tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8759184392423092282024-03-14T02:51:30.815+05:30evolving theatre definitionstheatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-12948635400864989782010-03-30T14:13:00.000+05:302010-03-30T14:13:22.895+05:30Conceptually, the jam...<div class="hide"> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><b>Just thought I'd post something about the jam that I wrote- since we keep writing concept notes, it makes sense to have some of that conceptualising leak over for dialogue :) and this blog doesn't seem to have much on evolving conceptualisations...</b></span></div><div class="hide"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div><div class="hide"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><b>Short Summary</b></span></div><div style="margin: 1ex;"><div> <span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Theatre jam, an initiative began more than a year back to address concerns of art and media practice within the city. It has turned into an open space not only for theatre, but music, art installations, canvass art, photography, media art- all of these to co-exist. It also forms an interesting interface for dialogue on "amateur and professional" art practice and content of exploration. We are hoping that the forum eventually will lead to skill building through sharing and artists to practice their art for communities.<br />
<br />
Theatre jam rose out as a counter response to the general caging of art and art practice within confines of entertainment and commercialization. Through theatre jam, Maraa hoped to bring artists of all sorts together in public spaces, so they would meet, connect and collaborate more creatively. Theatre jam wanted to bring artists and communities together instead so that the distance and the mysticism that existed between the artist the audience could diminish. This way, diverse content and forms could reach people directly, and this could directly enrich and enliven urban spaces- which we also hoped would lead to renewed public sense of community and dialogue.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Theatre in Bangalore currently seems to exist on a culture-space pedestal for the practitioner and (more recently) in minds of the audiences. Rangashankara as a theatre space has managed to create a facelift for theatre as a legitimate, mainstream and popular cultural commodity to engage with. If one were to understand this as an artists’ movement that brought visibility to the form, the general hope was that other movements addressing content, form and practice would emerge. What seems to have followed is a series of unresolved debates on quality of performances, availability of performance spaces, infrastructural accessibility and a further branching off & politicization of space and resources. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><b>Working with our artist selves and needs</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">To be able to conceive and contextualize content & form is, in our opinion an essential need for artists to develop their work. As a practitioner in the city one has various entry points into the “form” of theatre. Being called amateur artists is quite acceptable; with one often being subject to observations and critique: for example, theatre with unique content, refined in form could only be created as one worked towards acquiring a certain professional tag. And to acquire this function of being professional, one needed to shed and transcend through elaborate processes of a theatre education. As most worked within this paradigm, theatre activities started stemming around initiating this contact between expert facilitators and the amateur. Some of us artists observed that two factors stared us in the face (excuse us for being subjective and generalizing for all amateur practitioners here): </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">-Access to these collaborations weren’t happening often enough</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">-Content and form that stemmed from the “amateur-professional” collaborations didn’t seem to exhibit much of a shift. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Thus we concluded that the expectation from this process (of imparting learning) was to be able to create sustained and NEW art content and experiment with different art forms. The flaw inherent was that, quite often than not, a space that was required to capitalize on existent creativity wasn’t being created. Young performers with an imagination were unable to express themselves and create work with new content and context due to a lack of conceptual space that allowed expression and provided encouragement and motivation to follow those ideas up. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">So we asked ourselves, what would be some realistic factors which could help implement this thought,- that of creating a safe, nurturing, non hierarchal space? </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Some ideas we had…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">-Create a context for short performances; and for varying “time-sizes” to co-exist (ranging from a minute to half hour).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">- Create a (physical) space (and audience) context for all stages of a performance to co-exist: readings, sharing of an idea and inspiration, solos, work-in-progress and completely crafted performances. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">-Explore the possibility of one art complementing the other and collaborative expressions across different art and media forms </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><b>New Frontiers</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">It is increasingly a challenge to create and sustain ever growing, dynamic art and media practitioner groups that stays together to draw from each other in terms of resources and practices. Work also needs to be done for newer artists and audiences to join in the process.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Since the jam began, in October 2008, artists have met, engaged with each others work and collaborated. And yet, a lot of contexts that were rich, ideas, performances, pieces, still remain in the realm of the undocumented and untraced. Keeping this in mind, we decided to channelise some of the experimental content to a wider range of audience perhaps through a medium like Television. A local cable network is keen on loaning us some of its air time and Maraa hopes to build newer audiences through these media presentations of content and form that rose in the jam space. Would be an exciting hybrid media space and a unique interface with newer kinds of audiences…</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;">Deepak Srinivasan</span><br />
</div></div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-72292089450125947692010-02-05T13:42:00.002+05:302010-02-05T13:48:05.312+05:30february love<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFeoS1rJA8wyQ9CTlPa0CrThyO6yYEu0cmf8PsnfrA80fz0MlvuAtKNRGzGiMZRScIu2nv_BLkzR5lvF93fl8uILPnc6bW4hA_HFpwoCI_N4elMHzAxM498Z756iUq8Qz2KUX8Lufwv0Iw/s1600-h/valentine-poster1.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFeoS1rJA8wyQ9CTlPa0CrThyO6yYEu0cmf8PsnfrA80fz0MlvuAtKNRGzGiMZRScIu2nv_BLkzR5lvF93fl8uILPnc6bW4hA_HFpwoCI_N4elMHzAxM498Z756iUq8Qz2KUX8Lufwv0Iw/s400/valentine-poster1.gif" width="282" /></a></div>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-31025391263107136402009-11-26T11:57:00.005+05:302010-02-05T13:54:23.064+05:30Jamming & Gelling with Maraaclick on the link to see the pictures Raktim took of Jamming through Octobertheatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-74111131772704858762009-11-26T11:52:00.000+05:302009-11-26T11:52:37.077+05:30Love & Fresh Air<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span> <br />
