistic. Narayanan is not portrayed as the bad guy right from the start,” says Vinay, an alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.

Although he became a familiar face through ‘Ritu' and ‘Apoorva Ragam,' Vinay has also starred in ‘Chatak,' a Hindi film by Reema Borah in which Vinay plays a South Indian who is swept towards terrorism and Anup Kurian's ‘The Hunt,' which had Vinay working with Naseeruddin Shah.

‘The Hunt'

“I just had three of four scenes in ‘The Hunt.' And though Naseeruddin sir and I shot together for four days, it was only later during the golden jubilee celebration of FTII that I gathered courage to speak to him. He was affable and gave me tips on acting,” says Vinay. He also had a role as a terrorist in Dr. Biju's ‘Veettilekkulla Vazhi,' starring Prithviraj.

“Actually I did have a substantial role in the movie but the dates for the shoot of ‘Veettilekkulla Vazhi' clashed with that of ‘Jayakumaran Thirakattai,' a Tamil film directed by Sharat Haridas. So I had to settle for a smaller role,” says Vinay who is eager to experiment with roles.

“I'm mouldable. However, post ‘Apoorva Ragam,' most of the roles that have been coming my way is that of a villain. I don't mind playing one if the role is realistic,” says Vinay who adds that it was his co-star Nishan in ‘Ritu,' his senior at FTII, who encouraged him to contact Syamaprasad for a role in the movie.

The experience while shooting for ‘Ritu,' says Vinay, is unforgettable. “Syamaprasad sir is an actor's director. He knows how to bring out the best in the actor. He is also open to suggestions. When I asked him if I could portray the character of a gay my way, through minute details like look, expressions, gesture…, he was open to it. Before a scene was shot, he explained the scene and what he expected from the actor in that scene. It was great working with him as it was with Sibi sir, whom I have always wanted to work with.”

It was Alexi Kurian, a production controller of ‘Apoorva Ragam' who pushed Vinay to meet Sibi. “I knew Nishan and Asif were already cast in the movie and went to meet Sibi sir thinking I would probably get a bit role in the film. I was surprised when he gave me the role of Narayanan. In fact, people have started recognising me on the streets through ‘Apoorva Ragam,'” says Vinay who has roots in theatre.

Theatre

“I love theatre. In fact I was into theatre even as a kid through Balasangam's Venalthumbikal. I have acted in a couple of plays by Lokadharmi: ‘Karnabharam,' ‘Poranadi,' ‘Medea'… However, it is not fame, money or stardom that I seek. I want to act, play different kinds of roles,” says Vinay who will be shooting for V.K. Pratap's ‘Karma Yogi' soon. “I play a guy called Koman in the movie. I liked the way the character sounded and am looking forward to the shoot.”

Note; Courtesy Friday Hindu.Sept 10, 2010

Soorya Festival in Asian Age.

2010-09-04T16:49:00.001+05:30

Soorya festival from Sept 21

2010-09-03T00:12:00.001+05:30

Express News Service

First Published : 02 Sep 2010 01:15:36 AM IST

Last Updated : 02 Sep 2010 11:42:48 AM IST

THIRUVANATHAPURAM: The Soorya Festival, which holds the record for the longest arts and music festival, will kick off in the capital city on September 21. This year, the festival will last 111 days, Soorya director Soorya Krishnamoorthy said on Wednesday.

Curtains will go up for the marathon festival with a formal inauguration by Godrej managing director and Soorya India patron A Mahendra at the Tagore Theatre on September 21. ‘Atmakatha’ will be the inaugural film this year, and will be screened after the inauguration. The film festival at the Tagore Theatre will be on till September 30. It will feature 19 Malayalam films, including ‘Raamanam,’ ‘Paleri Manikyam - Oru Pathira Kolapathakathinte Katha,’ ‘Yugapurushan’ and ‘Sufi Paranja Katha.’

Alongside the film festival, a painting exhibition will open at the Tagore Theatre on September 22 featuring various artistes. It will be on till November 30.

The Dance and Music Festival will open at the Tagore Theatre on October 1 with a Carnatic vocal by K J Yesudas. Odissi by the Nrityagram, Bharatanatyam by Padma Subramaniam, Dr Gayatri and Mahati, Carnatic vocal by O S Thyagarajan and Kathak by Rajendra Gangani are the big draws.

This year’s Theatre Festival will feature the Tamil play ‘Vietnam Veedu’ by Y G Mahendra. This play, which has in the past featured stalwarts like Sivaji Ganeshan, is to be staged at the Model School Auditorium on October 17. The Theatre Festival will open at the Model School Auditorium on October 11 with ‘Parinayam’, written by M T Vasudevan Nair and directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy. Between October 11 and October 20, ten plays will be staged, including ‘Avanavan Kadamba’ by Kavalam, ‘Makkalkkoottam’ by Pramod Payyannur and ‘Bommanahalliyile Kinnarayogi’ directed by Chandradasan.

‘’This year, we are starting two new events - a five-day Carnatic music festival ‘Sindhubhairavi’ and a Ghazal Mela, also lasting five days,’’ Krishnamoorthy told a news conference here on Wednesday. ‘Parampara’, which will be hosted at the Vyloppilli Samskrithi Bhavan from November 1 to November 10, will feature nine Bharatanatyam recitals and one Kuchipudi performance.

Chamber concert ‘Jalsa Ghar’ at the YMCA Auditorium will feature performances by Umbayi, Gayatri, Shahabaz Aman, Manjari, Meeta Pandit, Sagarika Pradhan and Pandit Ramesh Narayan, among others. Jalsa Ghar will be on from November 11 to November 20.

For the Adoor aficionados, this year the Soorya Festival offers a five-film treat. In ‘Meet the Master’, five of Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s films - ‘Swayamvaram,’ ‘Kadhapurushan,’ ‘Nizhalkuthu,’ ‘Nalupennungal’ and ‘Oru Pennum Randanum’ will be screened at the Kalabhavan from November 21 to November 25.

Rajkumar Hirani’s ‘3 Idiots,’ Mani Ratnam’s ‘Raavan’ and Ram Gopal Varma’s ‘Rann’ are among the films planned in ‘Indian Panorama’, which will begin at the Kalabhavan on November 21 and will be held till November 30.

Other programmes include Kathakali Festival at the Women’s College, poets’ meet, short film festival and ‘Chiriyarangu’ at the Municipal Auditorium. Another big attraction is an Odissi Festival from January 5 to January 9.

The Soorya Festival will officially come to a close on January 10 with a stage show ‘Dwayam’ directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy.

trivandrum@expressbuzz.com

Note Courtesy . The new Indian express Trivandrum

Bommahalliyile Kinnara Yogi at Soorya Festival 2010

2010-08-24T11:42:00.001+05:30

As usual, this year’s Soorya Theatre Festival is scheduled from October 11^th to 20^th with the performance of 14 plays by 13 directors. The festival takes place at Model School auditorium, Thiruvananthapuram at 6.45 pm. One of the highlights of this year’s festival is Avanavan Kadamba, the milestone production in the history of Malayalam theatre. Three plays that have won awards in the recently finished Amateur theatre festival of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi is included along with two plays directed by Soorya Krishnamurthy. A play in Tamil by YG Mahendran is another attraction. Bommanahalliyile Kinnara yogi written and directed by me for Mazhavillu, the children’s theatre of Lokadharmi is also included in this festival.

The festival showcases plays of directors like Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, Gopan Chidambaram, Sasidharan Naduvil, M.Vinod, K. Vinodkumar, PAM Rashed and Pramod Payyannur.

Parinayam (Marriage) – Soorya Krishnamoorthy- Soorya, Thiruvananthapuram (11^th October)

‘Parinayam,' scripted by M.T. Vasudevan Nair and directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy, relives the injustice of ‘smarthavicharam.'- a journey back in time; into the most infamous of the ‘smarthavicharams' – that of Kuriyedathu Thathri, that took place way back in July, 1905.

The play has references to ‘Adukkalayilninnum Arangathekku,' the path-breaking play written by V.T. Bhattathirippad and Lalithambika Antharjanam's work ‘Agnisakshi, used to transport us back to those unfortunate times when the social order was certainly skewed in terms of gender justice.

The woman who is under trial never appears on stage, and is known only by a voice, which speaks but little; reminiscent of the role forced on the Namboothiri women of the past. Yet, she does not leave the scene of the community court-martial as a desolate woman, but as one who promises to return with a vengeance, through Ammu, a woman born from her womb- the omnipresent contemporary element in all the works of Soorya Krishnamurthy.

Marmmaram (Murmur) – Soorya Krishnamoorthy- Soorya, Thiruvananthapuram (12^th October)

Marmmaram is written and directed by Soorya Krishnamoorthy is a nostalgic revisit on the lost human values and is set in a village atmosphere; the play has characters like a teashop owner, postman, a man running a local cinema, a nun, helpless old people left in an old age-home, etc. The play also addresses the issues of communal co-existence.

1.Baburaj, Paduka...pattukara...(Baburaj, singer...keep on singing) – Sasidharan Naduvil – Actlab , Thrissoor;

2.The Journey – Chilanka Floating Theatre(13^th October)

On 13^th two plays are double-billed, one a solo act from actlab thrissoor and the other a childrens play from Floating theatre Kozhikodu.

‘Baburaj – Paduka Pattukara,' a one-man, one-act show by N. K. Sajeev, presented by Thrissur Act Lab written by VR Sudheesh, and directed by Sasidharan Naduvil, traces the life, struggles, pains and career of musician M. S. Baburaj. The play is a direct narrative where the actor switches roles from narrator to character, and the play uses many of the nostalgic songs created by the legendary musician.

