Chenai Art Theatre & Masquerade are Unlocking Theatre in Chennai

THEATRE UNLOCKED

Chennai Art Theatre (CAT) and Masquerade – the Performance Group (Chennai), two of Chennai’s popular event producing companies, come together, for the first time, to host a SPECIAL WORLD THEATRE DAY EVENT.

World Theatre Day is celebrated on MARCH 27^th annually, since the 1960s, across the world in a big way. In Chennai too, city’s theatre groups have individually for the past few years celebrated MARCH 27^th.

Masquerade started celebrating WORLD THEATRE DAY in the year 1997, when its Founder-Artistic Director, Dr. S. Krishna Kumar, came back from Berlin, after a stint at professional theatre in Germany, where he met international artists at a World Theatre Day celebration in 1996. Since then, Masquerade has celebrated World Theatre Day annually.

This year, Masquerade joins hands with Chennai Art Theatre, headed by A. Charles & Gowtham Ganesan, to bring SIX of city’s prominent stage drama companies on this GRAND OCCASION.

This is the largest coming together of city’s theatre groups in more than a year, since the city went into LOCKDOWN due to COVID-19.

CAT & Masquerade are UNLOCKING THEATRE back to its LIVE status. Hence THEATRE UNLOCKED.

Over 6 performances on 26^th & 27^th (3 performances each day, at 4 pm, 6 pm and 8 pm), 6 city groups will stage the event.

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THE SIX PLAYS AND DETAILS:

26^th March – 4 pm – Naveena Koothupattarai presents BAHISHKAARA (Relegation) – in Tamil

Synopsis:

Bahishkaara (Relegation) brings together the untold stories of unsung heroes from the great Indian epic. The play seeks to unearth the tales of Duryodhana, Aravaan, Shikandi and a few other overlooked yet salient characters through music and dance.

Conceived & Directed by Aadhira Pandilakshmi & Sathish

Running Time: 45 minutes (approximately)

Tickets here: Checkout  https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/bahishkaara-relegation/ET00308214 

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26^th March – 6 pm – Narjaya presents PASI (Hunger) – in Tamil

Synopsis:

A man, a woman and abundance of time. It’s funny, it’s scary and it’s real.

‘Pasi’ is a Tamil absurdist fiction written by Padmasri. Indira Parthasarathy, who is the only Indian writer to have won both the Sangeet Natak Academy and the Sahitya academy award. Crafted in a space supended from time, ‘Pasi’ (hunger) is a play to look forward to.

Cast: Kamatchi Kaleeswaran  & Karthik Gowrisankar

Written by Indira Parthasarathy

Directed by Karthik Anantharaman

Running Time: 45 mins (approximately)

Tickets Here:  https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/pasi-hunger/ET00308217 

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26^th March – 8 pm – Veshadharis present ASHWATTHAMA – in Tamil

Synopsis:

Is Ashwatthama still alive?

A delusional depiction of a meeting between Ashwathama and Parikshit the last heir Pandavas… Come and witness the battle of gratitude and grief… with a dose of contemporary overtones and satirical humour

Written by Chandrasekar Venkataraman

Directed by Sudarsun & Chandrasekar

Running Time: 45 mins (approximately)

Tickets Here:  https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/ashwatthama/ET00308213 

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27^th March – 4 pm – Stagefright Productions present – COFFEE  – in English

Synopsis

Three couples, three different conversations and coffee. Some humorous, some hilarious, some whacky! Sure to leave you entertained!

Title: A Love Story

Written by Rajesh Rajamani

Performed by Vinithra Madhavan Menon and Abishek Joseph George

Directed by Sandeep John

Title: Arranged

Written by Belinda Peter and Zubin Vincent

Adapted from Holidays! by Ethan Tucker

Performed by Susan Jacob and Zubin Vincent

Directed by Zubin Vincent

Title: Surprise

Directed by Deepa Nambiar

Running Time: 45 minutes (approximately)

Tickets Here:  https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/coffee/ET00308215 

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27^th March – 6 pm – MASQUERADE presents G.O.M.D… (Of Gods, Girls, Graves) – in English

Synopsis:

A woman, Goddess nonetheless… A man, a grandson with a duty… and their gripes and coffin tales! Two hilarious takes on marriages, affairs, legacies!

Devised for stage / Directed by Krishna Kumar. S

Running Time: 60 minutes (approximately)

Tickets Here: https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/g-o-m-d-of-gods-girls-and-graves/ET00308216 

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27^th March – 8 pm – Theatre Arlequin presents THE HEART HAS ITS REASONS – in English

Synopsis:

Two different scenarios…two variations on the same theme ….. quest for a soul mate !!! Or is it sole mate ? Come with your funny bones… if not with a mate.

Titles:

The Language of Love : Language is essentially a tool of communication that should bring people together in an exchange of ideas. However some people use language to incite hatred or to hide the truth: politicians are masters in this. So sometimes it is necessary to invent a new language… especially for love.

