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Under its Scheme of Assistance to Young Theatre Workers,
a month-long workshop of Young Theatre Artists of
Uttar Pradesh was organized from 19 February to 20
March 2007 at Allahabad, in collaboration with the
North Central Zone Cultural Centre, Allahabad, with
the objective of providing basic training to young
people desirous of doing serious theatre.
The Akademi received 250 applications for the workshop,
out of which 29 applicants between the age of 21 and
35 years were selected. The selected candidates came
from different towns of Uttar Pradesh, such as Allahabad,
Shahjahanpur, Azamgarh, Meerut, Jhansi, Jalaun, Bareilly,
Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Saharanpur, Mathura, Lalitpur,
Faizabad and Badayun.
Shri Sachin Tewari, an eminent theatre director of
Allahabad and faculty member of the Department of
English, Univesity of Allahabad, was the camp director
of the workshop. He was assisted by Shri Saadat Ikram
Warsi, an alumnus of the Bharatendu
Natya Academy, Lucknow.
The workshop faculty included Sachin Tewari, Allahabad
(Historical Overview: Western Drama): H.V. Sharma,
Delhi (Set and Costume); Kanishka Sen, Kolkata (Lighting);
Satish Anand, Delhi (Production Process, and Historical
Overview of Modern Indian
Drama); Jayadev Hattangady, Mumbai (Acting and Improvisation);
Alok Chatterjee, Bhopal (Acting: Voice and Speech);
Sanjay Upadhyay, Patna (Theatre Music): Prabhakar
Bhave, Pune (Make-up); Kiron Bhatnagar, Delhi (Theatre
Management); Yugul
Kishore, Lucknow (Creating Performance Text); Moinul
Haque, Guwahati (Mime and Movement); P. Gopinath,
Thiruvananthapuram (Kalaripayattu, the martial art
form of Kerala); and Pramod Kumar Singh, Allahabad
(Yoga).
In order to provide participants a fair idea of the
folk traditions of Uttar Pradesh, performances of
different regional folk theatre forms were held. The
performances included Alha by Lallu Vajpayee and group
of Unnav; Raslila by Ramprasad Sharma and group of
Mathura, Nautanki of Kanpur by Madhu Agarwal and group
of Kanpur, Ramlila by Mahant Jairam Das Vyas of Faizabad,
and Parsi Theatre by Anjum Dehalvi of Delhi. Shri
Urmil Kumar Thapliyal of Lucknow spoke at length on
folk performances and folk theatre forms of India.
Videos of the following plays were also arranged
for the trainee artists: Kallol (Bangla), written
and directed by Utpal Dutt; Bhasa's Urubhangam (Sanskrit),
directed by K.N. Panikkar; Chakravyuh (Manipuri),
written and directed by Ratan Thiyam; Bhasa's Karnabharam
(Sanskrit), directed by K.N. Panikkar; Charandas Chor
(Chhattisgarhi) written and directed by Habib Tanvir;
Suno Jammejay (Hindi version of the Kannada original),
written by Adya Rangacharya, directed by B.M. Shah;
Andha Yug
(Hindi), written by Dharamvir Bharati, directed by
Satyadev Dubey; Agra Bazar (Hindi), written and directed
by Habib Tanvir; Guinea Pig (Hindi version of the
Bangla original), written by Mohit Chattopadhyay,
directed by Rajinder Nath; Anveshak (Hindi), written
by Pratap Sehgal, directed by Satish Anand.
The valedictory function of the workshop was held
on 20 March. Professor Rajan G. Harshe, Vice- Chancellor,
University of Allahabad, was the chief guest. He gave
away the certificates to the participants. The salient
feature of the function was the presentation of short
performances by the participants based on their training
in the workshop. The performance included fragments
of Raslila; a scene from Andha Yug, Surya Namaskar
and other yogic exercises; some movements of Kalaripayattu;
soliloquies from Andha Yug (Ashwatthama) and Sophocles'
Oedipus; and Rani ka Kar, a short play prepared by
students in their performance text classes; and a
song associated with the Bidesia-style theatre of
Bihar.
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Young
Theatre Artists' Workshop: Allahabad - 19th
February to 20th March 2007