I've had too many things happening and too little time to surf decent for anything other than work. Hence no yadda yadda yadda from me till now. To think that this is my first post in 2 months and more...well,well,well...you know now!
Anyway, been doing a lot of researching and reading as part of my latest work. YES, I said it. My next production is coming up and soon...
I've been reading from Racism to Aryan Race Theory to Game Theory and beyond and finally to terrorism, subaltern studies... am too cramped in brain with info, can't exactly decide what to put and what not!
The image you see above is an artwork design done by M.Siva (known for his mask works and as brother to Palani of Koothu-p-pattarai, sadly enough, coz he's such a good artist himself!) for the forthcoming show.
It's actually more an event than a show. There are two parts to the event.
One is the theatre play produced by Masquerade and directed by Moi (KK), it's Poile Sen Gupta's THUS SPAKE SHOORPANAKHA, SO SAID SHAKUNI - a contemporary take on history, myth, terrorism, love, war, revenge... righting the historical wrongs and restoring unrepresented and alternate, albeit truthful, voices to their rightful positions in the annals. Whew! If that's confusing, let me make it simple. It's a beautiful play, not as complex and heavy as it sounds. It is simple, interesting and very contemporary. But in order to make it interesting for you ppl who'll (definitely you're not gonna miss this one!) watch this, I had to go into so much reading and research.
Two is the unique art exhibition titled SUBALTERN FOOTPRINTS featuring works created by five of Chennai's contemporary and young artists - Asma Menon (there we go Asma, you're young!), Jacob Jebaraj, B.O.Shailesh, M.Siva and Benita Perciyal - works that are inspired by this play specifically for this occasion.
The Overall Reason and Cause.... Reason - a 9-day WORLD THEATRE WEEK CELEBRATION. WORLD THEATRE DAY is March 27th (the last night of the theatre performance). March 26th is the first day and inauguration of the exhibition that will run till March 31. CAUSE - The Theatre Play is a tribute to Bagyam (Bhagirathi Narayanan under whom this was my first production in the capacity of Technical Director) and the Exhibition is a Fund-Raiser for a Theatre House (Institution cum Training space - Manram as we call it in Tamil) to be constructed at Purisai - 120 kms away from Chennai - to nurture Theru-k-koothu. The proceeds from the sale of art works and from the gate collection of the play would go towards this cause.
SO PLEASE PLEASE LAND UP. Also, we gonna have a great inauguration on 26th at 6 pm, followed by the play at 8 pm. The performance only lasts 60 minutes. So it doesn't go on and on!
For further details about exact dates, show timings, tickets availability... further posts about my research and readings of the play... keep glued to this spot. Regular post for the next month would bore you to death about this play and contemporary issues the play throws up!
Adieu for the moment!
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