As a tribute to one of India’s greatest playwrights, Vijay Tendulkar, who passed away in 2008, Ranga Shankara produced an adaptation of one his masterpieces, “Ashi Paakhare Yeti”, in Kannada. It is a play that has been performed in several Indian languages such as Hindi, Gujarati and Kannada apart from the original in Marathi. With Hakki Harutide Nodidira, Ranga Shankara taps and brings together the best of veteran and young theatre talent in Bangalore. The play premiered on July 17th 2009.

Interestingly, prominent actresses in our midst have played the role of the heroine, Saraswathi (Saru), in various languages. Arundhati Nag has essayed the role in Urdu while B Jayashree has done it in Kannada.

The play is directed by Manav Kaul from Mumbai. Manav Kaul is an actor, writer and director, who has won much acclaim for work like “Shakkar ke Paanch Daane”.

Ranga Shankara’s popular Kannada production, “Hakki Harutide Nodidira” will be performed at Ranga Shankara on Fri Nov 20th and Sat Nov 21st at 7:30 PM.

As a tribute to one of India’s greatest playwrights, Vijay Tendulkar, who passed away in 2008, Ranga Shankara produced an adaptation of one his masterpieces, “Ashi Paakhare Yeti”, in Kannada. It is a play that has been performed in several Indian languages such as Hindi, Gujarati and Kannada apart from the original in Marathi. With Hakki Harutide Nodidira, Ranga Shankara taps and brings together the best of veteran and young theatre talent in Bangalore. The play premiered on July 17th 2009.

Interestingly, prominent actresses in our midst have played the role of the heroine, Saraswathi (Saru), in various languages. Arundhati Nag has essayed the role in Urdu while B Jayashree has done it in Kannada.

The play is directed by Manav Kaul from Mumbai. Manav Kaul is an actor, writer and director, who has won much acclaim for work like “Shakkar ke Paanch Daane”.

The tickets are available at Ranga Shankara and www.indianstage.in. For more details please contact Ranga Shankara at 26493982.

Details of the performance

Name

Hakki Harutide Nodidira

Language

Kannada

Dates

Fri Nov 20 and Sat Nov 21

Time

7:30 PM

Duration

90 minutes

Venue

Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar

Age Group

Above 8 Years

Ticket Price

Rs 70

–
Ranga Shankara
36/2, 8th Cross
J P Nagar, II Phase
Bangalore – 560 078
P: 080-26493982 / 26592777
E: rstheatre@gmail.com
W: www.rangashankara.org

The tickets are available at Ranga Shankara and www.indianstage.in. For more details please contact Ranga Shankara at 26493982.

Proceedings of the Sale goes to HCG Foundation.

Dr. Ajai Kumar & Mrs. Bhagya Ajaikumar
Swasti gallery & HCG Foundation
Contemporary Art Gallery,
HCG Towers, # 8, Kalinga Rao Road,
Sampangi Ram Nagar, Bangalore- 560 027.

Swasti gallery initiative of HCG Foundation
SWASTI brings together talented Indian artists and showcases their work. This contemporary art gallery housed at HCG headquarters in Bangalore displays paintings, sculptures and installations, round the year. The proceeds of the sale are shared with the artists and the needy cancer patients. The art gallery serves as an oasis of peace, hope, and tranquility for patients waiting anxiously in the hospital lobby, and lifts their spirits. Swasti’s goal is to spread public awareness and appreciate the role of Arts in the society. They aim at raising funds for the HCG foundation to help support the cancer patients.

Art Mantram
Art Mantram’s objective is to promote art, and encouraging up-and-coming artists by giving them a platform to exhibit their paintings”. Art Mantram’s projects include supporting education for underprivileged children, persons with disabilities and abandoned girl children, in Karnataka, Delhi and Arunachal Pradesh.

SIGNS
a series of 5 short plays in complete the story style
a Yt’angle initiative( Yours Truly angle for children)
officially launching with this show.

SHOW DETAILS
Name of Play: Signs
Duration: 2 hours
Start Time: 10:00 am
Date: November 14, 2009
Venue: ADA Ranga Mandira, JC Road, Bangalore

Ticket – Rs 50/-
To book tickets call 9845853093/9845243051

Make this children’s day a special one for your child.
Inviting children above 7 years, along with parents/relatives.

About Signs:
A series of 5-short stories performed in ‘complete the story’ interactive theatre style where children get to discuss and decide how these short stories should end. These endings are then enacted by the actors on the spot. The themes of these short stories deal with Children and their world, their happiness, success, hopes and fears. These themes cut across barriers and attempts to celebrate childhood in the true spirit.