***1.Yakshikadhayum Nattuvarthamanavum– (The fable of Yakshi* and the local gossip)- K Vinodkumar – Suvarnna Theatres, Valayanchirangara**

2. Salam America – Gopan Chidambaram – Traya Ernakulam (14^th October)

Yakshikadhayum Nattuvarthamanavum that won awards for the best drama, best playwright and best actress in the recently concluded State Amatuer Drama Festival of Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi, is presented by Suvarna Theatres, Valayanchirangara, Ernakulam, is scripted and directed by K. Vinod Kumar. The play looks into the male infringement and invasions into the environs and life of a female who is destined to live alone. She has to transform and enact as a Yakshi who kills the male, or one possessing with infectious diseases to keep her protected, till her man returns. The play uses a musical narrative structure with good set, music, acting and colourful design.

Salam America is a solo act, is based on the short story by Paul Zacharia in the same name, adapted and directed by Gopan Chidambaram, and is enacted by Vijayakumar. In the typical tone and style of Zacharia blended with wit, humour, and sachasam, an American returned Malayali is remembering his life and times in America- an attempt to relive the American experience from Kaduthuruthy, a small village in Central Travancore.

1. Thazhvarayile Pattu (Valley Song) – PAM Rasheed – Theatre of Good Hope, Thiruvananthapuram

2. Oru Thengal (A sob) – Devan Nellimoodu

3. Etho Chirakadiyochakal (Sounds of Fluttering Wings) –Sam George (15^th October)

Thazhvarayile Pattu is a Malayalam version of Athol Fugard’s one-act play about love and generational differences between an old man and his granddaughter. The play contains two stories woven into one. In the first, a young, black South African girl decides to leave her elderly grandfather behind on their farm in the Sneeuberg Valley so she can escape to the city and pursue her dreams of becoming a famous singer. The other story concerns an aging white South African playwright who is prepared to leave behind the “artificial” world of the theatre and urban life and move himself back to his origins in the farmland of the Karoo.

Oru Thengal is a short play is scripted by Soorya Krishnamoorthy and directed by Devan Nellimoodu.

Etho Chirakadiyochakal is written by Late G.Sankara Pillai with Kunthi as the central character; the story being narrated with a female perspective, where the episode with Karnna is introspected with compassion and reflecting the hidden pains of a helpless mother and her conflicts unravelled.

Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi (Yogi with Kinnara at Bommanahalli– Chandradasan- Mazhavillu, Lokadharmi, Kochi - (16^thOctober)

Vietnam Veedu –(Vietnam House)- Tamil- YG Mahendran – (17^thOctober)

A stage play which was enacted by legendary actor Shivaji Ganesan has been revived by Y G Mahendran and the revival stays true to Sivaji Nataka Mandram’s original presentation. Y.Gee. Mahendran has retained the period of ‘Vietnam Veedu, and has retained the flavour of the original. Nowhere does he go overboard in his enthusiasm and anxiety.

Avanavan Kadamba (The self -Hurdle) – Kavalam– Sopanam, Thiruvananthapuram (18^th October)

'Avanavan Kadamba, ' is a play conceived by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, and directed by late G Aravindan, and was first enacted in 1976 with eternal relevance with contemporary echoes. He evolved a language, taking elements from the indigenous theatre of Kerala, both classical and folk. His use of songs, music and spectacle is exclusive to the aesthetics of Kerala. In theme, form, and audience participation, Avanavan Kadamba shows the distinctive stamp of Kavalam. In the process, the theme rises to the level of sheer poetry and reveals the folk wisdom that is unique to Indian philosophical thinking.

Avanavan Kadamba, a mile-stone production in the history of Malayalam theatre validates the contribution of regional theatre to the main stream Contemporary Indian theatre. Knitted in a loose narrative mode in real ethnic Malayalam with the rural flavour of the spoken word, the play communicates the magic realism of a forgotten horizon in its varied hues. The flexibility gives space to actors to interpret according to their sensibilities and perceptions.

This play enacted by veteran actors including Bharath Gopi, Nedumudi Venu, Jagannathan, Natarajan, etc, has been reproduced by younger actors of Sopanam with equal energy and appeal.

Makkalkoottam (The little class) – Pramod Payyannoor-Neeravil Prakash kalakendram, Kollam, (19^th October)

Makkalkoottam, directed by Pramod Payyannoor is based on a novel by TV Kochubava, and presented by Prakash Kalakendram, Neeravil, Kollam, won the second best actor awards for Rajesh Sharma and Sreeranjini. This play looks into the untouchable community of low caste Chakkilayan, who have been marginalised into the outskirts of the society; victims of social custom, ignorance, and manipulated exploitation by the upper caste/class. The play uses a narrative style mixing up of traditional narrative of Theyyam, and Tholpavakoothu, along with realism. Innovative space design with good technical execution is another hall mark of the play.

***Nritham*(Dance) – M Vinod & N Binod – NatakaSauhridam, Trissoor(20^th October)**

This year’s edition of Soorya Theatre Festival conclude with the play Nritham, based on the novel by M Mukundan directed by M Vinod and N Binod, which portrays the saga of a traditional Kalari exponent after he had been lured by the European market for contemporary dance and its alluring on traditional physical forms such as Kalarippayattu. The journey and the plight of the Kalari performer as a choreographer and dancer in the European and American art market, the cultural colonisation, and the sad return of the protagonist is delineated in this play in a simple direct narrative.

Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi

In this beautiful and imaginative adaptation of Browning’s Pied Piper, Kuvempu retains almost all of the original imagery and structure; still the transformation into the Kannada cultural milieu is complete and authentic; the outlook and characteristics of the people and the narrative mode are completely localized to Kannada culture, perspective and expression.

In Kuvempu poem is pungent with increased irony, pun, humor and have the weirdness of abstraction than the original. The structure of the performance text derived from this poem, naturally will be that of a poetic narrative, sung and enacted by a group of singer-actors. These singers might have traveled through ages and have witnessed/ inherited the poetry from ancestors. The singers join and attach themselves to the action as and when needed, and detach subsequently; they represent the people of the village. This continuous travel from character to singer-narrator and back will give an air of informality and provide a relaxed pursuit to the spectator.

The meaning and objective of this production is basically achieved through the rendering of the characters and their depiction. Each character is delineated and represented in specific exposé so that the narrative is developed into a form that relates to the contemporary reality and time.

Gowder is a usual, inefficient village-chief interested in nothing except collecting taxes, eating and sleeping. He has a big dog to scare people who complains; and is surrounded by a group of worthless intellectuals and advisers, unable to bring about solution to any problem. In a shift from the poem, the Gowda do not offer 6000 gold coins to Yogi, as reward to killing the rats. He offered this amount to any villager to keep his people silent from complaining, and was sure that none will come with any solution. One of the villager in turn told Jogi about this announcement. In fact the village does not have that much money in hand to spare, and Gowda was positioned in between an ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to Yogi.

The Kinnara Yogi character is particularly beguiling. Yogi is a performer and charmer who have immense ability to allure people. He boasts that he is the friend of lord Siva and Vishnu and has eradicated rats from Kailasa and Viakunta. And he insists that he shall get the money for his services. The space of the Yogi seems at the meeting point of the world meets with the legends, myths and fantasy; he has a link to mundane and with the imaginary. But he is alien to the rustic simplicity of the rural Bommanahalli and comes from a far away place with some odd objectives which the simpletons of the village cannot recognize. They are victims to the existing practice of the Gowda, the rat attack and later to the ploy of Yogi.

The rats are naughty and daring; they do all kinds of mischief, snatch the headgear of Gowda, and run a parallel government. They are represented with half masks, puppetry (glove, stick and hand) along with physicalisation and speak in a gibberish-rat language and/or also in Malayalam. In a metamorphosis the rats throw the headgears/masks/ and puppets to the river at the end of the play, and take the role of children.

Towards the end of the play the people understands the pain of the lone rat and decides not to kill it. The dog understands the reasoning of the people; the lament of the lame child who lost the heaven to be left in this unhappy world reverberates to the sensitivity of the people. It is the empathy with which men and animals understand and responds reciprocally that expresses the mutuality of existence subtly but clearly.

The cast include Jeyabhami-Gowri Murali-Inkitha Inesh-Gouri Krishna, Varada, Sreenandini, K. N Meenakshi, K.Devasree Mohan, Unnimaya, Aishwariya.M., Amal, Unnimadhav, Jeya Sooriya M.A, Jayasuriya J, Arun A , Aravid Ajay, Sabareesh M.A, Ramakrishnan, Rithul, Rohin K , Diljaz, Nikhil Vishwam, , K.N. Dhruvakumar, Manutious, Alex.J.Puimood, Aravind.R, Aswathy A.S , Karthika.S, Kiran Xavier, Amar Mohan, Govind Nambiar, And Vijayakrishnan.

The Credits are; Anoop.S Kalarikkal (Art & Properties), Jolly Antony (Set), Kishore.M (Live Percussion), Reju Gregory( Harmonium, Key Board, & Guitar), -Aarsha Chandanavattam , &Nandini R Nair (Vocal Support), Shirly Somasundaram (Costumes), Rema.K Nair, (Make Up & Costume), Sarath R Nadh (Direction Assistance), Gireesh Menon (Music & Lighting) and Charu Narayanan (Stage In Charge). The Play Is Produced By Mazhavillu, the Children’s Theatre Of Lokadharmi, Scripted, Designed and Directed by Chandradasan.

A different interpretation to ‘Lankalakshmi'

2010-08-02T18:45:00.001+05:30

Story from the Hindu daily, August 02, 2010 by the The Staff Reporter

KOCHI: C. N. Sreekantan Nair's ‘Lankalakshmi' is a challenge for any director, for its text featuring poetic language and imagery. That is the challenge Chandradasan is attempting to tackle now.

His production of ‘Lankalakshmi' will be staged in the city in the second week of September. “For a beginning, we are trying to bring in a new culture with this play, as it would be staged on five consecutive days and entry will be only for those with tickets,” says Mr. Chandradasan.