<div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I had been receiving regular invites to theater jam’s october fest and had been missing the events for either being busy or mostly being lazy. Having had met Deepak and his colleagues at an earlier occasion of a Hindi film music evening that I enjoyed, I surely wanted to show up for at least one event.I convinced a friend that going to theater jam would be a better option on the last Sunday of October. rather than sleeping in late. So, with our sandwiches packed we landed at the big-rock Cubbon Park. Had not been to big-rock since the days we would hang out there on Saturday nights for music gigs.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Met up with theater jammers under a shaded tree, got introduced to every one including Pritam [Chakravarty]. We were not familiar with her work, so we just chatted around and waited for events to unfold. A while later, Deepak suggested, why not begin with Pritam’s performance, and all of a sudden the petite lady came alive. Within seconds into her act she had ever one riveted…her story seemed real and in the face [Pritham performed <a href="http://www.4to40.com/art/gallery_ramp_shows_detail.asp?gid=800">Nirvanam</a>]. The performance was in such informal and intimate setting that I remember feeling queasy as she continued to push hard and ahead with her act. And, what an act that was, to have squeezed in thirty minutes someone’s misery of a lifetime. Honestly, both me and my friend were later relieved to learn that, what we had just witnessed was a performance and not Pritam’s real life story.</span><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">We stayed on for another performance by regular theater jammers, a painting & artworks exhibit of talented Pallavi who had been also doing the publicity posters for the event and also saw photographs from an earlier photography event organized in shivajinagar and ulsoor.</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">I subsequently attended a Indie/Student films screening as part of oct. Jam. Again, a great intimate event, full of believers & do-gooders. So, this is to thank Pritam, regular and guest theater jammers, and the indie guys, who all do it, quite literally for love & fresh air. Also, thanks to big-rock for being there!</span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: small;"> Small tech glitches on the day of screening were a non issue for me. It was organizational genius to have quickly shifted the venue and made the event a great success. Wish I had stayed for all screenings and perhaps also attended more events during the course of the month.<br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /> <br style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;" /><span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> I sincerely wish to congratulate you, ekta, sukhmani, pallavi and all Maraa team mates to have pulled this off so wonderfully.</span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span> <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><div style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Ajay Gehlot<br />
</div><span class="gI" style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue",Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">ajay.gehlot@gmail.com</span> <br />
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</div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-32071257825717424902009-10-26T11:34:00.000+05:302009-10-26T11:34:40.138+05:30poetry night<div class="MsoNormal">I remember falling in love with poetry while reading ee cummings and Shakespeare and Keats over and over again, to really understand the poets and there poetry or just interpret it, over many chais with my teacher and friends. We spent days on one poem, digesting it. Spending hours sitting next to the river, mulling over each verse.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Before that, in school, words had just passed through me. They were just words, thrown at me in a strange language. I had no time to take them in slowly, I had to move over to the next one in my course, only to vomit out everything the next day in my exam. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Tonight took me back to such memories. I was excited to share all of my favourite poems, although, after a while, I felt like one of those people who like the sound of their own voices! I enjoyed sharing them with everyone, but I wish I had talked about them a little more. That I had shared the experiences that went with each one of them. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I enjoyed listening to other’s, too. But I did feel, again, that words were just thrown at me and I had no time to tie them and slowly take them in. I realize I was doing the same to others too. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Poetry, I now understand, is not about the recitation or the rhyming. It is about experiencing.<br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It was, however, heart warming to see a lot of enthusiasts turning up to share their verses. To find so many people could string their thoughts, so well, into poems. Even that few people generally hanging out at the café also decided to join in. <br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">Still, tonight was important. For many met many new people, many got the space to voice <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>themselves through their own words or another’s and we all transformed a “public” space into a very warm, intimate space, close enough for energies, thoughts and feelings to connect.<br />
</div>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-21096245251428748802009-10-22T15:56:00.002+05:302009-11-03T11:08:07.757+05:30Sampath 's poetryA few Poems that i have written over the years, on various themes, often late in the night, racked by guilt, Loss, Love and all the other chips and dips issues of life.<br />
<br />
Here are a Few of the poems i read out on our Poetry Night<br />
<br />
Firefly<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />
Gone saw you briefly<br />
Like a firefly glowing<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Seeking a thought in<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">all that darkness.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Who knows where your journey<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">takes you?<br />
Is there an insect heaven?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What predators prey on you<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">firefly?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Will i see you again?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />
Dilip Sampath<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> x-cess<br />
Whatever you and i do<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">is complete, replete with<br />
streamers a party atmosphere<br />
Balloons bursting, emotions extending<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">our minds expanding, like people<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">believing in expression a total sublime<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">immersion.<br />
Without any inhibitions our sweat mingling,<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">close to your body, a sudden release<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">is all we need.<br />
Tense and pretending we try to fit into<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">our social roles, playing our parts for the first time<br />
and not knowing our lines, daring to cross to<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">the other side.<br />
The creativity your expressing is beautiful<br />
now,paint a picture of my life.<br />
Alone and free at last to explore<br />
our private past.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Dilip Sampath<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />
<br />
Street Noises<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
It could have been different<br />
another night maby...<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Bright lights appear from<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Lonely and absconding walkways<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Houses i think among tree filled<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">avenues that surround me,<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Enveloping and inhibiting me<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Screaming for help, nobody<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Nobody hear's me, I'm dying all<br />
alone on the dirty streets.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />
Run over by a car, a manic driver<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">screeches to a halt beneath me.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">What do they care, I'm just a street sleeper<br />
without a home nobody to go to,<br />
only hearing machine sounds.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Dilip Sampath<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Dolls at play<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