About the initiative – Yt’angle (Yours Truly Theatre angle for Children)
Ytangle is an initiative started by Yours Truly Theatre with an attempt to reach out to children who have limited quality entertainment. These interactive theatre performances will give hildren a well deserved break from cartoon channels and video games. Children are normally under all time pressure to learn & perform, rarely do they get a chance to be just an audience. Here they get to enjoy live performance and involve themselves in the ancient story telling traditions.

–
Yours Truly Theatre
www.yourstruly-theatre.com
9845853093| 9845243051

It was indeed heartening to see the enthusiastic lineup of children just before the play, and I was also impressed that Sankar’s Cafe at Ranga Shankara also has a Readng Corner for children now. Theatre and allied activities seem to be actively encouraged at Ranga Shankara and this is a great thing to see.

“Zapperdockel and the Wock” is the story of two very different creatures, Zapperdockels being small, and the Wock being a very large being. A Zapperdockel is also a crybaby.How these two interact and learn to get along is the story of the one-hour play.

Throughout the play, I was impressed by the reaction of the children in the audience (the play blurb says it’s for children “4 and above”.) A crowd of them were also invited on to the stage, and they were clearly enjoying themselves.

Virginia and Anil Kumar (I don’t know if I got the male name right, though) were the puppeteers who brough the puppets to life, and with innovative props, excecuted a variety of tricks and capers on stage that had the children constantly amused, and, occasionally, enthralled, as when they lit a flame under a plastic bag, and sent it soaring up into the air.

Walking sticks that acted as scales, hats that filled with flour, a box that opened this way and that…the props were very inventive and creative, and the rectangle described by the ropes onstage created a stage within a stage where all the action happened.

I thoroughly enjoyed the music, too; it was composed by Kumaresh of the famous violinist duo, Ganesh and Kumaresh, and sometimes consisted of purely Carnatic renditions, sometimes percussion passages, and sometimes a violin duet…it was a delight to the ear at all times.

The puppets, made by Anurupa Roy of Kat Katha, were also lovely to behold, with several Wocks taking the stage at one time, but mostly having a blue-coloured Wock iinteracting with a littleyelllow Zapperdockel.

However, I must say that perhaps I was too old for the narrative: I could not follow the thread of the story too well, and sometimes it seemed to drag. Some of the tricks on stage seemed to really have nothing at all to do with the play at all..though perhaps, with the age of the audience tragetted, no such connection was necessary. I never felt that I had got the message that Aru gave the children just prior to the show…that the play was to show how different people can get along together.

I would like to make the point, however, that young children need not always feel that magic-type tricks and slapstick comedy are the only things that comprise theatre for children; I think they are capable of appreciating more sophisticated storylines and stagecraft than what I witnessed at Ranga Shankara yesterday. Personally, I felt that the play could have been cut short to even 40 minutes, and could have done with a more predominant, sequential thread running through it. The two Sutradhars did not always seem to have a “sutra” to convey to the audience.

Ranga Shankara is putting up four more plays as part of the fifth anniversary celebrations, for more details, please visit

http://www.rangashankara.org/

All the plays have been staged before, but are being brought back by popular demand.

we are a caravan of artists who meet every month to share, create and JAM.

and now, we ask the whole city to join in!

read more on www.theatresundays.blogspot.com

theatre Jam turns one this october,

to celebrate the arts and build this movement

we are jamming, all through october

in public spaces of Bangalore.

make theatre jam, your space.

bring your story, art, medium, idea, dreams, memories, tricks…

install, improvise, perform, express

anyone can Participate in the jam activities.

pick a date in October and tell us what you want to do.

most activities will take place in public parks, streets, terraces, basements and markets.

spread the word and encourage more people to participate in the october jam.

BARE NECESSITIES

yes, indeed, we have some running costs! We roughly need about a lakh for travel for outstation artists, food, publicity, coordination, chai-pani. So if you pledged some donation to us, it would get a few things moving! Just mail us if you want to contribute at

info@maraa.in

or call us on

080-4148-8264.

You could also offer spare rooms and couches for outstation artists. food, water, travel, coffee/tea will help cut costs. we need people to shoot, update, collate and coordinate. volunteer. Get in touch.

ART

BY

YASMINA REZA

Art, a French play written by Yasmina Reza, adapted in English, by Christopher Hampton, is a play, that revolves around three diverse and minimalist products of human nature. Three characters, aesthetes in their own right, questioning their individual prejudices against each other.