Only the casting part has been completed, as the director is still working on the stage design.

“I want to break the conventional acting style. My attempt will be to find a link between the performance as required by the text and the expressions that the actor develops on his own. That is why now we are concentrating on actors getting into their characters,” he says.

The play, as it is always with Chandradasan's works, would have contemporary elements.

“I am trying to highlight the elements that are in the text itself. During many re-reads that I did, two aspects stuck me. One is the subaltern reading of Ramayanam, in which a black, ugly child grows up to become the Emperor and conquer the whole universe.

Second is while the demon dynasty under Ravanan becomes powerful as never before, some insiders express concern about ensuring purity of their race. Race and pride of the downtrodden will be the political ideology of the play,” he says.

The play will attempt more experiments.

Chandradasan is pondering on possibilities of analysing various versions of Ramayanam.

Experiments will also be made in music, being composed by Bijibal, where sounds from Nature will be used to generate a visual feeling.

Courtesy. The Hindu daily, august 02, 2010 ; Photo Giressh Menon.

Theatre in his blood

2010-07-25T00:38:00.001+05:30

K. PRADEEP

V.R.Selvaraj, a headload worker, moonlights as an actor in the evenings but even Selvaraj himself does not realise how very good he is. Cinema was a natural progression, after Selvaraj had acted in a few ad films.

Sweat and toil: It just happens to be V. R. Selvaraj's life. Every morning, every afternoon, this theatre actor slogs, lifting loads, his shirt sticking to his back, sometimes feeling the stinging pain creep up his legs and arms. All the while Selvaraj waits for the evening, for the streetlights to shine, for the stage to come alive. He lives for the evening.

A head load worker by day, Selvaraj is transformed to an actor in the evening. The arc lights brighten up his life and he turns into the Greek hero Jason, Bhima, Ravana, Bali… myriad characters. Theatre, stage, rehearsals is Selvaraj's life.

“For me theatre is everything. Right from the time I stepped on to the stage for the first time, 25 years ago, it has sustained me. Not that it has given me money, for I have never thought of it that way. But it has kept me going through all the tribulations in life,” says Selvaraj who plays a significant role in the recently released ‘Kutty Srank.'

A small role in a school play was what set the spark aglow. “I was in the eighth standard when I played Lakshmana in C.N. Sreekantan Nair's ‘Saketham.' The play was directed by Kamalam Teacher, my first director. Incidentally, after all these years, numerous roles later, I'll be acting in another CN play. This time I play Ravana in his classic ‘Lanka Lakshmi,' directed by Chandradasan Sir for Lokadharmi.”

Lokadharmi

Chandradasan and Lokadharmi played a significant role in moulding Selvaraj the actor. “I had done a few plays before I joined Bhasabheri, Tripunithura, in 1991, where Chandradasan Sir was working for the play ‘Gopuranadayil.' From then I must have done around 10 plays with Chandradasan Sir. And some of the characters in his plays, like Jaison in ‘Medea,' Caliban in ‘Chathankattu' based on William Shakespeare's ‘The Tempest,' Karna in ‘Karnabharam' and Poranadi in the play of the same title by Kavalam Narayana Panicker, helped win me recognition as an actor.”

In life's theatre it was a different act altogether. Selvaraj was struggling to keep his family going. His father, Raghavan Asan, was an exponent of various folk arts like sasthampaattu, kolkali and kaikottikkali. After his death the burden of the family fell on Selvaraj and his younger brothers. “My father imbibed in me the nuances of rhythm. I also picked up a bit of sasthampaattu and longed to become a Kathakali singer. I even studied Kathakali to learn the movements and of course singing. All this came in handy when I joined theatre. I did a lot of odd jobs but always kept my dream of becoming an actor going. I bought an autorickshaw but had to sell it off, almost at scrap value. This was again because I was usually not there for days, regularly during evenings when we had rehearsals.”

His wife Dr. Leela is a guest lecturer at the Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit, Kalady. “It was an arranged marriage. She wanted to study and complete her Ph.D and I did what I could to help her,” Selvaraj says with a smile.

New dimension

Selvaraj attributes his five-year stint with theatre-person Jose Chirammel as the most educative, that gave a new dimension to his understanding of theatre. “He instilled so many aspects of theatre. There were complete sessions on so many subjects like imagination, tempo and rhythm, Stanislavsky's method of acting and so much more. It was a complete educational phase. Of course, every director I worked with has helped mould me into the actor I am today.”

Selvaraj has trained with esteemed theatre ‘gurus' like Habib Tanveer, John Martin from England, Gautam Majumdar, H. S. Shiva Prakash, Probir Guha acted in important roles for eminent directors like P. K. Venukuttan Nair, Kavalam Narayana Panicker, and Ramesh Varma. “Three plays stand out in memory. They are the Malayalam versions of Asif Currimbhoy's ‘The Dumb Dancer' directed by Venukuttan Nair Sir, ‘Maamathil' by Kavalam Sir and Ramesh Varma's ‘Madhyama Vyayogam'. In the first one I did the role of a Kathakali singer. For this I studied for nearly two months from Venmani Haridas. The play was staged at the Tagore Theatre and included celebrated actors. Kavalam Sir's play was very different from what he usually presents. I played the lead role, that of a soldier in this patriotic play. There was this climax scene where I had to walk right across the huge hall, past a line of dead bodies, singing. It was a challenge to sing in tune and also act. And in Ramesh Varma's play I did the role of Bhima. For the rehearsals he asked me to hold dumbbells in my hands when I moved. And the role involved a lot of complicated movements. This was to build that power in me, to help me transform into that character.”

Cinema was a natural progression, after Selvaraj had acted in a few ad films. “Most of the film roles were small but meaningful. The circus artiste who does cycle tricks in ‘Kuruthipookal' (directed by Ambily), autorickshaw driver Saravanan in ‘Pachamarathanalil' (Leo Thaddeus) who is a crucial link in the story, villain's aide in ‘Big B' (Amal Neerad) and as Panchi, Mammotty's associate in ‘Kutty Srank' are all important personal landmarks.”

Selvaraj hopes that Panchi in ‘Kutty Srank' will be a turning point in his career. “I'm one of the six stage artistes in the film. Those who saw the film in Goa said that I will be noticed. I have a few scenes with Mammukka including a Chavittunatakam sequence.”

He has also starred in lead roles in a few documentaries like ‘Charithrathinte Vazhiye' as Kalluvarambil Appakunju, as P. J. Antony and as poet Edappally Raghavan Pillai in ‘Maninaadam' He has also acted in a couple of telefilms.

Direction, music

But surely his heart lies in theatre. There is nothing that Selvaraj has not tried out here. He has directed more than 12 plays, composed music for Chandradasan's ‘Chathankaattu,' acted-directed numerous street plays, organised theatre workshops, and was also awarded a fellowship by the HRD Ministry for his study on ‘masks in traditional theatre and its potential in modern theatre.'

Selvaraj has remained unrecognised for his acting talents. Awards have not come his way though he has been part of many award-winning plays like Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards 2008 for ‘Karnabharam,' accolades for his role as Jason in ‘Medea' in Greece and best play for ‘Poranadi' at the National Theatre Festival at Cuttack, to name a few. Selvaraj, a sure-bet actor, a virtual scene-stealer, is yet unsung in a world where sometimes PR matters mare than talent.

COURTESY. THE HINDU 24 JULY 2010

Video of my play Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi

2010-06-26T11:35:00.001+05:30

The vedeo of my new play with children Bommanahalliyile kinnara yogi. an adaptation of the poem by Kuvempu can be seen by clicking the link

http://video.webindia123.com/new/Drama/bhommanahalliyilekinnariyogi/index.htm

An actor’s director

2010-06-08T20:38:00.001+05:30

Vatsala Shrivastava

Jun 04th, 2010 –Asian Age New Delhi

He grew up in a dreamland, where every emotion was allowed free artistic expression. Mannackanadu, his village in Kerala’s Kottayam district, has assimilated various forms of folk art in its culture to grace all occasions of life. Though he had his umbilical cord attached to dance, drama, music and other art forms, Chandradasan chose to play the role of a silent observer for several years before embarking upon “mission theatre”. His folk foundation and observation skill helped him explore and experiment with various verticals of theatre — direction, designing, acting and writing.

During his school and college days, Chandradasan was regularly spotted among the audience, absorbing the elements of drama. Seeing the artists weave a sensitive relationship with the audience using only the fine threads of connection and experience, he was inspired to switch roles in 1977, when he started his active stage participation. He has directed more than 50 plays in Malyalam, Kannada, Sanskrit and English, and has played several characters and designed craft in about 30 plays.
He credits his first guru and neighbour, Babu Namboodri, the famous director of Malayali films, for providing creative insight into his thought process through several informal interactive sessions, many of which started from the local cricket ground. Chandradasan recalls seeking inspiration from G. Sankara Pillai, the pioneer of Kalari theatre movement and the former director of the School of Drama, Trichur, and Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, an eminent theatre director.

Rich interaction and brainstorming with the thespians of theatre made him want to reach beyond the defined perimeter of stage. To give shape to this vision, he founded Lokdharmi, a centre for theatre training, research and performances at Tripunithura, a small town near Kochi, in 1991. The centre assists in creating long-term relationships among creative brains, thus networking them to achieve the extra-ordinary through the power of collaboration.
“The idea behind Lokadharmi was to develop an unconventional space for nurturing the culture of theatre. I wanted a centre for people who could not go to the formal theatre school or pursue it as full-time career, but shared serious passion for it. The aim was to achieve synergy beyond juts the show,’’ he says.
Chandradasan, who feels that a wide gap exists between the sensibility of “metro theatre” and the reality, stresses on systematic approach towards development of indigenous theatre. When it comes to choosing the text for his productions, he challenges himself with questions such as, “What it means to me? Is it revealing the reality of my time and space? Can it be used to address the need of my society?’’ Once the questioning is over, and he agrees to enliven the text, his design skills take over to communicate answers for these queries. The scientific process of his research and art of “focused designing” help him reach his audience more effectively. “Craft should not overshadow text. Design must focus and align with the topic, characters and sensibility of the text. It should be flexible according to the need of actors,” he says.

