Koraput: Nandanik, a theatre group based in Koraput, Odisha is stepping onto its fifth year on August 1. To commemorate the occasion, Nandanik is organizing a three day theatre fest. The schedule kicks off on 1st August with a lecture on Folk culture of Odisha by Dr Manmatha Kr Satapathy which will be presided over by Shri K C Nisanka. The Asim Basu Memorial Award for encouragement to young theatre artist, awarded jointly by Asim Basu Foundation, Bhubaneswar and Nandanik will be given away to Dambarudhar Nayak by Bhaswati Basu.
The next two days are for the 4th edition of the Deomali National Theatre Festival, the only multi lingual national level theatre festival in southern Odisha. The festival starts with a conference on Folk Culture and Media organized in collaboration with Parbo, an academic journal of Kolkata. This year the festival features 5 plays out of which 3 are in Odia, 1 in Bangla from Kolkata and 1 non verbal play from New Delhi. The festival features for the first time a play from New Delhi-Kala Jal by People’s Theatre Group. The schedule also features Swabhiman, a play on girl child protection by child artists of Alumina Girls School, Damanjodi.
The major highlight of the festival is inclusion of the works of two stalwarts of Indian Theatre-Probir Guha and Subodh Patnaik. While ALT, Kolkata will present Ghar wapasi ki geet under Guha’s direction, Nayika Natyachetana will present a modern day script, Rebati Eibati Sebati, based on Fakir Mohan Senapati’s Rebati scripted by Patnaik.
One of the major attractions of the festival is the premiere of Nandanik’s new play, Nayeeka, which is based on poems of Ramakanta Rath. According to Sourav Gupta, director & playwright, “We believe that Theatre is applied literature and Odisha is extremely gifted with literary works which should be highlighted through theatre. Ramakanta Rath’s poems provide us a classic yet relevant take on love. People, particularly young generation should learn the meaning of love. We have experimented both in content and form.” This is Nandanik’s seventh production after staging classics of renowned playwrights like Bharatendu and Ibsen.
Formed in 2014 and registered in 2016, Nandanik has carried out a barrage of theatre related activities in Koraput since inception which includes drama production, workshops, festivals, celebrations, book publishing etc and placed Koraput in the theatre map of India. “We have been organizing this festival since 2016 without any government grant largely due to cooperation of likeminded theatre teams who do not demand money and also support from institutions like Koraput Municipality, NALCO and EZCC ” , informed Monideepa Gupta, Secretary of Nandanik, “the idea behind this festival is to expose people of Koraput to quality theatre efforts of other states and languages”, she added further.
The first day programme will be held at the Seminar Hall of Council of Analytical Tribal Studies while the next two days at Town Hall, Koraput.
Comments are closed.