When you think of dolls<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">the thing that comes to mind<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">are those shaped leggy sometimes<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">cottony things.<br />
I'd like to think of them as people,<br />
coming alive at the right moment<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Playing with our minds, then<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">going back to their own<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">connecting thoughts<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">leaving us behind<br />
Chalk that up to the rag doll<br />
lessons of life.<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />
We transfer or perceived warmth<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">on them unconditionally<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">She -he or of an amorphous gender<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Play with me, abuse me, mutilate me<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Like disturbed minds do<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">when given dolls to play!<br />
Cottony dolls have memories too-<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;">did you know?<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> Dilip Sampath<br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"> <br />
</div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-2072192309316305252009-10-22T10:56:00.005+05:302009-11-03T11:15:40.738+05:30city specks - the story of Select Bookshop<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">The amiable and witty Mr. K.K.S. Murthy, the face and voice of one of </span></i></span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Bangalore</span></i></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">’s oldest and iconic landmarks took around 20 of us down an enchanting memory lane on a pleasant Saturday evening earlier this month. It was part of the City Specks: Mapping Memories activity of the Jamming through October festival (</span></i></span><a href="http://theatresundays.blogspot.com/" linkindex="17"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">http://theatresundays.blogspot.com/</span></i></span></a><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">) organized by Maraa (</span></i></span><a href="http://www.maraa.in/" linkindex="18"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">www.maraa.in</span></i></span></a><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">), a community media collective based in </span></i></span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Bangalore</span></i></span></st1:city></st1:place><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Born in 1930 to a bibliophilic father practising as a lawyer in Kurnool (Andhra Pradesh) who relocated with his family to Bangalore in 1944-’45, Mr. Murthy formally took over Select in 1977. However, he kept learning about the used book trade immensely while choosing, buying and shipping books from dealers and auctioneers in Paris and New York, (during his professional stints in nearby Spain and New Jersey) apart from those in Bangalore, Delhi, Chennai. (With a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Science, he worked as an aeronautical engineer in Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and later with the Kirloskar group and private firms in the </span></i></span><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">US</span></i></span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">). </span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">“Father would visit </span></i></span><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Bangalore</span></i></span></st1:city><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> at the mere receipt of a post card from any acquaintance in </span></i></span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Bangalore</span></i></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> about the arrival/availability of some secondhand books. Katherine Mansfield was among his favourite authors. I have seen people from Kerala carrying and selling books in baskets here”, said Mr. Murthy. His father Mr. K.B.K. Rao (Rao, a suffix acquired for being an Andhraite) who started Select in 1945 in an Irishman’s garage on Museum Road catered to <a name='more'></a>eminent Bangaloreans like Sir C.V. Raman who had specific tastes. “When I saw a hardcover with colour photographs of Jaichamarajendra Wodeyar in one of the street side Parisian bookstores, I sent it to my father to gift it to Sir C V Raman who was patronized by the Maharaja”. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">After quitting his initial engineering job in </span></i></span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">New Jersey</span></i></span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">, Mr. Murthy joined Simon and Schuster, a book publisher and warehouse as an inventory controller (after completing a course in the subject). There he observed primarily Spanish speaking youngsters in the basement meticulously inspecting English and other books and LP records and rejecting those with the slightest defect. He admired their high standards and bought many of those with minor flaws for US $200 as there was no disposal process. “I used to sack mail books from </span></i></span><st1:state w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">New York</span></i></span></st1:state><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> and while I used the Indian Embassy’s help to parcel them from </span></i></span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Paris</span></i></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">. Concerned about the expenditure, my father advised me to send only 1-2 copies per book”. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">He shared how Durga Book Stall in Russell Market with a stationery section on the ground floor had a fantastic used book collection on the first that was usually locked but was opened exclusively for them whenever required. </span></i></span><b><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: small;">Mr. Sait</span></span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></i></span></span></b><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">who still visits and supplies them ran a circulating library cum old books store near Coles Park but he primarily operates from his house now. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Suma Ponnamma, a friend and regular since 1969 missed going to the shop only for a month although that seemed a long duration to her. A Canadian who started buying from them during Mr. Murthy’s father’s time still goes there. Historian and writer Ramchandra Guha, The Hindu’s Editor-in-Chief, N. Ram and former Karnataka governor Mr. T.N. Chaturvedi are among his long time customers. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">According to him, Select’s sales are declining probably because people are reading less, contrary to the common assumption that business is unaffected. Some of us wondered if digitization of books was another factor. “I only collect books and don’t read them. Also, I didn’t want to start a circulating library after seeing father’s challenges with it. But I always enjoyed watching movies like the Moon and Sixpence costing a few </span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">annas</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> – most of the old the theatres are gone now!” Mr. Murthy added. When people asked his father how he could sustain his shop with only 3 assistants and also support his family, he would reply that he succeeded in educating and marrying his children off with just this business. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial; font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Sanjay, Mr. Murthy’s son joined him in 1999 and they expanded to the first floor in 2002. Due to various reasons the store’s location changed to Malleswaram, Ulsoor (beside Lakseside Hospital) and M.G. Road before moving to the current </span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">and permanent</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> space on Brigade Road Cross in the late 1970’s. Mr. Murthy also has a publishing business and contributes articles to the Times group of publications too. “I would like to publish a book of quotations soon and I have been collecting sayings in various languages for that”, he said. </span></i></span></span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Select has acquired Coomaraswamy’s Rajput paintings from </span></i></span><st1:place w:st="on"><st1:state w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">New York</span></i></span></st1:state></st1:place><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">, 120 volumes of Asiatic Society’s publications from Kolkatta, Tamil works from Tiruchirapalli, red and green Penguins worth Rs. 750-1000. Some of the pictures adorning the walls are copies of </span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Van Gogh's</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"> works. Apart from an annual sale of rare, out-of-print books in </span></i></span><st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Bangalore</span></i></span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">, Select also participates in book fairs/exhibitions nationwide. When I merely mentioned possessing a few collections of literary and other masterpieces written by some of the world’s greatest and published by the Times of London, he delighted me by fetching a huge blue leather bound volume of the Times Literary Supplement and quickly narrated how he got hold of it. </span></i></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><i><br />
</i></span></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">When Mr. Murthy first said, “I think I should stop now and let you all ask me questions. Otherwise, I can go on for a lot longer”, we urged him to continue his spell binding anecdotes. After nearly an hour and a half, we reluctantly ended the session promising to return for more...</span></i></span><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></span></span></span><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><o:p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-family: Times,'Times New Roman',serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">...Pushpa </span></i></span></span></span></o:p><br />
</div><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px;"></span></span>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-2974611582361403362009-10-16T15:31:00.002+05:302009-10-16T15:35:17.013+05:30coming soon!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxiiFSa55unGJ7CMNRyEofiImwqNJqsCzKyhtgMdiak38xLhjDecjboyVe6mkQORgZyZDcl9khpB8UXe9fxUPownM_qZVScOWFMH-gEVfe7vEx3Tv7IBgG0fm3uUICiuxMaKfnxyT1NVAu/s1600-h/curiosity+city+specks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxiiFSa55unGJ7CMNRyEofiImwqNJqsCzKyhtgMdiak38xLhjDecjboyVe6mkQORgZyZDcl9khpB8UXe9fxUPownM_qZVScOWFMH-gEVfe7vEx3Tv7IBgG0fm3uUICiuxMaKfnxyT1NVAu/s400/curiosity+city+specks.jpg" /></a><br />
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</div>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-58360775730032559962009-10-15T16:30:00.000+05:302009-10-16T16:31:43.729+05:30<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7V5_6XKe78HSUE2hyJVUjh7XrPTAcXhhNgWiVJifsgAB_EPkUWFTynZMqJUWQIVwolwZa6M4vWQZv_FvLQf7Zjo6ddX3Wgo1CtwkERdJoc3I3hWxJ2ZOSRo9Fgii2vsZ06Qe5n8R9sm5/s1600-h/lawrence+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz7V5_6XKe78HSUE2hyJVUjh7XrPTAcXhhNgWiVJifsgAB_EPkUWFTynZMqJUWQIVwolwZa6M4vWQZv_FvLQf7Zjo6ddX3Wgo1CtwkERdJoc3I3hWxJ2ZOSRo9Fgii2vsZ06Qe5n8R9sm5/s400/lawrence+poster.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-45570139837756223292009-10-12T17:52:00.002+05:302009-10-12T17:52:31.314+05:30arna's children<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/StMfWkZ5KQI/AAAAAAAAAaw/f6YBipK7k5Y/s1600-h/arna%27s+poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/StMfWkZ5KQI/AAAAAAAAAaw/f6YBipK7k5Y/s400/arna%27s+poster.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-51513668912285910322009-10-07T14:48:00.000+05:302009-10-07T14:48:13.250+05:30don't miss these!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzp9TOgMJOZLYY6QZD8Mewv3Xc44_TKA5JtyZLcVIBUXJsQlikvroJaTiG-YqhhHw2m6lttNi27wU_fZTvRPYc7MV2NaYRQRUB4VSThq6U3A7Aj2MW_Y4a2asFiWjmcYAgBEJmsRC6raT/s1600-h/select+city+specks+corrected.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTzp9TOgMJOZLYY6QZD8Mewv3Xc44_TKA5JtyZLcVIBUXJsQlikvroJaTiG-YqhhHw2m6lttNi27wU_fZTvRPYc7MV2NaYRQRUB4VSThq6U3A7Aj2MW_Y4a2asFiWjmcYAgBEJmsRC6raT/s320/select+city+specks+corrected.jpg" /></a><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk4ecKcWmqr6LxalK6rkaOY3Pj20KCU_8xMsqrTK5BPJJQMf_SN_D4AzqgOy2kGfmWZrA4aUAyIVh9kkuc_2c82LsCSUlQsQdtsFHf0uV2w77vzmm6qBLIX1D2g1jFJ8Z07FgrWpAtcqL2/s1600-h/ulsoor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk4ecKcWmqr6LxalK6rkaOY3Pj20KCU_8xMsqrTK5BPJJQMf_SN_D4AzqgOy2kGfmWZrA4aUAyIVh9kkuc_2c82LsCSUlQsQdtsFHf0uV2w77vzmm6qBLIX1D2g1jFJ8Z07FgrWpAtcqL2/s320/ulsoor.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-38240708268965384252009-10-07T14:40:00.002+05:302009-10-07T14:40:47.435+05:30jamming week 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqB6bvNDhF2Lx3U26hBFb85oEt9cOv_mA4o4aWNMU1lYppwEhUnKNAjJnlurnCM6tt7JAmF_Tz8QHJkO4sZJpbScDMD-HptwcwjQvO4nZ8UmkfuTDzIUSzPhPoNNoZnQwHAplhjwI0btw/s1600-h/week01+Calender+final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqB6bvNDhF2Lx3U26hBFb85oEt9cOv_mA4o4aWNMU1lYppwEhUnKNAjJnlurnCM6tt7JAmF_Tz8QHJkO4sZJpbScDMD-HptwcwjQvO4nZ8UmkfuTDzIUSzPhPoNNoZnQwHAplhjwI0btw/s400/week01+Calender+final.jpg" /></a><br />
</div>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-17686131060725479282009-09-30T12:13:00.001+05:302009-09-30T14:22:30.942+05:30october jam: Schedule for week one<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErO8-9I37k4VRbJjM1SJI3uHHp95g_slJTLohdBuKrZ7jBCq_HkNlrExnEkKed6Mh86AiIYIdc-Hns60LtaGnpdLPmLbv_39n3CSeUg3qXUu02kr5iXJJBvCEbm5uDr5f5vwAptGeZSeF/s1600-h/event+scores+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiErO8-9I37k4VRbJjM1SJI3uHHp95g_slJTLohdBuKrZ7jBCq_HkNlrExnEkKed6Mh86AiIYIdc-Hns60LtaGnpdLPmLbv_39n3CSeUg3qXUu02kr5iXJJBvCEbm5uDr5f5vwAptGeZSeF/s320/event+scores+copy.jpg" /></span></span></a><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>1st october</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Meet, greet n perform (try in a group) </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stare at the sky for 5mins (try this in a group)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Sing a song loudly on a street corner (do it in a group)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Smile at a stranger</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Carry placards with smiley on them (try in a group)</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Event Scores, involve simple actions, ideas, and objects from everyday life recontexualized as performance. Event Scores are texts that can be seen as proposal pieces or instructions for actions. The idea of the score suggests musicality. Like a musical score, Event Scores can be realized by artists other than the original creator and are open to variation and interpretation. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Stare at the new constructions for 5mins….</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b>2nd oct.</b> </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdaUlf6AEWxDzmoCQp9vv99bBjyJbgvKogDN3-VOfg6RMoKr4HuDK3umPk9vq00B053jaFeH5MNf0ajzyd6kVeuNtuaJ9oTDKvU9lwQnUTO-bbguJO-c3vUsxSB8Xw8_5Ti6Imfvhj4rN/s1600-h/photography+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGdaUlf6AEWxDzmoCQp9vv99bBjyJbgvKogDN3-VOfg6RMoKr4HuDK3umPk9vq00B053jaFeH5MNf0ajzyd6kVeuNtuaJ9oTDKvU9lwQnUTO-bbguJO-c3vUsxSB8Xw8_5Ti6Imfvhj4rN/s200/photography+copy.jpg" /></span></span></a><br />
</div><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></b><br />
<b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">Nagara Chitra /SEEMPLY POSE MADDI SAAR<br />
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
...click, pick and stick<br />
meet up with fellow photographers, first timers n old timers<br />
we're going into markets, streets n lanes of bangalore,<br />
freeze a moment,<br />
creating a story,<br />
using your SLR's, Digi SLR's, just Digital, cellphones or even handy cameras..<br />
choose pictures from the loot and display them back in the same markets, streets and lanes you clicked them on..<br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><a name='more'></a></span></span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> for further details</span></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> <br />
call - 98869 28582 / 9880755875 / 9986198228<br />
