Trina Lahiri, a young lady who has been fighting hard against the ‘king of maladies’ for some years, works for the poor and ailing children and never forgets to wear a hearty smile on her face. Shirampur Child Guidance Centre, an NGO providing education and vocational training to 160-odd physically and mentally challenged children by specially trained teachers, is struggling to meet its financial needs.

Nandikar has joined hands with Bhawanipur Swajan and the theatre groups Ballygunge Swapna Suchana and Drishyapat to support Ms. Trina Lahiri and Shirampur Child Guidance Centre and also to support medical treatment of Master Susamay Chandra, a blood cancer patient on the way to attaining quality life. Together we shall present a Benefit Festival featuring three plays from 20^th March, 2013 to 22^nd March, 2013 at the Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata. Below is the schedule of the Benefit Festival:

Venue: Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata

Passes: Rs. 60, Rs. 100 and Rs. 150

Starting March 15, passes can be procured from the venue between 1pm and 7pm. To book tickets over phone, please call +91-8296133601 or +91-9836297606.

We shall, on this occasion, also bring out a souvenir with articles on theatre. We shall be obliged if you kindly help us with your benevolent support in the form of advertisements and donations.

On behalf of everyone involved in the Benefit Festival, we cordially invite you to be a part of the festival. Please come and enjoy the plays, stand by us and kindly join hands in supporting the institutions and the individuals. We also request you to kindly spread the word.

Thank you,

Nandikar family

As sequel to yesterday’s observation on Nandikar and theatre training, I must begin with yet another assertion.

I forgot to mention two very important facts vis-a-vis our work with Children and Young. First, every day I feel mortally afraid before beginning the sessions with all the young human beings around us – with huge potential and each unique in one’s own way – hugely expecting God-knows-what and my inability to usefully fulfil their inarticulate wish-lists but, then, the smiles shrieks, tantrums and caresses of these young souls slowly make me feel strong and useful. Permit me to be a little emotional: Every weekend with all these God’s Chillan around, with their hugs and howls, I ask myself, ‘Is this the Heaven?’

Now coming to the second part of the topic, we talk about -

2. Intensive Theatre Training for Youth (18+ to 30 Years)

Way back in early 80’s, Nandikar started its training programmes for adult theatre aspirants. One major reason for this was to induct young people into theatre fold (not necessarily in the Nandikar fold) since the initiators of the post-independence theatre movements were all getting elderly. These intensive training programmes, on one hand, created good many young theatre enthusiasts all around; on the other, the theatre community started to feel need for theatre training per se. Government programmes for theatre training started, some groups and individual followed suit. Soon, training became almost fashionable (sometimes useless dishes because of incompetent cooks).

Of late, the situation has changed. Not all, intent on training, are interested in theatre per se. Many of them want training to qualify for TV series or film debuts or modelling or working as MCs or DJs and so on. And why not?

Nandikar continues its Annual Theatre Training Programme for adults. The reasons fordoing so even in the changed cultural situations are as follows:

1. As many young people – with no knowledge about theatre economics or any idea about the prospect of a theatre activist – often want to join Nandikar. Our stated position is that Nandikar can not admit anyone directly; one shall be inducted only when through this training programme we come to understand each other and agree to do theatre consciously and little knowledgably.

1. This training may help young people to gain some efficiency in tackling TV Series and the rest of it.

1. Very importantly, this training may help young adults to perceive and learn the ‘Art and Philosophy of Communication’ in their daily performances in the theatre called life. This is extremely important because schools and homes (sorry!) and paras (localities) do not offer systematic awareness and scope for practice of these very important arts of communication. For young adults, it is not yet too late to deconstruct their communication note gone askew or muted as they are young, they are not yet all habits, they are still fit for salvation!

As the senior most of a pretty long lasting (52 years) organization called Nandikar, often I receive inquiries and requests for Theatre Training and/or doing theatre under Nandikar’s umbrella.

These requests come from two segments:

1. Training for Children and Young (below 18 Years)

2. Intensive Theatre Training for Youth (18+ to 30 Years)

Guardians of children and young below 18 years want to get their wards in Nandikar fold so that they can hone their performing abilities. They are expected to become actors with opportunities occasionally to prance upon the stage.

YES, every Sunday we work with three separate groups of children and young in the age groups of 5 to 9, 9+ to 13 and 13+ to 17+. When each of the guardians profess that his/her child is very talented, we have to remind them that all children are very talented. And sometimes we add that we the seniors in our zeal, incipient competitiveness, superiority complex, etc, manage to ruin their talents.