The Mating Game: Since time immemorial man’s quest for a mate has involved meandering in a tortuous  labyrinth  of relationships and lost chances. One wrong word or a gesture can break a burgeoning romance. So what is the secret to this mating dance? Perhaps it is just the hand of destiny!

Directed by R. Amarendran

Running Time: 55 minutes (approximately)

Tickets Here: https://in.bookmyshow.com/plays/the-heart-has-its-reasons/ET00308218 

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Each of the performances would be followed by a moderated audience Interface with the Director/Production Company (if the company is open to it!)

For further details, buzz me (KK) at 9884029865 & A.Charles at 9841495497

World Theatre Day 2019 - Presenting ANTIGONE...

We're excited. It's another WORLD THEATRE DAY. But for us it's not just another WTD this 2019. This is our 21st WTD celebrations, which we started back in 1998. And this WTD, on March 27, we fructify with our long-cherished production - ANTIGONE - adapted, devised and scripted putting together multiple sources that include but not limited to Sophocles, Hölderlin and Brecht...

The universality and contemporaneity of ANTIGONE is undeniable, and is resonant in today's war-torn, strife-ridden world as well as India, as ever.

EVENT: Performance of ANTIGONE
Medium: Theatre performance
Language: ENGLISH
Duration: 70 minutes
Date: 27 MARCH, 2019 (one performance only on its premiere)
Venue: ALLIANCE FRANCAISE DE MADRAS, Chennai, India

Stay tuned here as well as here for further details...

Surendra Verma's FROM SUNSET TO SUNRISE

We Present to you...

On OCTOBER 7 & 8, 2017

At Spaces, Besant Nagar, CHENNAI

Time: 7:15 p.m

Duration: 1hr 50 mins (with 10 min. intermission)

All Are Welcome - Entry Free

Summer Theatre Workshop 2014 from Masquerade

MYT’s CAMP NEUVE continues…

Masquerade Youth Theatre’s 6th season of Camp Neuve Summer Theatre Workshop for teens begins on 12th May, Monday.

CAMP NEUVE 6 – the 6th season of MYT Teen & Youth Theatre Workshop is for youth aged 13 – 19 years. Limited to 24 participants only, it is an annual summer opportunity for both beginners to learn theatre skills as well as regular returnees to sharpen further their skills. The workshop this year would focus on three areas: Body & Space, Voice & Breathing, Words & Gesture. The three-week intensive workshop on theatre essentials is a learn-as-you-practice module. Workshop participants get to explore, create and hone their skills that include scripting, acting, stage management as well as the technical aspects. Scholarships in the form of post-workshop refunds available, upon successful completion.

The workshop would extend into a proposed devised stage presentation for end June – early July. Dates: May 12 – 30 (weekends excluded), Time: 4 – 6.30 p.m. Venue: Kalpataru Hobby Centre, 4/222, East Coast Road (ECR), Palavakkam, Chennai 41. For more details regarding fee and registration, contact masquerade@masquerade.in or call Masquerade @ 9884029865.
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THE BnB-HOO THEATER WORKSHOP

Look HOO’s knocking on your door, inviting you… to fly along to the Kingdom of NoWorries, where Fantasy King, folksy ministers and fairy daughters delight you in whorls of creativity while the evil lord Tearjerker plans to sink you into the world of serial killers, eternally make you think of tears by the day and revenge by night. If you are between 8 and 13, do you want to miss it? This is your chance to get on the HOOwagon!

Yes… The HOO THEATER is back this summer… after suffering from punctured tyres, deflated tubes and rusty spokes. Get your Imagi-kerchieves into your backpacks along with your favourite bottle of water. Pick your phone, call Hippocampus today for registration, because…. Hippocampus joins hands with Masquerade – the performance group’s Tween wing, The Bear and Beanbag Children’s Theatre, to bring you an unforgettable summer theatre workshop that will end with a rollicking presentation that’s sure to be on your adult shelves as a CD to look back upon!

Event: Theater Workshop; Age group – 8 – 13; Duration: 3.30 p.m – 5.30 p.m (Monday – Friday); Venue: Hippocampus, Old No.4, New No.11, 3rd Avenue, Indira Nagar, Adyar, Chennai–20. The Workshop Fee is Rs. 2600 (Registration Charges included)/- For Registrations, contact, Ms. Chandni / Ms. Priya, 044 – 24433544 / 42116417 Email: chandni@hippocampus.in For further details of workshop, email bearandbeanbag@gmail.com
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The Little Clay Cart

Finally... started work.

The Little Clay Cart or Mrichchakatika by King Shudraka

Hopeful premiere - World Theater Day, March 27 in Chennai

Details shortly!

BRER RABBIT CHRONICLES...

Art, Abstract Art, Avant-garde!