mail - </span></span><a href="mailto:info@maraa.in" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;"><u><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">info@maraa.in</span></span></u></span></a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
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</span></span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span><b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">schedule</span></span></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
Ulsoor<br />
meet to click - 3th to 4th Oct<br />
pick n stick - 5th to 9th Oct </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>2nd Oct.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre;"><b></b><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: medium; font-weight: bold; white-space: normal;">3rd oct.</span></span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>4th oct.</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Theatre Jam!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>at rocks, cubbon park, near Queen Victoria Statue...</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; white-space: pre-wrap;">the original theatre jam: music, theatre, art, meeting, sharing, collaborating All are welcome. Perform, sing, dance, watch, listen, read, write, share, exchange, display, create… Activities so far: Pandies theatre, New Delhi Mashaal, Bangalore marriage performance installation- juliet's window (deepak)</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>5th Oct</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Nagara chitara contd...</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>6th oct.</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Nagara chitara contd...</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Gandhi Class: film screening- Makkala Panchayat and Gram Sabha</b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>6 pm, at Jagaa, <span style="white-space: pre;">Rhenius St Richmond Town, Bengaluru</span></b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;"><b>7th Oct. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: 13px; white-space: pre;"><b>Nagara Chitara Contd...</b></span></span>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-79711758303902601742009-09-21T17:41:00.000+05:302009-09-21T17:47:15.405+05:30look who's jammin!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/SrduLcaAAoI/AAAAAAAAAaM/a00h8YvvJpg/s1600-h/poster+final+copy+copy.jpg"><img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 226px; height: 320px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/SrduLcaAAoI/AAAAAAAAAaM/a00h8YvvJpg/s320/poster+final+copy+copy.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5383893022427579010" /></a><br />scroll down for info:<div><br /></div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-38882535268524026692009-09-14T12:53:00.000+05:302009-09-22T11:50:57.309+05:30jammin through october<span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;"><span style="color: #663333;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: georgia;">theatre Jam turns one this october,</span></span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: white;">to celebrate the arts and build this movement<br />
we are</span> </span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="color: #666600;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>jamming</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;">, </span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;"><span style="color: white;">all through</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;"> <span style="color: #666600;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">october</span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: white;">in </span><b><span style="color: #cc9933;"><span style="font-size: medium;">public spaces</span></span></b> <span style="color: white;">of Bangalore.<br />
<br />
</span><b><span style="color: #cc0000;"><span style="font-size: medium;">theatre Jam is a space to affirm of individual expression</span></span></b>.<br />
<span style="color: white;">a caravan of artists who meet every month to share, create and JAM.<br />
<br />
make theatre jam, </span><b><span style="color: #3366ff;"><span style="font-size: medium;">your</span></span></b> </span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;"><span style="color: white;">space.<br />
bring your story, art, medium, idea<br />
dreams, memories, tricks…<br />
install, improvise, perform, express<br />
</span><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="color: white;">anyone</span></span></b><span style="color: white;"> can Participate in the jam activities.<br />
pick a date in October and tell us what you want to do.<br />
<br />
most activities will take place in</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande';"><span style="color: #663366;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>public parks, streets, terraces, basements and markets</b></span></span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;">.<br />
<br />
<span style="color: white;">spread the word and encourage more people to participate in the october jam.<br />
<br />
</span><span style="color: #663333;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">BARE NECESSITIES</span></b></span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: white;">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 <span style="font-size: large;">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 4148-8264, you could contribute online at </span></span><span style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; line-height: 15px;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://bit.ly/Phh9p">http://bit.ly/Phh9p</a></span></span><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="http://bit.ly/Phh9p"> </a>if u have a paypal account or a cridit card.</span></span></span></span><br />
<div><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande'; font-size: 11px;"><span style="line-height: 15px;"><span style="color: white;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span><span style="color: white;">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.</span></span><br />
</div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-10431660559237139852009-09-09T20:41:00.000+05:302009-09-22T11:50:10.213+05:30HISTORYNIGHTMARE<span style="font-size: 100%;">Whenever that i can<br />
see the world<br />
by dog's eye<br />
Wherever that i have<br />
depressed dog's wide eye's sight<br />
<br />
I shall kid people<br />
with their<br />
funny laughing<br />
and coming to beat<br />
when i saw them<br />
toward garbages<br />
just running to eat<br />
</span><br />
<span style="font-size: 100%;"><a name='more'></a><br />
My sightseeing to world is dog's eyes<br />
under tramples<br />
of absurd minds<br />
as a long journey to uplift<br />
with sunshines<br />
as wise as fly to high to sunrise<br />
<br />
You will be the blind against dog<br />
cause of noisy nervous round<br />
you are proud of yourself<br />
in developed machinism bond<br />
<br />
But never mind<br />
there is vagabond<br />
who is human dog<br />
other kind of animal<br />
to watch lunatic mankind<br />
<br />
In mass of them<br />
lonely creature<br />
in synthetic historical dark square<br />
l o o k s:<br />
they execute all root of nature.<br />
<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.blogger.com/inlandtourist.blogspot.com"><br />
</a></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/inlandtourist.blogspot.com"><span style="font-size: 100%;">inlandtourist.blogspot.com</span></a>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-25124235377027403002009-09-06T21:18:00.000+05:302009-09-06T23:11:25.895+05:30Wet sounds<span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102); font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" >"Sun, rain, sun, rain!</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">was the refrain</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">But from performing</span><br /><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">we did not <span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">remain</span>...</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 102, 102);">"</span></span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;font-size:85%;" >said a</span><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 204);font-family:courier new;font-size:85%;" > Flower</span><br /></div><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(102, 0, 0); font-weight: bold;font-family:courier new;" ><br /><br /></span>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-65357982442841395852009-08-26T12:32:00.000+05:302009-10-01T12:37:08.372+05:30pandies profile <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">pandie<wbr></wbr>s’ theatre</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">phone 65711312 telefax 26130761 81 sector A pocket C</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">e-mail - <a href="mailto:pandies@netscape.net" target="_blank">pandies@netscape.net</a> vasant kunj </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><a href="mailto:pandies93@rediffmail.com" target="_blank">pandies93@rediffmail.com</a><wbr></wbr> new delhi 110070 india </span><br />
