Theatrewala-about theatre & culture

KALARIPAYATTU WORKSHOP IN MUMBAI FROM  18-27 AUGUST What:  Workshop on KalariPayattu Where : is Rockstars studios 96. Aram nagar part 2. Andheri west Who By : Guru Lakshman Gurukkal Time :  7am ,  8:30 am ,  5 pm and 6:30 Pm Date:  10 days from  18-27 August 2014 What else? :  kalari massages and ayurvedic treatments by appointment only Where to register? :  People can go directly to the studio and see the space and register or contact us by e-mail on  kalarigram@gmail.com  // 9768440088 Website:  www.hindustankalari. com What is Kalaripayattu?: Kalarippayattu is the oldest form of  oriental martial art  encapsulating Kerala's unique cultural mytho-historical heritage. Here the term Kalarippayattu is derived from the combination of two words as 'Kalari' which means the training place and 'Payattu' means the  training. Kalari is considered as the arena where a traditional psycho-physiological disciplines practices of whic

Received  82 entries for  eNatya Sanhita , the  online one-act playwriting competition  of which 72 entries qualified. Entries have been received from  Mumbai, Kalyan, Pune, Nagpur, Vadodara, Ahemdabad, Agra, Secundrabad, Delhi  and from other parts of India. We also received international entries from  Mauritius, Australia, Budapest and London . One of the highlights of  eNatya Sanhita  was that the competition was open to all nationalities and age was no bar. We received  23 entries in Marathi, 23 in English, 15 in Hindi and 11 in Gujarati . eNatya Sanhita  was launched with a vision to not only encourage writing of one-act plays but to also make the selected new and original scripts available online. The winning scripts will be announced on  23rd August, 2014 . They will be published as an ebook on  swiftboox.com . The ebook will be available for free and can be easily downloaded on your devices. 

Thespo 16 “Plug-In to the Tamasha” orientation meeting kickstarts! ~Actress Huma Qureshi attended the first orientation meet of Thespo 16~ Actress and Ex-Thespian  Huma Qureshi  attended the first orientation meeting of the 16th season of  Thespo  on  July 17, 2014  at the celebrated Prithvi Theatre, Mumbai. The orientation meeting was organized as the initial phase of Thespo 16’s journey to interact with budding and potential participants. The Orientation Meetings are a point of contact as well as a roadmap to the annual journey of the buzzing affair.   Titled  Thespo 16 “Plug-In to the Tamasha”,  the event started with the opening song followed by screening of the Thespo AV. A scene from the play The E.Q. was staged, which was also the part of last years Thespo 15 festival. Followed by this the plans for Thespo 16 were introduced to the attendees during the meeting. Huma took the centre-stage amidst the packed audience of over 243 participants and shared her journey and

Known as the Dr. Seuss of music, Leonard Solomon is the proud creator of the Majestic Bellowphone. While it looks like something that the Grinch might find underneath Whoville’s Christmas tree, don’t be fooled by its odd appearance. Handcrafted from the likes of train whistles, coat hangers, toasters, bike horns and bits of brass, the Bellowphone can hold a rather decent tune and has tackled everything from Mozart to Brahms. It doesn’t stop there for the cabinetmaker-turned-musician. Solomon has been building his crowning glory, the Oomphalapompatronium, for the last 15 years as a ‘sweeter’ sister to the Bellowphone. Solomon’s symphony of strange sounds has been heard around the world and the mad musician shows no signs of slowing down. As if that wasn’t exciting enough, he also juggles occasionally while playing.  See and listen of the beautiful Bellowphone in action: Hungarian Dance #5; Johannes Brahms Hungarian Dance #5; Johannes Brahms

Its June!! Vacation time is almost over and most kids will be looking forward to going back to school or college (Not really). So before the tantrums and early morning begin how about going to the theatre and the conclusion on what has been the biggest year for children’s theatre. Saloni Shukla’s directorial debut ‘Clue – Murder at Boddy Mansion’, T-Pots ‘Wolf’, Theatreact’s ‘Herose – Werose’ and Ranga Theatre’s ‘Sinbad The Sailor’ are some of the premieres for children and adults alike. In case your inner child craves for something a little more mature, worry not - NCPA will be having their annual Cheer! Festival with 8 different shows including Out of the Box’ ‘Two Adorable Losers’, 71mm Hyderabad’s ‘The Open Couple’ and Akvarious’ ‘Bombed’. Premieres keep on coming with Frontier Theatre’s ‘The Pad’ and popular theatre actor Jim Sarbh directs his first play ‘Bull’. There are also film screenings of staged productions of ‘King Lear’, ‘Between the Lines’ and ‘The Intervie

The Ishara International Puppet Festival is delighted to celebrate its 12th anniversary  in 2014 across Delhi, Gurgaon and Chandigarh, with a more vibrant and international lineup than ever before. The festival showcases both modern and traditional forms of puppetry - ranging from rod and string to shadow puppets - alongside performances of dance, theatre, music and more. Join us from Feb 24th - March 4th at The Indian Habitat Centre, New Delhi Epicentre, Gurgaon Tagore Theatre, Chandigarh Visit the  Festival Website for the Schedule Book tickets at  kyazoonga.com/ishara