Art to me is a survival skill. It is an extremist subterfuge of individual mind that revolts against the lack of aesthetic ways to project the internal rumbles of human existence in response to external happenings. Art tries to portray reality invariably. Even when it is the surrealist art of a painter such as Salvador Dali or the French cubists, symbolists, impressionists and pointilists, it has reality as its base.

Pointillism (note the DOUBLE LL), for the uninitiated, was a very brief movement that attempted to portray, paint or project everything on canvas through points... of various sizes and layers of clarity.

Getting back to reality! Art can reflect life... else where shall the mind take points of reference from? As much as man created god, man created and creates art. From what he knows best. Life. Hence any art is real. Like B.B.King said once about music. "There is no good music or bad music, there are only good performances or bad performances". How true!

A work at its root - whether existing and re-produced in the case of a theatrical presentation, or executed to its concreted reality on canvas or any projectable material that can hold the conception and ideas in a defined form in the case of a painting, sculpture, installation etc... is basically existent in the human mind before it can be translated for the view of others. So, it is abstract as long as it exists in the domain of the unseen, in the vast space of the conceiver's mind. Only its realisation is precise or unclear. Hence concrete or abstract. Hence, as a natural existence, good art or bad art. And thence, good artist or bad artist. When I say concrete I mean clarity. Even the so called abstrct art can be clear. The colours, the daubing, the sketching, the shades, the deliberate chaos of pastelling may look hazy that for people who are not focussed it may seem like un-sense. I use the word consciously as an apposite opposite to sense. If one delves into the history of abstractionism, it would become clear. I have been delving into this territory for more than 2 decades now and it neve ceases to amaze me as much as post-modern art.

Artists don't vegetate. They can't. They try to overcome the banality of our mundane existence and aspire to transcend to a higher level. Art can also be escapist when it becomes a vehicle for expression of their suppression or repression or smothered lives under political anarchy and fascism. A classic example is the way Abstract Art came into existence.

Abstraction in art is often misunderstood for modern art... or art that cannot be comprehended. The word "abstract" is the most profoundly misunderstood, misquoted, misused and misinterpreted word in human language. When one cannot understand, people conveniently term it abstract. Not fair, especially when given the rise, development and history of Abstract Art, which is sometimes made synonymous with the term "non-figurative" because there are no clear portraits or natural depiction or concrete form discernible.

Abstract one should understand is a deliberate act of disfiguring the concrete or the real or the formative. Why? Why would one deliberately disfigure? Because they cannot or are not permitted to express clearly what they want to. We shall not talk about representations that are inchoate (verbally) or illegible (in calligraphy) or improperly expressed (some conceptions are not yet ready to be expressed and people are in a hurry to say, or they don't have enough vocabulary to express thoughts too big for words yet) or badly painted. We are talking of any sort of subversion. To explain: a person who is infracting or infringing but smart enough to say only part of the actual, yet the information is basically correct and true and complete and satisfactory enough to the receiver. To elucidate and exemplify: The Pandavas act of saying "Ashwathama atho..." Before the actual true sentence could be completed, Krishna chooses to blow the conch so that the full sentence "Ashwathama the elephant is dead" falls in Drona's ear at "Aswathama... is dead". That is a finer level of subversion. In art, subversion is committed to express that point of view they want to, but will not be entertained or encouraged or would even lead to subjection. We know very well what happened to Antigone in the Greek Myth, don't we? We know what happened to Prometheus who dared to bring light unto mankind, don't we? And there are examples... So, art has to use subversions, subterfuges, artifices, conceit as a form of expressing itself. The people who are the intended targets always get to comprehend abstract art.

So where then could it have been born? It was born when suppression was born. At which point of human history did it achieve its height? During the turn of 19-20th century in France... at the birth of 20th century... during the Nazi regime. The Jews, the Poles and the Islamic community are pastmasters of Abstract Art. Because they are the most subjected race. Of course, the Jewish subjection goes back to Shakespeare and Elizabeth. I like Shakespeare's works as brilliant watershed for performance, but I disaver from his projection of his villains. Shylock: who portrayed him? Shakespeare the Christian. Caliban (I provide this specific link because it is an article closer home to my own politics of The Tempest by William Shakespeare): who created him? Shakespeare the Christian. But what Shakespeare himself moral? Was he not a fag? Did he not stoop to please Elizabeth and the authority? True portrayal of the negative would come from those who are of the same stock and have suffered and portray to show the angst and the pain and the effects thereof on them and on the related community or society or civilisation. So, Shakespeare is a villain who deliberately disfigured truth to his own ends. Shakespeare was a subvert. But we are digressing.

The Poles, the Jews, the Islamic. I would suggest you all to take a look at the Works of Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, Jackson Pollock to get an idea of how varied Abstract in Art can be depicted, and yet with clarity. The moral of the story, as I conclude: to make clear to people who are confused about Abstract. I shall now proceed to do the same about Post-modernism, which is often confused as well.