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<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b>pandies' theatr</b>e was registered (under the societies act 1860) in Sept. 1993. Committed to staging plays relevant to our ethos and time, it evolved as an activist and possibly the only feminist theatre group in north India in the 1990s itself. Our origins are humble. Started as a university movement in `87, we have a consistent strength over 70 members.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The group began as an English theatre movement performing the bulk of its plays in the proscenium and established its niche in that slot. From `96 we went activist, taking on projects on issues rather than simply plays and today apart from one or two productions in commercial auditoriums every year we cover diverse slums, bastis, schools and colleges. The issues revolve around women because the group believes if our society is to head anywhere, it has to become more women-oriented and woman-friendly. Every year the group picks a topic and works on it for at least one year. We have targeted rape, prostitution and HIV, Mental Health Act and its relation to women, institutions of love and marriage.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Post – 2002, while retaining our earlier focus, the group took a conscious decision to target anti-communal forces and work intensively with children and these have been the high points of recent years. The group has moved more and more into the margins, working specially with under-privileged children from diverse areas and groups.</span><br />
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</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The plays are directed by Sanjay Kumar, and essentially multi-lingual scripts evolve in workshops and through research and are written, at times collated, by the director in conjunction with Ms. Anuradha Marwah and Dr. Anand Prakash – creative writers and members of the group. </span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><a name='more'></a>Productions `93 - `96</b></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Macbeth Sept.'93</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The group started its work with successful shows of the bard's classic - looked at from a 3rd world perspective. A Hindi epilogue and prologue were added. Our use of capital's social dregs as the witches and Kali-worship to show their transition provided talking points for the capital's theatregoers.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Womanscape Jan. '94</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Scripted by members of the group and inspired the shorter fiction of Doris Lessing, this play focussed on the predicament of women in our city, our time. Presenting issues like molestation and incest, the play brought out issues hitherto in the closet for an open discussion</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui Aug. '94</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Brecht's rollicking farce on the rise of Hitler. A Hitler is possible anywhere, is it possible to resist his rise? Brecht is the one to whom the group is indebted for many of its biases and theatre techniques. The play was contextualised in the context of the rise of right wing forces (and electoral victories) in the capital.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>The Story of Meera Aug. '94</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">a play based on the story of Meera and Krishna. Scripted by members of the group, the play took a second look at Meera. For us she is not just a Hindu saint but a woman: her devotion and bond with Krishna is not just mystical religion but a rebellion against the ‘maleness’ that seeks to subsume her and prescribe codes for every aspect of her existence.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Ghosts Dec. '94 </i>Arguably our most popular production of the only proscenium phase.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This production was a venture into an area practically uncharted at the level of Delhi theatre, we adapted Ibsen’s classic <b><u>Ghosts</u></b> and presented it as a play on AIDS set in the upper middle class of Delhi. As a socially aware and committed group we addressed ourselves to what constitutes the major scourge for our city, our world today. The first full-length commercial play on AIDS in Delhi, it highlighted the decadent masculinity of our world that has left us open to the onset of this scourge. Approved and supported by the WHO, this play was funded initially by NACO, it went through repeated adaptations and different sponsors from development sectors and the corporate world. It was taken to Bangalore by the NORAD. Large segments of the play were telecast on Doordarshan and STAR TV.</span><br />
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</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Beautiful Images June '95</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Based on Simon de Beauvoir's <i>Les Belles Images</i>. Staged at the LTG, the play was hailed by all as a subtle, sophisticated presentation of some of Beauvoir's complex feministic ideas. The play was staged again in `96 at the Shri Ram Centre, New Delhi.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Call Her A Witch Nov. '96</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This play marks a turning point for the group. The bulk of scripting was done by members of the group and the cause was in our immediate surroundings. Aroused by newspaper/magazine reports of witch burning, the group - helped by the women's group, SHAKTISHALINI, pursued many such cases and came up with this production dealing with the phenomenon of witch burning, women being burnt as witches to serve varying interests of patriarchal systems. To stress the universality of such exploitation we interacted with Dekker's (late Renaissance) The Witch of Edmonton. Shows at SRC apart, this play was taken to many colleges in agreement with them. The British Council too commissioned a show of this play on the 24th of Feb. '97.</span><br />
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</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b>Activist phase projects/productions from `96 onwards</b></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">We have been working with 20 slum/ basti areas in Delhi, have interaction with 100 schools and about 25 colleges. Minimum 100 presentations are held each year. The major issue till 2000 was gender-sensitisation and the group latches on to a different theme each year and after performing in the proscenium theatre takes adaptations of the same to diverse places. The group also works on issues related to environment. The adaptable, flexible, bilingual (at times multi-lingual) scripts are totally ours. The group is constantly exploring, searching for better modes to get its meaning across. Songs, dances, choreo sequences are all a part of its repertoire. One of the most successful modes is an extremely interactive discussion at the end where the activist even narrates relevant anecdotes to get its audience to talk. The group has evolved a mega network in and around Delhi consisting of women and HIV activists, environmentalists, school and college teachers and students, progressive women from various communities inc. slums, victims of rape, attempted murder.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>1997 HIV and Prostitution</i></b></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Our first nascent step into full time activism began with <i>Mannequins : Sell a Woman, Buy a body.</i> This production focuses on prostitution, on patriarchal orientation that creates the need for prostitution and the victimisation of the group that occurs in society especially after the outbreak of HIV.</span><br />
