"What Does Art Owe its Audience?" – A panel discussion

hosted by Nimi Ravindran

Does a work of Theatre owe alignment to its vision alone, or to its audience's comprehension? Does it have to be binary? Is a middle path a compromise? If a play is being performed to an audience, is the comprehension of the play by said audience important? And where are the lines drawn, if they need be?

On the Panel: Sharanya Ramprakash, Anuja Ghosalkar, Ranji David, Sandeep Shikhar

Workshop – The Drama in a Djembe

by Djembe Ashok, Shoonya

The workshop introduces the participants to the beautiful rhythm of the Djembe. Actor, dancer, musician, beat boxer, voice over artist or someone whose looking to understand sounds better, the workshop is for every artist whose looking to connect with sound either as an individual or in a group.

Paid Event - Rs.1500. Djembe Provided.

Click here to Register

From Scratch - Dastan-e-Bharatanatyam

by Kumudha Chandrasekaran & Kafeel Jafri

Of marvels and mudras. Of abhinaya and aiyyari. Of fantasy and fancy footwork.

Sharing stories through movement and moving minds through poetry. A dastan-e-dance and a moving tale of collaboration, you are invited to a decidedly unique and never-before-attempted collaboration of creative art forms as diverse as Bharatanatyam and Dastangoi as part of Speaking of Theatre 2016. The South Indian classical dance form that has evolved since the 3rd century BCE meets a unique 16th century Urdu story-telling tradition which has seen a revival in the last decade. Come experience first-hand, the explosive and magical combination curated by the explosive and magical duo, Kumudha Bharat Ram and Kafeel Jafri. Together, the whole they create, will be more than the sum of the parts ‐ going beyond the storytelling in Dastangoi and the dance elements of Bharatanatyam to create a new narrative, from scratch.

The performance would be in Hindi and English.

Paid Event - Click Here to Buy Tickets

Open House – Getting Started with Theatre

Theatre Professionals talk of how they entered theatre and answer audience questions on how to get started.

Documentary Indian Theatre – Talk by Filmaker R.V. Ramani

Mr. Ramani shares his experience in documenting his interaction with theatre while make documentary films.

Performance – Lady Anandi

by Drama Queen - Anuja Ghosalkar

Lady Anandi is a documentary theatre performance by Anuja Ghosalkar. It is the story of a female actor, lady F, who is haunted by the ghost of her great grandfather -- a female impersonator in late 19th C Marathi theatre -- every time she goes up on stage, and her love for moustaches. Using a series of photographs, anecdotes and fiction, Ghosalkar weaves through time periods to find her great grandfather. Lady Anandi has been performed as a work-in-progress across India.

Paid Event - Click Here to Buy Tickets

Theatre beyond Performance – Panel Discussion hosted by Vivek Madan

Theatre beyond Performance gives audiences an opportunity to explore how Theatre has been effectively applied beyond the traditional defined stage. This discussion attempts to bring together theatre artists who have been successful in extending their passion of the arts to various areas and helps show how the dramatic arts enable people to do more than we can imagine.

On the Panel: Abhishek Iyengar, Anita Mithra, Maitri Gopalakrishna, Pritham Kumar, Radha Ramaswamy

Actor's Workshop – Sculpting Space & Time

by Anitha Santhanam

Working with the Lecoq pedagogy, this workshop explores the craft of creating character through physicality, and a dynamic relationship to space and time. How can an actor play multiple characters, by changing his or her physicality and voice? How can inner conflicts be tangibly manifested on stage? How can the invisible become visible? These are some of the questions that will be taken up during the workshop.

Paid Event - Rs.1000. Click here to Register

Performance - Breaking NEWS

Dramatized Performance by 10 Actors

Breaking News is both an experiment and a playground. Think about it: what is the point of News if it's not about stories of human experience? So we asked a bunch of actors to take on news stories and perform them as stories - both their own and those we've heard.

That's right - we're breaking news down into stories. 10 actors, 10 news stories, an hour of 10 minute performances. Featuring 10 funnest actors and a collection of 10 handpicked, interesting articles.

That's a lot of 10s. Watch it, you'll find something to take home.

Paid Event - Click Here to Buy Tickets

The Thing About Writing

Talk by Abhishek Majumdar

Abhishek Majumdar, artistic director of Indian Ensemble, talks about processes in playwriting and the role playwrights have played in theatre systems across classical & devised forms.

In Conversation ‐ Deepika Arwind & Nisha Susan

Deepika Arwind, Writer/Director, Lost Post Initiative will talk with Nisha Susan, writer & co-founder of theladiesfinger.com on feminism, writing and a number of other fun things!

Performance - Anthology

by Stray Factory

The Show features the best of StrayFactory Entd's award winning short plays which have been performed across the globe. Over the course of the hour, one will journey with the unlikeliest of characters and places ranging from cinematic villages, narcissistic actors and their fans, Van Gogh impersonators and a peak into colonial Pondicherry. The plays have been performed across the country, as a part of The Park's New Festival across 5 cities including NCPA in Mumbai curated by Ranvir Shah of Prakriti Foundation, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Sydney, Auckland and Dubai.

Paid Event - Click Here to Buy Tickets