Serge, a modernist, a puritan, but an afterthought of delusion. Marc, characterized by the epitome of self-acclaim and classicist snobbery and Ivan, an oblivious leaf, which flows in whichever direction the wind blows.

The three friends collide subtly into each others’ perspective and push each other into an overwhelmed sense of egoistic urge towards moral self defense, bringing out the extremes of human nature in the most sublime of ways. The simplistic portrayal of a relationship severed at the seams, encompassing Art as its supposed to be, universal and conflicting.

natural players , differential lighting and apt music makes art a worth while watch .( all this plus a not so creative tribute to Michael jackson)

Venue: alliance francaise, Bangalore

Date: 18th september 2009 [friday]

Timing: 3: 30 and 7: 30

Tickets: rs 100

online ticketing : www.cultbangalore.com

Contact : 9632824253

Email: cultbangalore@gmail.com

Here are the names of the films which will be screened at Arathi. Water is becoming a
very crucial issue for all of us and for which we all need to be concerned
about.

Kindly make a note of the film to be screened on Saturday at 4.00pm Living
Water: In the beginning where the Directors of the film will be present and
will take up the discussion afterwards. So please come and be part of
viewing this film in large numbers.

There will also be an inauguration of the International Film Festival at
4.00pm on 4th September 2009 at Alliance Francaise. All are welcome to
attend the Inauguration.

For any further queries, contact Latha Paul, General Secretary,YWCA of Bangalore City, on

9739047011.

YWCA, Koramangala

Friday 4th September, 2009

10.30am

*Holy Water (23min/Sweden/ India)*

Dir: Lotta Ekelunnd

As the cola companies deplete and pollute the essential ground water of the
communities, strong feminine voices rise in protest. And while they are
successful in shutting down a cola plant, the film debates the larger and
ever-more-pertinent question of our age- Whose water? And to whom does it
rightfully belong?

10.50am

*A Sea Change (85min/USA)*

Dir: Barbara Ettinger

The oceans of the world are in great turmoil and in the last few years, the
waters have increasingly turned acidic, corrosive and dangerous to all forms
of life. Fearing for the near future into which his grandson and a new
generation will grow into, Sven Huseby, retired professor and all-round
jovial gentleman, sets out on a journey to uncover the roots, the effects
and the damage of the environmental catastrophe and then, towards solutions
and hope. Evocative and charged with the spirit of adventure and discovery,
‘A Sea Change’ was awarded the prestigious Dumosa Award for Best Coastal
Film.

12.15pm

*Umiaq Skin Boat (31min/Canada)*

Dir: Jobie Weetaluktuk

Umiaq Skin Boat is a beautiful and poetic 30-minute film about a group of
Inuit elders in Inukjuak, Quebec who decide one summer to build the first
traditional seal skin boat their community has seen in over 50 years. Umiaq
Skin Boat bears witness to the resilience of the Inuit spirit in rapidly
changing times.

1.00pm – 2.00pm

LUNCH

2.00pm

*Sujan Bandhu, a boatman’s journey (19min/India)*

Dir: Viplab Majumder

The river, like life, inspires us to keep moving and that is the story of
this protagonist of ‘Sujan Bandhu’. More than the documentation of his life,
the director feels it is the documentation of life itself.

2.20pm

*Chilila Bank$ (60min/India)*

Dir: Akanksha Joshi

In a canvass spread over four decades, a banyan tree, on the banks of the
lake Chilika, silently whispers tales of the lake and her fisher flock. From
the times when there was no export bazaar to the time when there may be no
lake.

3.20pm

*Woman of Dorfak (20min/Iran)*

*Dir: *Mohammad Nami

Dorfak with a height of 2705 meters is the largest crater of Iran located
east of Roodbar. The slope of the volcano is a suitable summer quarters for
the people who come from humid villages and jungles for animal husbandry. On
the top of the mountain there is no drinking spring water. The task of
providing it is entrusted to the girls and women of Dorfak.

3.40pm

*Discussion*

**

*Saturday 5th September, 2009*

12.30pm

*Jala Tarangani (12min/India)*

*Conceived & Produced by the Students & Teachers of **Christel House India**
*

Weaving notes of instruments like the flute and the guitar with the sound of
the water and the students of Christel House India learn to make music in
this delightful film and in the process discover a reason to celebrate and
care for water as a wondrous element of everyday magic and also a scarce
natural resource of immense importance for the well-being of the planet.