</div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The script focussed on both the kotha (brothel) in a ‘red light area’ and the upper middle class ‘call girl racket’. Through the lower class plot the project focuses on related themes of child prostitution, of commodification of the woman and of a life bonded to violence, violation and disease. The other plot focuses on themes of ignorance, deceit - here too the element of victimisation was stressed by showing a woman seeking to assert her sexuality and ending up, inexorably, in a no-win situation. The play was subsequently picked by NACO for spreading AIDS - awareness in colleges. With this also began the establishment of a network of women activists. We interacted with Elizabeth Vatsayan (AAG), Ms. Virdi, Dr. Promila Kapur and members of AIWC. Fruitful associations, interaction with whom continues.</span><br />
<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>1997 - `98 The Mental Health Act and Women</i></b></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"> <i>She's MAD! </i>This production sought to explore the issue of madness in women. Does it mean the same for a man and a woman? In its interaction with various groups, we discovered that the label of madness has become the latest method of cruelty against women, to deprive them of their rights and let the husband be free to do what he likes. The play places us in a special category of theatre activists using theatre as a medium to seek legislative change. This production was with the support of Ford Foundation and in conjunction with SHAKTISHALINI. Apart from shows in SRC, the play was taken to slums, bastis and villages around Delhi. The play has been performed in courtyards of houses, streets, lawns and schools and women's homes. Over 50 performances were held and each followed by discussion sessions.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The play led to a panel discussion between members of the group and women lawyers on this issue on STAR TV.</span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>1998-`99 Rape</i></b></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Veils</i><b><i> - </i></b>has been arguably our most controversial high impact production. It prioritised the issue of rape. Why does a man commit rape? What sympathy, succour can you offer a rape victim. Does not the present structuring of society make rape easy, almost inevitable? A scathing critique of the male-orientedness of our society, the play seeks an attitudinal change and asks for a legislative reform. The project has been sponsored by the<b> HRD Ministry,</b> Govt. of India. The most polemical and probably the best received (at times certain sections of the male audience have been almost hostile to the play), apart from shows at the S R C, the play has been performed at umpteen schools and colleges and in bastis as street shows. The play was an activist's delight. In fact Dr. Mohini Giri tried to have the play performed at the floor of the parliament as part of the plea for legislative reform on the issue. </span><br />
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</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>Pushta direct intervention programme </i></b><i>beg. April `99</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Following the success of the sensitisation against rape campaign HRD Ministry asked us to carry out an intensive theatre-based gender-sensitisation programme in Yamuna Pushta. Focussing solely on girl-children and women the programme includes awareness of women's rights, adult women and young girl children's literacy, health and sanitation, medical attention to women and emphasising of women's role in social development. the programme has been a mega-success story, with girls and women of the area picking cudgels against drug trafficking, sale of illicit liquor and above all child-prostitution. An entire feature on the group's work here was telecast by the STAR TV.</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>1999-2000 Trafficking of women</i></b></span><br />
</div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>Visitations</i> was the name of the play and trafficking of the girl-child the theme. What does trafficking mean for the little girl-child who is sold for a pittance by her own relatives into a life of prostitution and bondage? Burning issues of legal reform, legalisation of prostitution are placed in the problematic. For the facts of trafficking the group has relied on its own experiences in slums and red-light areas around Delhi and also taken cognisance of all - India studies done by diverse pro-women organisations (UNIFEM, WCD-Govt. of India and the many NGOs that the group has been working with for many years). The play has been used as a tool for gender-sensitisation in slums, schools, colleges, women shelters and children's homes.</span><br />
<div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This year we also stepped into other areas of activism. The group took an extensive anti-firecracker campaign for the Dept. of Environment, Delhi Govt., covering 65 schools in 1999. </span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>At the end of `99, at the behest of some of our friends at AAG, the group carried out a theatre cum AIDS cum gender sensitisation workshop in Delhi's Tihar Jail. pandies created a play with the inmates after a workshop lasting around 6 weeks (thrice a week). The project ended with a production where all the actors and scriptwriters were from among the convicts themselves.</i></span><br />
</div><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>2000-`01Love and Marriage relooked at from a woman' perspective</i></b></span><br />
</div><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><i>(K)nots, </i>raises the question - can marriage be pro-woman? Is not this institution not only male-biased but also actively supportive of an anti-woman ethos? By retaining its male orientation, this institution seems to have put itself on a self-destruct mode. And love? Our notions of love are created out of cinema stereotypes. Are not all famous love sagas also male narratives that venerate the man at the cost of the woman? And is not love also a concept, conceived within our consumerist structures? And if it is consumerist, does it not further commodify the woman? Subjecting the most valorised emotion of love and the most cherished institution of marriage to a feminist intervention the questions both the validity and the viability of the two concepts. The play is not a solution-provider. Rather it seeks solutions from all of us, who know the male-orientation of our structures and turn our face away from them or simply accept them as given co-ordinates that have to be accepted by all.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">We have also participated in the UNIFEM campaign against trafficking of women in South East Asia and done plays in colleges for the UNIFEM and WSDC in Nov. – Dec. 2000.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Work for Delhi's environment also continues, firecrackers apart, the group has done 100 shows in schools, marketplaces, office complexes and parks against the use of plastic polybags.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>2001 – The year of the Child for pandies</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The year 2001 was devoted to the child. As networking partner of the British Council(Delhi), <b>pandies</b> did an extensive programme on childrights covering Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu. The programme involved over 200 schools and NGOs and at least 5000 children. It had a theatre component and an arts component. The theatre component was under <b>pandies</b>. Spanning about 15 months this programme began with identifying groups and schools capable of creating plays related to child rights.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Orientation programmes were carried by me with the help of other members of the group, where guidelines were laid and paradigmatic skits shown. The schools were asked to prepare where everything from child rights to theatre techniques were assessed. Selected plays were put up for theatre festivals four of which were held in Jalandhar, Muktasar, Chandigarh and Jammu and the finale in New Delhi.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Children were selected from these plays for intensive two-day workshops where theatre skills and awareness of child rights were imparted. Four workshops were held, two in Delhi, one in Chandigarh and one in Jammu. A special leg of the programme was for children from juvenile homes and two-day workshop was held in the girls juvenile home next to Tihar jail.