Kicking off the Season 5 of Unrehearsed Futures, we had guest curator Illia Abeliashev, an active member of the Vakhteri playback group from Ukraine in conversation with fellow Ukrainian playback artists Alisa Volkova and Olena Kalashnykova. Emphasising on theatre’s role in social transformation, this season we look at how we can transition from dialogue to…
It’s the end of a rehearsal, the first full run-through of a new play. As the actors wind up and gather their belongings, you are standing quite still in the centre of the room. You’ve said you will do notes tomorrow because it is late, and everyone is exhausted. They shuffle around you, quietly saying…
When I think of doubt, I think that it is personal, emotional, bad, a hindrance, a nuisance. It is a feeling I hate having in my body. It makes me anxious, as if I’m at a vital crux, and if I choose wrong, I will die. The stakes are extreme even when they’re not. So…
Editor’s Note: India has a rich history in theatre, but our knowledge about the work our contemporaries and older groups have and are doing, is often limited to the geographies we live in. Driven by a curiosity to know about the work being created across the country, over the next couple of months, we will…
I write this at the end of an intense week, heavy with conflict and questions for our future. The consecration of the Ram Mandir has been telecast to the world. If one looks purposefully at it, the ceremony was a carefully crafted performance – there was ritual and song, a chorus of fawning media, not…
It was December 2007. Kenyan storyteller, dramatist, orator and theatre-maker Ogutu Muraya was in busy pursuing his higher studies in international relations and diplomacy with an interest in environmental studies when the violence in his country broke out. Kenya was in the middle of a contentious presidential election that year. The then-Opposition-leader Raila Odinga (who…
For this article, twenty-four artists immersed in the world of theatre were interviewed to investigate what are the primary preoccupations shaping their perspective in 2024 and how they intend to respond to them in their work. Some very interesting insights and some old concerns were laid out, which is explored below. The future is abrupt,…
“Directly toh ghar mein kabhi baat nahi hoti. Jo kehna hai art ke medium se keh do, phir logon ko pata chalta hai, log sunte hain. (No one ever speaks directly at home. No one listens. If one wants people to listen, say it through art.),” says Mumal, a 29-year-old theatre practitioner based out of…
While putting together an ‘In Memoriam’ section for recently departed luminaries of the stage, it is really striking how their collective lives were a testament to the sheer diversity and breadth of Indian theatre. This is the second in a two-part series, the first can be read here. In the capital, the arc lights dimmed…
Looking back at departed luminaries from the world of performing arts (or any other sphere) is sometimes a matter of publishing compulsion, or perhaps even a ritual of belated obeisance. It’s not so much a contemplation of the ever-present idea of mortality; but more like shining a beacon to illuminate flickering legacies and, indeed, the…