Chandradasan likes to call himself an actor’s director and believes in the development of performers’ creative skills. “I like my actors to develop their characters themselves. Given a chance, I would like to be invisible during the process of creation. Instead of imitating their director, I help my actors to bring out various shades of their characters. At times it
takes longer, but I want my actors to define their roles themselves. It’s a group activi
ty and everyone in the team has an important role to play,” he says. When it comes to acting, he does not prefer it in his own direction. “I don’t like to act in my own plays. When I am acting for other directors, I want to be fully convinced about my character.”
A chemistry professor by profession, Chandradasasn feels the need of change in curriculum of Indian theatre education. “Why do we follow European institutes as role models for our theatre training? The concept of universal approach is not suitable for countries like India with diverse cultures. When the real India resides much beyond metros, why are most of our training centres teaching urban-based drama?,’’ asks the director.
“The approach that most of our theatre institutes take lacks the connection with our social reality. Drama schools must train their students to cope up with scarce facilities and poor infrastructure,” he says.
He also throws light on the dire state of children’s theatre in India. “Theatre must be introduced as a subject in schools for the overall development of children. Senior directors must take out time to work with them. There is no slot for plays enacted by children even in nationally-acclaimed festivals such as Bharangam,” says Chandradasan.
At Lokdharmi, he also runs a children theatre group called Mazhavillu. Every Saturday, this group of children, in the 10-17 age group, assembles at Changampuzah Park, a cultural park in Kochi, under a tree named “the tree of theatre — the Natakamaram”, and improvise, play games, read plays and do other theatre activities.
Artistes like Chandradasan understand the cultural need of real India and are focused on the over-all development of theatre as an art form.
They have a vision of bringing the dreamland that they spent their childhood in, to each and every kid in the nation.

Courtesy .The Asian Age daily. New Delhi, 04 July 2010

Stills are from Madhavi (Bhisham Sahni), Karnnabharam (Bhasa), and Bommanahalliyile Kinnarayogi (adaptation of a poem Kuvempu)

A journey through Bommanahalli

2010-05-26T23:00:00.001+05:30

K Surekha

First Published : 18 May 2010 01:03:00 AM IST

The New Indian Express daily

KOCHI: The aspirants of Mazhavillu, children’s wing of Lokadharmi theatre transported the audience to Bommanahalli and its milieu with vibrancy and ease. Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi, the colourful adaptation of Browning’s poem by Kuvempu came alive on stage in Chandradasan’s hands as he blended the local, national and global aesthetics with his apt design, script and direction. Legends, myths, rituals, traditions and beliefs that ruled the villagers of yore took one back in time even as they rang a bell of contemporary realities.

All the 33 kids, a few changing roles now and then to bring to life a village setting, did justice to their characters.

They seemed to enjoy every moment on stage making the character come alive.

From start they lured the audience with their passionate performance like the Yogi who magnetised the rats and later kids with his music on the ‘kinnara’.

This poetic drama began with song and dance, with the chorus enlightening the viewers wherever required.

One can sense the mood of the villagers. Like today the people are unhappy with the authority. Village chieftain Gowda lacks vision and dreams only of minting money, threatening the people with dire consequences if they don’t pay taxes. The villagers are burdened with a new problem - vermin menace. The bold and naughty rats stop at nothing. They eat food, destroy clothes and one even steals the chieftain’s turban and places it on its head to be leader. He manages his clan better than Gowda does, always scheming and plotting ways to overcome the traps laid by the villagers. They easily capture the rat-trap man, they create havoc at the rat yagna. They kill the cat and attack the dog. Repeated complaints and his own bitter experiences with the pests prompt Gowda to offer 6000 gold coins to anyone who can solve the problem. All look out for ideas and they see the dramatic arrival of Yogi accompanied by his people dancing his way through the audience to the stage. He stuns them with his song, dance and tales about his skill to rid rats in Kailasa and Vaikunta.

He demands a price and is satisfied by 6000 gold coins. Gowda falls at his feet and pleads for help. The Yogi like the Pied Piper charms the rats with his music and leads them to a river where all but one perish, which relates the plight of his companions and begs for mercy which is granted. The rats symbolically throw their masks into the river and don the role of village children who are lured away by the Yogi in retaliation of the chieftain’s refusal to pay the promised money. A lame child is left lamenting. The people who forgave the lonely rat are full of hate for the Yogi. The play does not end there, the villagers take you off stage where the Yogi is burned in effigy (reminiscent of rituals and Ramlila in which the victory of good over evil is celebrated by burning effigies), with all the characters singing and dancing around.

The Yogi is believed to visit the village every year to seek his reward. The play is layered with political, cultural and ecological implications which are not lost with kids taking on mature roles.

The conflict between Gowda and the people, the rats and the villagers, Gowda and Yogi, cat and rats, dog versus rats say much about mutual coexistence of man and animals.

Smooth dialogue delivery, change of scene and roles and natural acting accentuated by song, dance, music and lighting, simple narration, apt props and the style of presentation with many narrative forms and traditions, apt props made the show entertaining and though-provoking. Each kid was lost in his or her role taking the audience to the rustic simplicity of village life in general and Bommanahalli of Yore in particular.

Courtesy: The new Indian Express

surekha@expressbuzz.com

Stills: Jipson

The Pied Piper of Bommanahalli

2010-05-12T22:54:00.001+05:30

Express Features

First Published : 12 May 2010 12:46:00 AM IST

Last Updated :

KOCHI: Children’s theatre Mazhavillu is all set to stage Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi on Friday evening. The play revolves around Kuvempu’s imaginative adaptation of Browning’s Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Chandradasan has made it into a poetic narrative, sung and enacted by a group of singer-actors.

The meaning and objective of this production is basically achieved through the rendering of the characters and their depiction. Each character is delineated and represented in specific expose so that the narrative is developed into a form that relates to the contemporary reality and time.

Gowda is the usual, inefficient village-chief interested in nothing but collecting taxes, eating and sleeping.

In a shift from the poem, Gowda does not offer 6000 gold coins to Yogi as a reward for killing the rats.

He offers this amount to any villager who can stop people from complaining. One of the villagers tell Yogi about this. In fact, the village does not have that much money to spare, and Gowda is left to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to Yogi.

Yogi is a performer and charmer who is able to lure people. He boasts that he is a friend of Lord Siva and Vishnu and has eradicated rats from Kailasa and Vaikunta.

And he insists on getting the money for his services. Yogi is alien to the rustic simplicity of the rural Bommanahalli.

He comes from a faraway place with some odd objectives which the simpletons of the village cannot recognise.

They are victims to the existing practice of Gowda, the rat attack and later to the ploy of Yogi.

The rats are naughty and daring; they do all kinds of mischief. The story of the pied piper is narrated in direct, simple, transparent and candid style. It is attempted to create a cosmos of the exuberance, earthiness, and hurdles of rural life where various ecosystems co-exist.

Towards the end of the play the people understand the pain of the lone rat and decide not to kill it.

It is the empathy with which men and animals understand and respond reciprocally that expresses the mutuality of existence subtly but clearly.

The performance structure, design and form are derived from many narrative forms of various living traditions.

The play will be staged at Changampuzha Park on May 14 at 6.30 p.m.

Courtesy ; Indian Express, 12 May 2010

Premiere of the play Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi

2010-05-10T23:03:00.001+05:30

My new play Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi is premiered on 14th May 2010 at 6.30 at Changampuzha park Edappalli, Kochi, Kerala. This play is written , designed and directed by me based on a Kannada poem by Kuvempu and is performed by Mazhavillu the childrens theatre group, Kochi.

Synopsis

Cast

AISWARYA.M • ALEX.J.PULIMOOD • AMAL • AMAR MOHAN • AMRITRAJ S • ARVIND AJAY • ARAVIND.R • ARUN.A • ASWATHY.K.S • DILJAZ • JAYASURYA.J • GOURI KRISHNA • GOVIND NAMBIAR • GOWRI MURALI • INKITA INESH • JAYABHAMI.J • JEYASURIYAA.M.A • K.DEVASREE MOHAN • K.N.DHRUVAKUMAR • K.N.MEENAKSHI • KARTHIKA S. • KIRAN XAVIER • MANUTIOUS • NIKHIL VISHWAM • RAMAKRISHNAN • RITHUL • ROHIN.K • SABAREESH.M.A• SREENANDINI• UNNIMADHAV EDANILATH • UNNIMAYA EDANILATH • VARADA • VIJAY KRISHNAN

Credits

Art & Properties — ANOOP S KALARICKAL

Set & Sound - JOLLY ANTONY

Live percussion — KISHORE NK & AYYAPPA THEJUS

Vocal support — AARSHA CHANDANAVATTAM, AADARSH & MANIKANTAN

Costumes — SHIRLY SOMASUNDARAN & REMA K NAIR

Direction Assistance – SARATH R NATH

Music & Lighting— GIREESH MENON

Production Assistance – HARIKRISHNAN & CHARU NARAYANAN

Media Management – MADAN KOLAVIL

Original Poem — KUVEMPU

Text, Design & Direction - CHANDRADASAN

Presentation – MAZHAVILLU, KOCHI, KERALA.

The Pied Piper returns, this time in Malayalam

2010-04-27T23:20:00.001+05:30

KOCHI: The Pied Piper of Hamelin is returning, this time in a Malayalam version. The new play by Mazhavillu, the children's theatre group in the city, is based on a Kannada poem by Kuvempu, which has a plot similar to the famous fairy tale.