12.40pm

*Barren Dreams (28min/Bangladesh)*

Dir: Anwar Chowdhury

In the midst of the Jamuna, lie the conjoined islands of Patilbari-Dighalkan
di, formed as a result of erosion. ‘Barren Dreams’ evocatively and with a
quiet dignity captures the lives of the children on these islands as they go
about their daily routines. In the midst of hardship, the film locates a
certain hope in these young hearts and in that perhaps, lies a better future
for us all.

1.10pm

*Waterworks (22min/Bangladesh)*

Dir: Anwar Chowdhury

Artist Farida Zaman describes the influence of her childhood memories of
boats, fishing nets, fishes, fishermen on her life and paintings. Her
country’s rivers, the life around them and her nostalgia for peace and quiet
of the rural countryside inevitably find their way into her work.

1.30pm – 2.15pm

LUNCH

2.15pm

*Heather and Goliath (10min/USA)*

Dir: Thea Mercouffer

A rousing account of a biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers, a
satirist and a bunch of boaters stand up to the authorities, and change the
course of history for the embattled LA river.

2.30pm

*Source to Sea: The Columbian River Swim (90min/USA/Canada)*

Dir: Andy Morris

Chris Swan swam 1243miles in 13months, all across the Columbia River,
braving not just cold and exhaustion but pollution and encroachments which
threaten to turn the once thriving and glorious water body into sewage,
displacement and extinction. Andy Morris’s remarkable ‘Source to Sea’ is not
just a rousing paean to human endeavor but also spans the ancient story of a
river and the life and culture that thrives in and around it. It is through
these epic narratives that the film arrives on the essential connect between
man and the elements; one we are in the danger of forgetting. Winner of the
Best Environmental activism/ Social Justice Award and Most Inspiring
Adventure Film Award.

4.00pm

*Living Water: in the beginning (23min/India)*

Dir: Vinay Silva & Divya Bhatt

*Living Water explores the wisdom of God manifested through water. It
reflects the struggle of earth and mankind as we endeavour to understand
water, its all encompassing utility and its preservation. The film implores
that ‘Preservation is Communion’ is the key.**

**What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his soul
!!!!*

*(Director will be present for screening and discussion)***

4.20pm

Discussion

**

*Sunday 6th September, 2009*

12.30pm

*Deeply Superficial (26min/India)*

Dir: Veneet Raj Bagga

‘Deeply Superficial’ is the chronicle of many meanings the waters of the
river Ganga holds for the people of this diverse country. Mired in these
meanings is a strange irony- where the river is venerated as holy and pure,
the condition of its water and surroundings is tragic and full of filth. The
film seeks out the people working to save the river and implores that each
one of us can contribute our bit to retain and preserve the essence of our
rivers for generations to come.

* *

*1.00pm*

*Walk with Water (Nira Nadige) (18min/India)*

Dir: K. Murali Mohan Kati & Manjunath H.

A sobering look at the city of Bangalore in the throes of the water crisis.

**

*1.20pm – 2.00pm*

*LUNCH*

**

*2.00pm*

*Call of the Thirsty Jholapuri (54min/India)*

Dir: Nafisa Barot

In simplest of terms, ‘Call of the Thirsty Jholapuri’ spells out the need of
the hour in pursuit of a better tomorrow. Dramatizing a fable of a village
girl who completes her education and returns to her village to unite the
people in the river basin through a Prem Setu (Love Bridge), the film calls
for a more gender just, equitable, peaceful, sustainable future.

**

*3.00pm*

*Sharing Paradise (58min/USA/Indonesi a)*

Dir: Amelia Hapsari

The fishing community of the rustic Indonesian Island of Balobaloang is
facing a crisis like they have never faced before, a thoroughly modern one.
For a community that stills bides by traditional practices, their waters
have increasingly come under siege by fishermen from neighboring islands,
who even after depleting their own island’s fish reserves, continue to
engage in dynamite bombing and cyanide fishing. Director Amelia Hapsari
gathers the Balobaloang community around her and together their voices shape
the narrative and the story of ‘Sharing Paradise’.

**

*4.00pm*

*Secret Life (12min/Poland)*

Dir: Joanna Hoffmann

The video refers to the contemporary quest for life and its definition. In a
poetic way, it combines micro and macro scales, scientific images with
everyday surrounding and experiences. It touches the subject of water as a
source of life.