So what do we do with these children and young? With the junior most group we play games, sing songs, and move in dances so that they have a taste of their childhood of which they are often deprived. Moreover, they start believing in themselves, in their uniqueness and realize that each of them has a centre in the midst of multi-centred community. In short, they learn self-respect, respect for others, community spirit, — all these joyfully and creatively through songs and dances and games.

With the senior group, the approach and practice are same. In addition, we try to offer participatory and improvisational journey towards practice of communication. They are required to learn skills of communication and the perception about how and why learning Communication makes us better human beings individually, socially and creatively. They learn the mystery and magic of ‘I and the World’, — the essence of Aham Swa and Soham.

Of course, occasionally all the three groups are offered to grease paint and cloth themselves so that they can do what is known in common parlance as ‘theatre’.

(Part 2 of this post is here)

In quick succession – despite continuing demand for Ajnatobaas and Madhabi – Nandikar has produced Amaar Priyo Rabindranath and Anto-Aadi-Anto. These are still being rightly termed as Nandikar’s latest. Yet a Newer Play – Hridmajhaare – has arrived.

How did it happen?  It all started with Supriyo Chakrabarty.  Supriyo, initially a trainee, presently a regular in Nandikar, obtained a moderate Individual Grant from the Culture Ministry to produce a play. Certainly a tough call for an individual! He got the text of As You Like It into Bengali, garnered some service from some actors, mostly free-lancers, and the cooperation from Bikash Biswas and his group Katha Prasanga from Gobordanga.

In his dreams Supriyo thought big, but wishes are mostly horses. Supriyo lacked organization and adequate resources. Nandikar provided the umbrella; Sohini Sengupta and Kamal Chattapadhyay took up the reins and a wonderful journey in togetherness started.

So far, for long decades, Nandikar has groomed many a group, nourished many an individual all around. Being useful Nandikar felt proud and strengthened, for giving is always receiving. Now, ironically yet happily, a number of free-lancers like Shyamal Chakraborti, Kamal Chattapadhyay, Bindiya Ghosh, Subhodip Guha, Anirban Ghosh and good many others are in our company to catalyze the production of Hridmajhare. It’s a new experience, a humbling experience, a journey in rejuvenation.

Hridmajhaare was premiered on July 1^st 2012, 10.30 AM at the Academy of Fine Arts. Hridmajhaare – As You Like It in Bengali – is a no-star all-youth high-speed production. It exuded freshness, raciness and made the house roll and rock for about a couple of hours. Eulogies started pouring in along with few hyperbolic statements like, “Excellent, don’t miss. Best of all Shakespeare’s running, Lear included.”

Of course, we are happy, but by no means heady or giddy.

Hridmajhaare

Original play: William Shakespeare’s As you Like It
Bengali Adaptation:  Kanchan Amin
Light:  Sushanta Mondal/ Manoj Prasad
Set:     Bikash Biswas
Music:   Subhadeep Guha
Costume:  Rimi Majumdar
Make-up:  Ranajit Dutta
Movement:  Deb Kumar Pal
Cast: Shyamal Chakraborty, Kamal Chattopadhyay, Bindia Ghosh, Rimi Majumder, Anirban Ghosh, Tirtha Deb Bhattacharya, Debashis Roy, Anirban Roychowdhury, Biswajit Ghosh Majumdar and others
Direction:   Supriya Chakraborty
Design And Directorial Advice:  Kamal Chattapadhya and Sohini Sengupta

Focus: training on stage acting along with acquaintance with video and audio medium.

For further inquiry, please contact 033 2555 4946 (12 noon – 3 p.m.)

Rudraprasad Sengupta at the Training in the past

Sohini Sengupta at the training in the past

About a couple of months back I witnessed Rangapat’s Production of Tathaagata, Mohit Chattopadhyay’s last (by no means the least) play. He has been ailing for quite some time. He finished Tathaagata from his sick bed (actually, the dead bed), writing one page one day, another day half of a page and some other day, only one dialogue! That was Mohit! One of the very best dramatists of our time, Mohit Chattopadhyay does not need an introduction to Indian theatre fraternity.
Mohit was very close to some individuals and some groups, whereas I was always in the queue, never a front liner. As a result, Nandikar produced only his adaptation of Eugene O’neill, and, that too, a somewhat indifferent creation. The best of Mohit, Nandikar could never work upon. Our loss! I worked in Mohit Chattopadhyay’s Galileor Jibon (via Brecht’s Life of Galileo). But that was, for me, only a side dish.

Mohit gave me a short shrift, even after his death. Mohit and I were recipients of Tagore Ratna from Sangeet Natak Academy; the date of investiture was 25th April, 2012. But tomorrow I shall miss him there. Once again he has given me a shrift! RIP.