The text for the play ‘Bommahalliyile Kinnari Yogi' has been translated by theatre person Chandradasan, who is directing the play as well. The actors for the play have been selected from the five-day summer theatre camp organised by Mazhavillu from April 1.

“We have selected 36 children from the camp. The age of actors range from 6 to 16 and a majority of them have no prior experience in theatre,” said Mr. Chandradasan. He had done the Kannada theatre adaptation of the poem for a children's group in Shimoga last year. The story happens in a village on the banks of the Tungabhadra River. “A cross-section of Indian rural society is depicted in the play. The play is presented in a wide canvas and has a number of characters. I have brought characters like animals in the village – like a silent presence of a dog and a cat, whereas the original text has only rats,” he said.

The play has been so structured that till the protagonist, Kinnari Yogi, is presented, it is just fun and frolic. After the arrival of the yogi, the play becomes musical. This has been so designed to keep the children engaged all through the play and make the performance a celebration for them, the director said.

“The rehearsals will have theatre games and some serious theatre exercises to introduce children to the basics of theatre,” he added.

Mazhavillu, based at Changampuzha Park, Edappally, has been staging regular plays by children and has become a major mooring point for children with a flavour for theatre. The best part of activities in Mazhavillu is that while new faces are coming in every year, members from senior camps move on to shoulder other responsibilities related to play production.

The play will be presented at Changampuzha Park in the first week of May.

Courtesy ; The Hindu, 26 may 2010

World Theatre Day – Message from Judi Dench*

2010-03-25T23:30:00.001+05:30

“World Theatre Day is an opportunity to celebrate Theatre in all its myriad forms. Theatre is a source of entertainment and inspiration and has the ability to unify the many diverse cultures and peoples that exist throughout the world. But theatre is more than that and also provides opportunities to educate and inform.
Theatre is performed throughout the world and not always in a traditional theatre setting. Performances can occur in a small village in Africa, next to a mountain in Armenia, on a tiny island in the Pacific. All it needs is a space and an audience. Theatre has the ability to make us smile, to make us cry, but should also make us think and reflect.
Theatre comes about through team work. Actors are the people who are seen, but there is an amazing set of people who are not seen. They are equally as important as the actors and their differing and specialist skills make it possible for a production to take place. They too must share in any triumphs and successes that may hopefully occur.

March 27 is always the official World Theatre Day. In many ways every day should be considered a theatre day, as we have a responsibility to continue the tradition to entertain, to educate and to enlighten our audiences, without whom we couldn’t exist.”

*Note. Judy Dench is one of the finest female actors of Contemporary Britain who had excelled in theatre with her exemplary portrayal of Shakespearean Characters like lady Macbeth, Cleopatra, and in plays like Remembrance of Things Past, etc. She has acted in films and TV also.

My Wishes/Dreams/Expectations…

I wish and salute, one and every one of you who live and work with passion in theatre, a very exciting creative year ahead… As Judy Dench has pointed out, theatre can and should happen anywhere and everywhere, not just in conventional spaces of performances. Let us have the courage to leave the safety of typical performing spaces and to explore new spaces and venues, that will make our work more meaningful.

And in the increased tendency to delve on the emerging technologies that makes theatre less human, and more mechanised where actors become secondary, let us go back to the basics again. Theatre is basically a collective human art, ensemble art, where living actor is at the centre-stage ably supported by the technicians behind. Let us be one ensemble – a human ensemble- where we can collectively celebrate our success and failure too…

Vayala Vasudevan Pillai, KD Tripati & Shreeram Lagoo honoured by Sangeet Natak Akademi.

2010-02-21T00:11:00.001+05:30

The Sangeet Natak Akademi has announced this year’s awards and fellowships. And I am very glad to see the name of Vayala Vasudevan Pillai in the list of awardees, who has been working in theatre for more than 35 years. Vayala is always a good friend of me and Lokadharmi, has associated with us in many ways, and is almost a usual presence in most of our functions, seminars and workshops of Lokadharmi; he is a source of encouragement and inspiration for us to work relentlessly.

The two fellowships are awarded to veteran actor director Shreeram Lagoo and the Sanskrit scholar and academician Dr. KD Tripathi.

It is interesting to note that most of the awardees this time work in films, TV besides theatre. Some of them is more into Films and TV than theatre, after their initial stint live theatre. Is it an indicator of the presence era that theatre activity alone is not that much rewarding and the ground reality is that you have to migrate or change foots to the more attractive/popular media of film and TV for sustenance?

The Akademi Fellow (Akademi Ratna) and Akademi Award (Akademi Puraskar) have been conferred since 1952, which not only symbolize the highest standard of excellence and achievements on a national basis, but also recognize sustained individual work and contribution to the practice and appreciation of the arts through performance, teaching and scholarship. The honour of Akademi Fellow carries purse money of Rs 3,00,000/- (Rupees three lacs) and Akademi Awards carry Rs 1,00,000/- (Rupees one lac), besides Tamrapatra and Angavastram.

Dr. Shreeram Lagoo

Dr. Shreeram Lagoo the veteran theatre and film and actor, both in Hindi and Marathi, is honoured as the fellow of Sangeet Natak academy.

Dr. Shreeram Lagoo has acted in more than 40 Marathi, Hindi and Guajarati plays and is noted for his excellent portrayal of characters who has also directed over 20 Marathi plays. He has also been very vocal and active in furthering progressive and rational social causes. He was very active in the theatre scenario of Pune and Maharashtra and was very passionate to theatre, and was helpful and helpful to emerging trends and directors in the scene.

He started acting in plays from his student days and continued through the avant garde group "Progressive Dramatic Association" which he started with like-minded friends like Bhalaba Kelkar and later through "Rangaayan" in Mumbai. Meanwhile he trained as an ENT surgeon in Mumbai in the early fifties and practiced in Pune for 6 years before going to Canada and England for additional training.

In 1969 he left his medical profession and became a full time actor on Marathi stage, debuting in the play "Ithe Oshalala Mrityu" written by Vasant Kanetkar. He was the first protagonist of the famous Marathi play Natasamrat written by Kusumagraj and is best remembered for that role.

Kamalesh Dutt Tripathi

Eminent Sanskrit scholar, theatre personality and professor emeritus of Banaras Hindu University Kamlesh Dutt Tripathi was also selected as the fellow by SNA this year.

The name of Tripathi is synonymous with the Sanskrit theatre tradition and aesthetics of India. His interest and expertise spreads from Kutiyattam tradition to Ankiya Nat of Assam, aesthetics, practice and tradition.

He has given immense contribution to the contemporary practice of classical Sanskrit texts in his tenure as the Chairman of Kalidasa Academy Ujjain. He was equally instrumental in understanding and performing the plays by Kalidasa and Bhasa. His writings and translations into Hindi of plays like Balacharita was important in understanding the dramaturgy of Bhasa in the modern context.

Prof Kamalesh Dutta Tripathi is regarded to be an authority on Natya Shastra, the famous Indian treatise on theatre, in terms of its philosophy, aesthetics and techniques and its application in the present context.

Playwrights Vayala Vasudevan Pillai and Shanna Navre

Playwrights Vayala Vasudevan Pillai (Malayalam) and Shankar Narayan Navre (Marathi) and has been selected for the Kendra Sangeet Nataka Akademi’s award.

Vayala is the fourth person to bring home the honour for Malayalam, the others being N.Krishna Pillai, G.Sankara Pillai and K.T. Mohammed. He has been actively involved in all aspects of the Malayalam theatre from writing and direction to teaching, research and organising for the last four decades. He has given his contribution to introduce and relate the newer tendencies in the western theatre and also to re-link theatre with Kerala's ancient traditions of ritual theatre and performance tradition He is a friend and philosopher who guides and promotes the new theatre of Kerala by his presence and interactions with plays and performances.

Vayala was groomed by the Kalari theatre movement started by Sankara Pillai. Vayala joined the School of Drama as assistant director and head of the department in 1984, after leaving his Mar Ivanios College, Thiruvananthapuram, where he was professor of English. Later, he succeeded Sankara Pillai as director of the School of Drama, when Sankara Pillai left the institution.

In 1980-81, Dr. Vayala was awarded the Italian Government's theatre fellowship that enabled him to study theatre at the University of Rome. In 1989-90, he was awarded the post-doctoral Fulbright fellowship of the United States and it helped him do research under the guidance of Richard Schechner at the New York University. He was also a visiting professor of theatre in Meiji University, Tokyo, under the Japan Foundation fellowship and at Paris University.

He has written many plays that includes `Viswadarsanam' (1977), `Thulaseevaram' (1979), `Agni' (1982), `Rangabhasha' (1984), `Varavelpu' (1985), `Kuchelagadha' (1988), `The death of Nestling' (1992), `Suthradhara, Ethile...Ethile?' (1993), `Kunji Chirakukal' (1994), `Swarnakokkukal' (1999) etc.

Vayala Vasudevan Pillai is now the Director, Centre for Performing and Visual Arts of the University of Kerala.

Shankar Narayan Navre (popularly known as Shanna) is one of the important playwrights in Marathi who is the author of path breaking plays Divasendivasa, Parimita, etc. He is also writing for other visual media including TV and film.

Actors Sudha Shivpuri and Neeta Mohindra

Sudha Shivpuri is a popular TV actor fondly remembered for her role as 'Baa' in the Hindi TV serial Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi.

Sudha Shivpuri started her career early in theatre acting in plays , when she was in the eighth standard in school; Her father had died, and her mother had fallen ill, thus the ones of earning a living for the family came on to her, and so she started acting in plays.

Later she joined All India Radio, Jaipur as a radio artist; and then both joined National School of Drama, New Delhi, and continued in the repertory of NSD as actor

She married Om Shivpuri in 1968, and together they formed their own theatre company, 'Dishantar', which produced several important plays including, ‘Aadhe Adhurey’, Thuglaq, and Vijay Tendulkar's Khamosh! Adalat Jari Hai’ in which she played the lead role, all directed by Om Shivpuri.