*4.15pm *Discussion

Presents

“BRIEF CANDLE”

In support of India Foundation for the Arts

(A new play by Mahesh Dattani, Produced and Directed by Lillete Dubey)

Cast: Joy Sengupta, Amar Talwar, Suchitra Pillai, Zafar Karachiwala, Manasi Parekh and Satchit Puranik

Venue: Chowdiah Memorial Hall

Date: 6th September, 09 : Time: 3.30 PM and 7.30 PM

Duration: 1hour 25 min

Language: English

‘Brief Candle’ is a play that addresses mortality yet highlights life, that emphasises the importance of the quality of our lives rather than how long we live it.

The play is a hilarious farce with some extremely funny situations revolving around a hotel room near the airport. As the characters in the play await their departures, which are delayed due to a storm, they end up in comic situations, as they entangle themselves in surreptitious dalliances and complicated love affairs.

As they rehearse the play however, all the characters, including the inmates, the doctor and the hospital aide, discover similarities between themselves and the characters they are playing. It is clear that the dead playwright is speaking to them. The metaphor of arrivals and departures representing life and death, leaves them with a reflection of their own struggles and needs, and a realization of their brief time on this earth. On the day of the performance, the playwright appears, and a love story unfolds that crosses time, space, life and death.

It is a poignant tale – tragic, humorous, farcical and finally elevating.

Associate Sponsor – HSBC, Hospitality Partner – Chancery Pavilion, Airline Partner – Kingfisher Airlines, Ground Partner – Cafe Coffee Day, Online Partners – www.indianstage.in and www.indiaplaza.in

The funds raised through this performance will be used by IFA to continue its grant-making in the arts.

Limited Donor passes available for Rs 2000/- and Rs.1000/-. Call Joyce at 2341 4681/82/83 between 10 am to 5 pm or email joyce@indiaifa.org.

Exciting Offer: All ‘Friends of IFA’ get a 10% discount on tickets. Call Menaka from August 17th onwards at 2341 4681/82/83 or email her at menaka@indiaifa.org for details.

You can book online at www.indianstage.in and also at www.indiaplaza.in from 20th Aug onwards.

Passes for Rs 500/- will be available from August 20th onwards at the following Cafe Coffee Day outlets.

Jayanagar – Garla Garnet, Phone: 65391012

Koramangala – BPCL, Phone: 64541184

Indiranagar, 100 Ft. Road, Phone: 64528290

CMH Road, Phone: 64541168

Lavelle Road, Phone: 64511535

Malleswaram, Phone: 64511532

Sadashivnagar, Phone: 64511537

Brigade Road, Windsor House, Phone: 64541160

Super Market , 5th Avenue, Brigade Road, Phone: 25581248/25580392

On 18th August, 2009 at 7.30 p.m

Please, find the ticket/booking information below

Hayavadana Rao is a self-styled, self-appreciated poet whose sense of poetic license transcends all logic. One day he receives a letter from his wife – the first she ever wrote – and all hell breaks loose. He decides that he has to take the bold step of actually going to his in-laws’ place.
What was there in that letter? Why did he rush to his in-laws’ place?

Go and watch the play!

WeMove Productions presents S. Gundurao’s

Nannavala Kagada (My Wife’s Letter)

For more information log on to www.wemove.in
Buy Tickets online @ www.indianstage.in / www.buzzintown.com or call 9886062324/9980169269

A One Day Workshop for Children ( Ages 9-14)

Ganesh Chaturthi is the birthday of Lord Ganesha, the elephant-headed Hindu God. As we all know, He is a very popular god in India and has become a popular symbol around the world too. Ganesha in different art forms has broken many boundaries of caste, race, religion, and nation and has found a space in many living rooms around the world. He is a favorite among the children too. The story of his birth and the variety of delicacies made on this day are enjoyable for children. Over the last few decades, there has been a considerable shift in our societies across the country from celebrating the festival in a traditional way to a more ostentatious occasion, with little regard to the socio-economic, cultural and environmental impacts.

The workshop is aimed at helping children identify the traditional and historical significance, ways in which it was celebrated in the past, the importance of the traditional foods made on this day and ways in which the festival can be celebrated without causing harm to the environment around us.

The workshop will take children through interesting stories, videos, making clay idols, learning to make traditional decorations, learning through some games and learning to take responsibility.

Workshop Date: 30th August 2009

Timings: 9.30 am -4.30 pm

Registration Fees: Rs.300/-

Venue: ESG office

Contact Details:

Environment Support Group

1572, 100 feet Outer Ring Road, Banashankari 2nd Stage, Bangalore-70

Telephone: 91-80-26713559/60/61 Email: divyarrs@esgindia.org/esg@esgindia.org

Website: www.esgindia.org