PIERROT’S TROUPE   ( Delhi )  and  KIRDAAR ART ACADEMY  (Mumbai) are going to hold  “Class ‘n’ Comedy” Theatre Festival”  from  Feb 28  to  March 2 ,  2014; at  RANGSHARDA Auditorium,  K C Marg, Bandra Reclamation,  Bandra  (West), Mumbai.   The above-mentioned festival comprises  three highly popular plays  by  Pierrot’s Troupe  (all written and directed by  Dr M Sayeed Alam ): BIG B  (Hind-lish Comedy)  Feb 28, 8 pm K L SAIGAL  (Hindi- Urdu Musical)  March 1 , 7:30 pm GHALIB IN NEW DELHI  (Urdu – Hindi Comedy)  March 2, 7:30 pm "BIG B" -- , however, has nothing to do with Mr Amitabh Bachchan. It is, rather, concerned with Mr Premchan(d): For, the play is the first ever presentation of his celebrated  Hindi- Urdu  short story – "Bade Bhai Sahib"  in  'Broken English'  or what we call  Hind-lish  (Not Hinglish) K L SAIGAL  features India’s noted Stage and Screen artist  Tom Alter  narrating, in his impeccable Urdu and inimitable style, the life story of 

Azim Premji University is pleased to present a theatre performance by Sushama Deshpande Haan, Main Savitribai Phule The story of an extraordinary woman, Savitribai Phule ‘Haan, Main Savitribai Phule’  is based on the life and work of the educationist Savitribai Phule. This powerful solo play is written, directed and performed by Sushama Deshpande. In this play, Sushama brings Savitri to the present day; Savitri appears to be genuinely puzzled – “Why are things so much the same after 100 years? Why have you not taken the movement forward?” This is the Hindi version of the play, originally written in Marathi as ‘ Vhay, Mee Savitribai ’ (‘Yes, I am Savitribai’). The play charts the journey of Savitri’s life, telling her story from her perspective. Sushama Deshpande has been performing it for 25 years, and has done more than 3000 performances in different parts of India as well as in many countries like USA, China, and so on. The play has travelled far and wide in the in

After an acclaimed premiere at the Pukaar festival in Pune, The Arshinagar Project presents ' This Side of the Truth - A Piece for a Flute and a Hat ' in Kolkata on February 22nd. This Side of the Truth - A Piece for a Flute and a Hat   is a landscape of sounds and images, based on fragments of Dylan Thomas' poetry. It is a sort of poem of and in space, reaching simultaneously out to the shadows of our own past and future selves. Drawing upon a process of rigorous research on the organic connections between breath, musicality, body and text, the piece excavates the surface of Thomas' wordscapes, to create a montage of fragmentary, non-linear images, where the shadows of the man crash into the ghosts of the father and the son, skittering off each other across time and memory.  The piece is devised and performed by Arka Mukhopadhyay and musician Pradip (Bula) Chaterji. Date: 22/02/2014   Time: 7:30 PM Contribution: 150/-   Call:  9836509386    e-mail:  th

JUMP INTO THE RAMAYANA: WORKSHOP FOR CHILDREN 7-10 YEARS Sunday, 2 nd  Februa ry, 2014 |  11 am  | Open air garden opposite the museum café and shop, CSMVS Museum, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Fort, Mumbai In  The Mighty Tale of Hanuman,  the beloved monkey deity Hanuman narrates the legendary story of the Ramayana, the epic struggle between good and evil, in which Ram undertakes a perilous journey to rescue his beloved wife Sita, who has been kidnapped by the Demon King Ravana. The book is illustrated with magnificent original 18 th  century paintings from the collection of the  Mehrangarh Museum Trust . All profits from book sales support the  Veerni Project  to empower girls in Rajasthan. This workshop will be conducted by  Saker Mistri  and  Mamta Dalal Mangaldas,  also authors of the children's book  The Kidnapping of Amir Hamza. For more information on this programme, click   here   "THREE WOMEN" MUSICAL THEATRE PREMIERE  Sunday,  2 nd  Februar

The Arshinagar Project  in association with  Centre for Canadian Studies, Jadavpur University, Ebong Amra and Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute  Presents: The Memory Trail...with Tomson Highway (Cree Playwright, Performer, Canada) February 5-9, 2014 On the 5th evening, Tomson will lead a story weaving session at Space, C521 Lake Gardens, while on the 6th evening, he will perform with Rahim Chitrakar, India at the same venue Tomson will also lead a masterclass on the 6th morning at Space, which will culminate in a small sharing along with Tomson and Rahim's performance that evening.  On the 7th and 8th, there will be a workshop with the members of  Ebong Amra  at their space, Tepantar Theatre Village, in Satkahuniya, West Bengal. This workshop is open to a limited number of external participants.  To register for the events, please call  9831731422  (Arka) or  9836003314  (Dheeman) Please refer to the attached PDF for further details. The Arshinagar Proje

The Arshinagar Project is inviting proposals for the Ghosts of Shakespeare  Festival 2014, which will take place in the city of Kolkata, India, between April 23rd and 30th, 2014. Background : Ghosts of Shakespeare is an annual festival that is meant to confront the world of Shakespeare (primarily) from the vantage of Indian performance idioms and aesthetics, as well as contemporary subjectivities and lived experience. It is meant to exist, both physically and metaphorically, in marginal spaces. This means that it intends to explore non-traditional venues, including open and public spaces, as well  as reach out to genres other than traditional theatre, such as dance, performance art, street theatre and other forms of theatre activism, and genres which defy any easy categorization. It looks at Shakespeare as a talisman of protest and humanistic articulation, and hence embraces artistic actions that articulate disturbing and perhaps unpopular truths about the world and times we inha