In 1974, both she shifted to Mumbai, and active in Hindi films and later in serials.

Neeta Mohindra of Amritsar has found herself made for theatre world after having tried diverse fields like painting, acting and direction. And, as a theatre artist, she is making a difference in the Punjabi world for two decades. She is acting in theatre, film and serial actor who had been regularly working with directors like MK Raina and Harpal Tiwana.

Neeta, took to stage at a time when opting a career in stage performances invited many raised eyebrows. "When I joined theatre at the age of 14 or 15, girls were forbidden to act. And, the advantage I had was that I always did lead roles. Now, if I look back, I don't think I was a very good artist. I learned the ropes on my own," says Neeta Mohindra.

She has worked upon a number of gender-related themes, street plays on foeticide which were quite captivating and well received.

"At that time, I took theatre merely as a hobby and had never thought of making a career out of it...Theatre left a great impact on me. Even the government uses our street and stage plays to spread mass awareness. The Punjab government organized a series of shows called `Trimat' to spread awareness on female foeticide," says Neeta.

She says that she has been to the United Kingdom and performed the play ‘Land of Five Rivers’ at about 50 locations all over England including London, Manchester & Birmingham.

She is also a very accomplished artist and painter. “I am a workaholic. I teach, I act and paint, and 24 hours in a day seem good enough for all these activities. She also finds time and space to act in films too.

Directors - JOY MICHAEL and DINESH THAKUR

Joy Michael is a senior outstanding theatre personality. Originally trained in theatre at The London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art, The Royal Academy of Music and The British Drama League, she has made an enormous contribution to theatre in Delhi. She is the founder of YATRIK THEATRE- a bilingual repertory company with the objective of projecting the arts as a dynamic living force in our times by providing regular performances. One of her aims had been to promote theatre in education by holding workshops in schools and colleges and staging performances in educational institutions, which we still continue to do so. She has been director of the group for over 40 years and has directed over 250 plays in her lifetime.

An educationist by profession, she is an artist in every sense of the word. Theatre has been her life, her drive, her passion, her obsession. She has been a recipient of many awards for her outstanding contribution to theatre, including the Rockefeller Award in New York, the Delhi Natya Sangh Award, Sahitya Kala Parishad award, the Raja Rammohan Nation Education Award and the Chamanlal Memorial Society Award for a lifetime of contribution to theatre.

She believes in the actor’s creativity and possibility of creatice improvisation all her plays were prepared on a shoestring budget.

She has lectured on, and directed, Indian plays at universities: at the University of Virginia; Russell Saga College in New York; Sweet Briar College; Punjab University, Chandigarh. She has written and directed scripts for television and radio. She has been Vice Chair of the National Progressive Schools Conference and Governor of numerous schools in Delhi and regional centres. She was principle of St Thomas School for many years. She continues to work with young students in schools.

Dinesh Takur is the director/actor of theatre and films with many important roles in his credit. He is the founder director of Ank theatre Mumbai (established in 1976) who has directed plays like Hai Mera Dil. – an adaption of Broadway play by Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore - that has completed more than 1000 shows, a rare record in the hstory of Indian theatre. He is also an actor in theatre and films in Mumbai.

Hai Mera Dill is a simple, domestic comedy, it deals with a hypochondriac businessman who misunderstands his family doctor’s telephonic conversation with a heart specialist and comes to the conclusion that he has only a few days to live.

Dinesh Takur and Ank theatre kept on updating it, making references to contemporary, real life people like Osama bin Laden, Laloo Prasad Yadav’ and recent movies to make it contemporary and alive. Besides producing and directing Dinesh Takur has also set up a unique record having played the male lead in all the shows, more than 1000. Around 50 actors had so far played the half a dozen roles in the play, but no one had ever replaced Takur.

Ank had produced around 70 plays, 5,500 shows with an amazing variety of socially relevant plays, farce, comedy, adaptations, and historical and topical satire. For example the play Jis Lahore Nahin Dekhaya (by Asghar Wajahat) that dealt with the trauma of Partition and the resolve of an old Hindu woman not to leave her beloved Lahore and migrate to India.

The other plays produced by Ank and Dinesh Takur include Thuglaq (Girish Karnad); Baqi Itihas and Pagla Ghoda, (Badal Sircar); Suno Janmejaya (Shri Ranga); Jaat Hi Poochho Sadhu Ki,(Vijay Tendulkar); Khamosh! Adalat Jari Hai (Vijay Tendulkar); Kamala,( Vijay Tendulkar); Aadhe Adhurey, (Mohan Rakesh); Rakt-Beej,( Shankar Shesh); Mahabhoj, (Manu Bhandari); Atamkatha, (Mahesh Elkunchwar); Gaganbhedi, ; ( Vasant Kanetkar); Hangamakhez, (Agha Hashra Kashmiri); Sheh Ye Maat (B.M. Shah) etc.

KAMAL ARORA –Make up

Kamal Arora plays all his roles to perfection, be it acting, make-up, set making ,costume designing, or lighting; He is a complete theatre person, now is the vice-chairman of the Chandigarh Sangeet Natak Akademi. In his long career he has acted in more than 100 plays, directed 100 plays and make up production of 50 productions.

Kamal feel that each and every aspect of theatre is equally important; for example a few lines of make-up on the face of an actor can depict a lot, can take you back in years, provided it’s done to perfection. ‘’You have to understand the character well, to do a real job, and it’s vital to be in sync with the theme of the play when you are designing costumes and doing make-up,’’ Having worked with people like Kumar Verma, Anjala Maharishi, and Manohar Singh excelled his skills on backstage

Arora produced the first light and sound full-length play, Anarkali, in the ‘80s and was a novel concept, one that was received well too.

Born in Pakistan, raised in UP but Kamal Arora has given the best of his aesthetic potential to Abhinet, the oldest theatre ensemble of the Chandigarh.

KULDEEP SINGH – Music Director

A veteran of the Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA), Kuldip Singh is known for his sensitive and melodious treatment of his compositions for films like Saath Saath and Ankush. He has been associated with IPTA Mumbai for the last 32 years and he is currently the President of the Mumbai chapter. A versatile music director, he has composed music for numerous plays, teleserials, music albums and films.

His work with IPTA includes plays like Sufaid Kundali, Bakri, Dulari Bai, Moteram, Kabira Khada Bazaar Mein and others. Kuldip Singh has also composed music for almost all the notable Hindi theatre groups in Mumbai, including Nadira Babar’s Ekjute and Dinesh Thakur's Ank among others. Today he is undoubtedly the most sought after Music director in the Hindi theatre circles of Mumbai.

Kaifi aur mem by IPTA Mumbai is one of his recent productions.

MOINUL HAQUE – mime artist

Moinul Haque, who virtually single handily popularised mime in the North East region, has been named as one of the recipients of the prestigious Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for the year 2009

Moinul, who has been practicing mime for the past 30 years without a guru and now the director Mime Academy in Gowhatty which aims to take mime to the grass root level.

In the early 1970 he started as a mono-actor but soon formed a group called "Sound and Comedy". His works has a vision and themes that highlights champion the marginalized moments of crises in diverse characters; For Moinul Haque mime is a versatile and sensitive art form that can convey important and relevant issues of society. Thousands of performances he have throughout the country has proved that he had mastered the universal language of mime that can transcend the barriers of caste, creed and colour. His accurate display of emotion, facial expressions and body language succeeds in conveying silent messages to the audiences beyond words.

He also works with the children from the Deaf and Dumb School at Guwahati; gives he has given a number of lecture -demonstrations at the various places in India and is a regular visiting expert for various acting institutions in the North-East of India.

For their contribution to Other Traditional/Folk/ Tribal Music/ Dance/ Theatre catogery, Musafir Ram Bhardwaj (Folk Dance - Himachal Pradesh); Vilayat Khan Ragi (Dhadhi Folk Music - Punjab); U K Kunjirama Panicker (Theyyam - Kerala); Jaganath Behera (Pala -Orissa); Shanti Jain (Folk Music - Bihar); Vithal Gangaram Umap (Folk Theatre - Maharashtra) and Bhikhudan Govindbhai Gadhvi (Folk Music - Gujarat) have been awarded.

Plays that looks into Morality, Sex, Relations, Traditions and Revolt…; Interesting mix in Meta 2010.

2010-02-12T21:49:00.001+05:30

It is February and is time for Meta to announce the 10 shortlisted plays for the covetable awards for this year. And there is an interesting mix of plays which vary in content, form, and treatment and is a showcase of the contemporary Indian theatre. This time more plays are included from North East; and a wide representation of regional language that include Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, non-verbal (a mime play), Hindi, Malayalam, and Garo.

Many of the plays looks into morality, relationships, sex, revolt, social moorings, rituals etc. The form ranges from traditional folk theatre, culture, to realism to narration, to the usage of multimedia; but it seems that all the plays are attempting for direct communication with the audience.

The Festival will take place at Delhi on the first week of march where all the selected plays will compete for the best play awards as well as for individual awards as per nominations. The jury include DHRITIMAN CHATERJI, MS SATHYU, NAYANTARA SAHGAL, RANJIT KAPOOR, SEEMA BISWAS, and VIJAYA MEHTA.

The covetable award for the best play has been bagged in the former years by, SARHAD PAAR MANTO –Hindi- USHA GANGULI, Rangakarmee Kolkota (2006); COTTON 56, POLYESTER 84 (Hindi) - SUNIL SHANBAGI - Arpana Mumbai (2007); KARNNABHARAM (The Anguish Of Karna) – Malayalam - CHANDRADASAN– Lokadharmi Kochi, Kerala (2008); and HAMLET – THE CLOWN PRINCE – English & Gibberish- RAJAT KAPOOR – The Company Theatre Mumbai (2009) and this year... Let us wait for the result.

I am personally thrilled to see the productions of my friends Deepan Sivaraman, Manish Mitra, Mohit Takalkar, and Pabitra Rabha, included in the list.

Spacing Theatre wishes all the plays and artists with the best of luck.

BHARAT KATHA - (Bengali-Multilingual) - Manish Mitra – Kasba Arghya Kolkota

Native, rich and dynamic energy of folk music dance and theatre forms like Pandavani, Jhumur and chhau, Manish Mitra narrates narrate an episode from the epic, The Mahabharata. In his play Bharat Katha Apart from the core cast, a group of Chau dancers from Purulia also features in this production. The action of the play revolves around the incidents of the battle of Kurukshetra, when Abhimanyu boldly ventures to penetrate the dangerous, enigmatic chakravyuh, and is tragically killed inside it.

Nominations –Direction & Choreography (Manish Mitra)-Costume design (Sima Ghosh) –Lighting design (Sudip Sanyal) and for best Ensemble

GARBO - (Marathi) – Mohit Takalkar- Aasaktha Pune

Garbo written by Mahesh Elkunchwar in 1970 is about the class of ‘young people’ living aimlessly with frustration of shattered dreams, the diffusion of mediocrity, and the burden of inhibitions, the generation which breaks out into defiance of living out their own lives with non-conformism for a credo. As the play engages in the inner battles of these people, sexuality becomes the major concern.

Contextualized against the lives of Intuc, the frustrated intellectual, Pansy, the potential homosexual, Shrimant, the affluent but weak patron and Garbo, their mother/mistress/sex-goddess, the drama ends in the climax of her death. The play grows out of a claustrophobic real-life situation pushed to the limits of endurance, burgeoning into a surreal holy dream that proves too unreal and brittle to stands the test and inevitably leads to near melodrama, with the animosities and tensions becoming sharper till they culminate in Shrimant stabbing Garbo to death

Nominations – Actor (Nachiket Poornapatre); Actor in Supporting Role Male (Sarang Sathaye)

GUTI PHULOR GAMUSA - Assamese – Bidyawati Phukan - UTSA Assam

“Guti Phulor Gamusa” from Assam directed by Bidyawati Phukan, is a love story and is produced by the extension activities of National school of Drama.

Bidyawati Phukan, an NSD alumnus validates the use of folk traditions in her productions. Her theatre relates her personal as well as social moorings. She says “Where I come from is a hotbed of insurgency. But the truth is people live with halla. There is violence but there is dance as well.”

Nominations are for Direction; Choreography, and Stage Design (Bidyawati Phukan), Supporting actor Male (Sailen Duwari), Supporting actor in female role (Manju Rajkonwar), Costume design (Manju Rajkonwar, Nidedita Phukan, & Sumi Borgohain), Lighting Design (Anil Gohain & Khirud Gogoi), Sound Design (Anil Gohain ) and for best Ensemble.

MIREL MASINGKHA – Mime - Yumnam Sadananda Singh - The Kanglei Mime Theatre Repertory, Imphal, Manipur.

Mirel Masingkha (The Will of Soul),is a mime play based on the indefinite hunger strike of Irom Chanu Sharmila, portrays her gritty campaign against human rights violation and war against injustice “The play is a medium by which we can tell the story of a strong yet silent symbol of Manipur’s firmament of struggle’, says the director. “Through our play we want to give the message to stop all kinds of killings, both by militants and security forces, to stop abuse of power and get rid of black laws like the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958,”

Nominations Direction (Yumnam Sadanand Singh), Female actor in supporting role (Shanta Singh), Sound Design (Shri Inaocha), and for best Ensemble

ROOP AROOP – Hindi - Tripurari Sharma - Shabdaakar, Delhi

Roop Aroop is a Play written and directed by Tripurari Sharma who initially chose theatre as a means of expression to shrug off middle-class conventions and to seek an identity. It was an intimate way of revealing and connecting with the lives of women audiences and sharing their perspective with the world.

She says: “Theatre has an ancient but male-centric history in India’. She is an NSD product with Diploma in Direction

Nomination is for Best Actor, Male (Happy Ranajit)

SEX, MORALITY AND CENSORSHIP – Hindi - Sunil Shanbag - Theatre Arpana, Mumbai

Sex Morality and Censorship is exploring one of the most controversial issues of our time, morality and censorship. The play flashes back to the early‘70s when Vijay Tendulkar’s classic, Sakharam Binder, set off a storm of controversy in the theatre scene and was attacked by the state, and by sections of our society. Using an exciting mix of theatre, illusion, memory, music, dance, and film this play provokes, challenges, and creates a new theatre idiom, both in terms of content and form, entertaining and provocative; and asks the questions – who says NO! ? And why?

In terms of form he draws from the rich folk tradition of Maharashtra and techniques of modern theatrical art, including multimedia, in a direct, intricate and vivid manner.

Structurally, “Sex, Morality & Censorship” is a play-within-the play with alternation of dramatic action from one space to another, indicating different time planes. Down stage characters like Lavani dancer, a scholar, a commentator and the director who dared to stage “Sakharam Binder” in the face of strong protests by Hindu fundamentalists and Censor Board are at play. The centre stage is used to enact scenes from four plays with special focus on “Sakharam Binder”, which was censured one time, and upstage footage from films and video are projected to demonstrate the narrow mindedness of Censor Board, which initially stopped the screening of these films.

Nominations are for Direction, Sound design (Sunil Shanbag), Script (Shanta Gokhale& Irawati Karnik), Best actor Male(Nagesh Bhonsle), Best Actor Female (Ketaki Thatte), Supporting Actor Female(Rajashree Wad Sawant), Choreography (Maya Jadhav& Mayur Vaidya), Stage Design (Nayantara Kotian, Prashant Prakash & Vivek Jadhav), and for Costume design (Kalyani Kulkarni).

SPINAL CORD – Malayalam- Deepan Sivaraman - Oxygen Theatre Company, Trissur, Kerala.

This production is part of the research project on ‘Spatial Identities and Visual Language in Indian Theatre.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez's novel Chronicle of a Death Foretold has inspired this play which narrates the story of a murder revisited 27 years after its occurrence. On the wedding might of Angela and San Roman, roman discovers that his wife is not a virgin. Then her brothers started a revenge to kill the violator. The play looks at the tragedy of the killing and the manner in which it had unfolded 27 years ago as developed on the narration of Santiago’s 80-year old mother who keeps oscillating between the past and the present.

The performance uses direct narration and interaction with the audience, projection of images to accentuate the feel and gravity of incidents, and has a special space design, but is marked by the excellent portrayal of the 80 year old mother by Gopalan Atattu. In the inner level the play showcases the idiosyncrasies of the church, rituals, religion and morality.

Nominations are for Best Ensemble, Script, Choreography, & Stage design (Deepan Sivaraman), Supporting Actor in male role (Anil P & James Elia)

WHITE LILY & NIGHT RIDER – Marathi – Rasika Joshi & Milind Phatak - Aangika

“White Lily & Night Rider” is the contemporary play - a black comedy - of a man & a woman in their 40’s. They are very close Chat Friends involved even in erotic chat. At one point of time they desperately want to meet each other to transform that virtual reality in to reality and may take the decision of marriage. But when they meet person to person the showdown begins and transpires is both hilarious and poignant. Has the Internet made us afraid of real life issues? Any known system of man – woman relationship is unacceptable to them.

The play raises innumerable questions and confusions about the fundamentals of the relationship & companionship. Does this confusion end with self realization? Are they afraid of reality? Is the virtual reality more comfortable??

Milind Phatak and Rasika Joshi, who have also written, directed the play and coordinated the sets and lights have explored such facets.

Nominations are for Script (Rasika Joshi & Milind Phatak, and for Actor in Female Role (Rasika Joshi)

BLACKBIRD – Hindi - Akarsh Khurana - Akvarious Productions, Mumbai

Written by David Harrower, Blackbird is a brilliant, unnerving and controversial play that taunts us with the limits of our own language, our taboos and our conceptions of love, abuse and closure.

Una, a confident young woman, confronts Ray, an aging middling executive, and forces him to revisit the past. Twenty years ago, they had an affair. Till one night, Ray disappeared. Now she's back to seek some answers, and to possibly remind the man, who is now leading a respectable life, about his past. And just when you have dismissed the play saying that you know too well what will happen next, the script hits you with a rock that shatters all your preconceptions about the subject. Nobody thinks that it is possible for a thirteen year old to be in love and more so, for a forty year old man to be in love with her. Turns out, it is possible.

With veterans Akarsh Khurana and Shernaz Patel playing the leads. The play is set in an office space. And the idea of getting people to walk around outside the office gave a complete feel of the location.

Performed by an expert cast of Akash Khurana and Shernaz Patel, this 80-minute play by David Harrower deals with that infinite world of grey. It powerfully shows that there are no easy blacks and whites.

A modern morality play with foreground of an appalling case of child sexual abuse, but a complex love story looms in the background.

Nominations are for Direction (Akarsh Khurana), Best male Actor (Akash Khurana), Best actor Female (Shernaz Patel) and for light design (Hidaayat Sami).

A -CHIK A- SONG - Garo Language – Pabitra Rabha - Dapon Garo Hills, Meghalaya

A-chik A song, means –land of the Garoes -the first ever play in Garo language depicts the culture, traditions, folk tales, traditional costumes, music, and customs of the Garos and dealt with the Garo community’s socio-political history - the history of Garo Hills during 1870-1872 with special reference to the glorious first and the last arms struggle of the Garoes against the British. Though the British Army with their superior of arms could easily overpowered the ill equipped Garo freedom fighters –Toggan Ningminza Sangma the young hero is remembered by the Garoes with great honour as the 1st National hero and as the martyr of the Garoes.

Nominations are for Choreography, & Stage design (Pabitra Rabha), Best ensemble, and Costume design (Tarun Faikia)

Workshop @Lokadharmi with David Studwell and Kathleen Mulligan

2010-02-04T18:54:00.001+05:30

A one day Theatre workshop is to be oraganised at Lokadharmi on Sunday, the14^th February 2010. The resource persons are Mr. David Studwell, an actor from USA, and Ms. Kathleen Mulligen, an actor trainer, and assistant professor of voice and speech at Ithaca college, USA.

The workshop will focus on the Meisner technique of actor training, and also on Voice and Speech for an actor in a play. Informal discussion and exchange on the contemporary theatre scenario of USA and India will also be a part of the workshop.

Meisner technique is based on a series of progressively complex exercises to develop an ability to improvise, to access an emotional life, and finally to bring the spontaneity of improvisation and the richness of personal response to text. The technique develops the behavioural strand of Stanislavski's 'system'. The technique asserts that by emphasizing "moment-to-moment" spontaneity through communion with other actors, behaviour that is truthful under imaginary circumstances may be generated.

The workshop will take place from 9.30 am to 4.00 pm with a noon break at Changampuzha park edappalli, Kochi, Kerala. Admission is restricted to 20 actors, on first come first serve basis. For reserving seats and other details, contact Harikrishnan, the workshop coordinator (mobile 09995197238) or Chandradasan, the artistic director of Lokadharmi (mobile 09447414200).

Kathleen Mulligan is an Assistant Professor of Voice and Speech at Ithaca College in Ithaca, NY. From 1992-95 she was a Resident Professional Theatre Associate at Cornell University. She spent the past 10 years on the west coast, where she served as a Resident Actor/Teacher at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival and a Resident Artist at PCPA Theatrefest in Santa Maria, California, where she taught Voice and Speech for the Stage. She spent a year as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Voice and Acting at The University of Illinois, and taught voice and Shakespeare at The Iolani School on Oahu, Hawaii. While teaching young people at Iolani, she became interested in how non-actors could benefit from the voice training and exercises used by people in the performing arts. She is a member of the Voice and Speech Trainers Association (VASTA) and received her BFA in Acting from Boston University and her MFA in Acting from Southern Methodist University.

David Studwell is a member of Actors Equity Association the union for professional stage actors in and the Screen Actors Guild the US. Representational professional credits: Off Broadway; New York City Center’s Encores! production of Applause with Tony award winning director Kathleen Marshall and staring Tony award winning actress Christine Ebersol. Regional theatre: Falsettos (Mendel) at The Alliance Theatre, Atlanta; As You Like It (Oliver), Romeo and Juliet (Benvolio), Pal Joey (Joey) at The Goodman Theatre; Chess (Anatoly), South Pacific (Emile) at The Marriott’s Lincolnshire Theatre, Chicago; Sweeney Todd (Sweeney), Fiddler on the Roof (Tevya), My Fair Lady (Henry Higgens )at PCPA Theatrefest, Santa Maria, CA. Resident Equity Actor/Teacher – The Oregon Shakespeare Festival 98’-00’, PCPA Theatrefest 00’-07’. Awards/Honors: Four Joseph Jefferson nominations, Chicago; two Indy Awards, Santa Barbara; Irene Ryan Award – national winner. BFA –SUNY Fredonia; MFA – Purdue University. David lives in Ithaca, NY with his wife Kathleen, a recent Fulbright recipient, an equity actress and Assistant Professor of Voice and Speech at Ithaca College.

Spacing Theatre/ Chandradasan

Poranadi (the Outcast)

Lankalakshmi

Karnnabharam (The anguish of Karnna)

Karnnabharam (The anguish of Karnna)

Collaboration, the base of creation'

Lankalakshmi@Kottayam

Lankalakshmi @ Bharangam 2012, New Delhi

At the doorstep of 2012…

Tagore Festival @ kadambazhipuram, a village in palakkad, Kerala.

Kalamandalam Gopi, Chandrasekhar Kambar, Kanhailal, KM Raghavan Nambiar, Alakhnandan honoured by SNA

Lankalakshmi@kollam fest

National Theatre Festival for Children at palakkadu

Gursharan Singh passes away (1929-2011)

‘Theatre transcends language and time’

Soorya Krishnamoorthi, TM Abraham, PV Krishnan Nair to head Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi

A thought for forests and nature

Audition workshop for the new play Caucasiayile Chokku vattam

Endgame' returns to Malayalam stage

The Legend remains, in bold strokes…

Wading through the world of colours

Badal Sircar (15 July 1925-13 May 2011).

A workshop of chavittunatakam

Watch out for Vinay Forrt

Putul Yatra - 6th India Puppetry Festival, at Guwahati from 22-30 April

A Case for Theatre in Service of Humanity -Jessica A. Kaahwa, Uganda

World Theatre Day Message 2011 - Jessica A. Kaahwa

Celebrating theatre

It’s time to play!

Workshop on Emotions to images with Annushka Dal Maso from Finland

Kinnara Yogi postponed at ITFoK 2010

Kinnara Yogi travels to Thiruvananthapuram on 23rd and to ITFoK-2010 Trissoor on 25th

Whose Effigy did we burn that Friday, anyway?

A Folk Theatre Culture for Today: Lokadharmi Theatre Group Interview with Chandradasan Interviewed by Lissa Tyler Renaud

Bommanahalliyile Kinnara yogi at Swaralaya Festival Palakkadu.

Desh parva ends with Ghasiram Kotwal by Rajinder Nath

Ratan Tiyyam and Ashish Vidyarthi Performs in Desh Parv…

Outrageous, Hilarious, Unassuming…

Shakuntalam directed by Kavalam at Desh Parv

Gubbi Veeranna Reincarnated…

Desh Parva 10th October

Nagamandala by Neelam mansigh Chaudhary and Qwwali by Warsi brothers excelled…

Desh Parva- Festival of Performing Arts of India;Cultural Activities during CWG 2010 (program for the 9th October)

A HEART PLAY – ORU HRUDAYA NATAKAM

Director's actor

Soorya Festival in Asian Age.

Soorya festival from Sept 21

Bommahalliyile Kinnara Yogi at Soorya Festival 2010

Parinayam (Marriage) – Soorya Krishnamoorthy- Soorya, Thiruvananthapuram (11th October)

Marmmaram (Murmur) – Soorya Krishnamoorthy- Soorya, Thiruvananthapuram (12th October)

1.Baburaj, Paduka...pattukara...(Baburaj, singer...keep on singing) – Sasidharan Naduvil – Actlab , Thrissoor;

2.The Journey – Chilanka Floating Theatre(13th October)

1.Yakshikadhayum Nattuvarthamanavum– (The fable of Yakshi and the local gossip)- K Vinodkumar – Suvarnna Theatres, Valayanchirangara

2. Salam America – Gopan Chidambaram – Traya Ernakulam (14th October)

1. Thazhvarayile Pattu (Valley Song) – PAM Rasheed – Theatre of Good Hope, Thiruvananthapuram

2. Oru Thengal (A sob) – Devan Nellimoodu

3. Etho Chirakadiyochakal (Sounds of Fluttering Wings) –Sam George (15th October)

Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi (Yogi with Kinnara at Bommanahalli– Chandradasan- Mazhavillu, Lokadharmi, Kochi - (16thOctober)

Vietnam Veedu –(Vietnam House)- Tamil- YG Mahendran – (17thOctober)

Avanavan Kadamba (The self -Hurdle) – Kavalam– Sopanam, Thiruvananthapuram (18th October)

Makkalkoottam (The little class) – Pramod Payyannoor-Neeravil Prakash kalakendram, Kollam, (19th October)

Nritham(Dance) – M Vinod & N Binod – NatakaSauhridam, Trissoor(20th October)

Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi

A different interpretation to ‘Lankalakshmi'

Theatre in his blood

Video of my play Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi

An actor’s director

A journey through Bommanahalli

The Pied Piper of Bommanahalli

Premiere of the play Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi

Synopsis

Text, Design & Direction - CHANDRADASAN

The Pied Piper returns, this time in Malayalam

World Theatre Day – Message from Judi Dench*

Vayala Vasudevan Pillai, KD Tripati & Shreeram Lagoo honoured by Sangeet Natak Akademi.

Plays that looks into Morality, Sex, Relations, Traditions and Revolt…; Interesting mix in Meta 2010.

Workshop @Lokadharmi with David Studwell and Kathleen Mulligan

Parinayam (Marriage) – Soorya Krishnamoorthy- Soorya, Thiruvananthapuram (11^th October)

Marmmaram (Murmur) – Soorya Krishnamoorthy- Soorya, Thiruvananthapuram (12^th October)

2.The Journey – Chilanka Floating Theatre(13^th October)

***1.Yakshikadhayum Nattuvarthamanavum– (The fable of Yakshi* and the local gossip)- K Vinodkumar – Suvarnna Theatres, Valayanchirangara**

2. Salam America – Gopan Chidambaram – Traya Ernakulam (14^th October)

3. Etho Chirakadiyochakal (Sounds of Fluttering Wings) –Sam George (15^th October)

Bommanahalliyile Kinnara Yogi (Yogi with Kinnara at Bommanahalli– Chandradasan- Mazhavillu, Lokadharmi, Kochi - (16^thOctober)

Vietnam Veedu –(Vietnam House)- Tamil- YG Mahendran – (17^thOctober)

Avanavan Kadamba (The self -Hurdle) – Kavalam– Sopanam, Thiruvananthapuram (18^th October)

Makkalkoottam (The little class) – Pramod Payyannoor-Neeravil Prakash kalakendram, Kollam, (19^th October)

***Nritham*(Dance) – M Vinod & N Binod – NatakaSauhridam, Trissoor(20^th October)**