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The first three workshops were conducted by Adrian Jackson (Cardboard Citizens, London) and I with the help of other members from <b>pandies</b>. I conducted the Jammu workshop and the one in the juvenile girls’ home with members of the group.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The project culminated with a two-day plays festival in April 2002 where chosen plays from the diverse venues were performed.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>2002 – CLEANSING</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This play deals with making sense of contemporary polity in the post-Gujarat Scenario and presents a scathing attack on majoritarianism. The script of the above was culled from workshops where people who were present in towns of Gujarat when all this happened also participated. It was an effort both at script creating and re-enactment. Our impassioned reaction to what has happened in Gujarat at the beginning of the year, the play picks up and foregrounds images of violence from our ethos. Violence, destruction, state oppression – in a world fast losing sanity, the play to foregrounds conflict and conflict resolution (possible/difficult/<wbr></wbr>impossible). Within this rather broad ambit we would work intensively in our reality. We move back and forth images of terror and oppression. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">This play was first presented in Delhi’s Shri Ram Centre on July 3rd and 4<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup>. <i>We followed this with participation in the Commonwealth Theatre festival at Manchester in July 2002. The festival, a result of feverish yearlong activity and testimony to the close relations that pandies has formed with friends/colleagues not only in the UK but also in several third world countries besides. The play was highly appreciated both by audiences in Delhi and Manchester.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>Togetherness 2002 – 2003: child and communalism</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In November 2002 the group began a project focussing on sensitizing children to communal violence. It culminated in a theatre-festival cum interactive workshop in Delhi on the 2<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">nd</span></sup> and 3<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">rd</span></sup> of December 2003. A project dear to us all, it brought together the experience of the preceding two years – on the issues of child rights and communalism. Indian children are confused by the rhetoric of communalism. Should they believe the discourses of secularism and democracy or those that preach communal hatred? They are scared of the mindless violence of the adults around them.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The first leg of this project was Delhi-centric and focused on schools and some slum areas and the second leg focuses on children of displaced communities (Hindu, Muslim and Sikh) from Jammu, Srinagar and Delhi. Work commenced in over 30 sectors. We used a variety of mediums apart from theatre; sketching, story telling and short story writing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">We used interactive workshops to create theatre with children. Each workshop took 8–10 hours and at least three were held with each group over the course of a year. It is practically impossible to catalogue the work that took place in slums, schools and migrant camps of Delhi, the many visits to Jammu and the difficulty of working in Srinagar amid the hostilities and restrictions originating from working between the armed forces and the fundamentalist factions.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In what was a first for Pandies, we organized on the 2<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">nd</span></sup> and 3<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">rd</span></sup> of December 2003 a huge theatre festival cum interactive workshop at the open air auditorium at the Dilli Haat, New Delhi. Children (from Delhi, Jammu, and Srinagar; from slums, orphanages, and schools; rich and poor; Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Jain, and Buddhist) got together to present their diverse work and interact with each other. It was the first time that boundaries of class, religion and geography had been broken in this manner. It was also the first time that Kashmiri Muslim and Kashmiri pandit children traveled and stayed together. There were in all about 280 children and 30 adults from around 20 sectors. The morning sessions of both days were devoted to interactive workshops. And the post-lunch sessions were for staging the plays. Over 20 plays were presented. The project was supported by Delhi Tourism.</span><br />
<h5><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2004 - Not Inside Us</span></i></b></span></h5> <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">We continued with our tirade against communalism into 2004. Avoiding the topicality of Cleansing we looked at the larger themes of communalism in the post-Gujarat and pre-general election scenario. Using a meta-narrative of a right wing “mind-washing of dissenters,” the play looks at the problem of mainstream majoritarianism from the points of view of the Hindu working class, Muslim middle class and Christian and scheduled caste perspectives to present a comprehensive indictment. Contemporary pre-general elections reality was engendered. An entire episode focussed on middle class Muslim women and their understanding and coping with majoritarian reality.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Three shows were presented at the Sri Ram Centre on the 9<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> 10<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> and 11<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> of January. Adapted versions of the play are being performed in the slums where we work and in schools and colleges.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i>2004 – 2005: Partial Interest</i></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Electoral changes inspire euphoria. But have destructive forces been really contained?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The play uses three inter-connected plots to explore our socio-political reality from where we stand today.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A liberal upper middle class family is used both for examining liberal upper middleclass values and as a point of entry to examine the predicament of those at the lower end of our structures. Three professionals, all of who had reacted to and condemned communal carnage of Gujarat look at the polity in the new dispensation. How secular are we? Are not religious biases running deep once the suave upper layer is scratched? The wife, who works for an NGO, moves away to question the religious roots of our middle class and its obsession with money. Her work provides the link with other two stories.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A Hindi subplot cataloguing the aspirations and disappointments of lower class people seeking to make it big in the city. The protagonist questions the motives behind such migration in his decision to return.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The Punjabi subplot constitutes the heart of the play and takes its facts from the suicides of small farmers in Punjab (Rajasthan and Andhra). Mainstream stories of the Green Revolution hide and distort the tales of small people, their indebtedness, and the sale of girl children to compensate the failure of rains, foeticide, infanticide, and caste politics. Hidden sagas waiting to emerge, waiting.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Three shows were presented at the Sri Ram Centre on the 12<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup>, 13<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> and 14<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> of December. Adapted versions of the play are being performed in the slums where we work and in schools and colleges</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">2005 – anti-communalism</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The highlight of the year has been a six-day workshop in Gulmarg in June 2005. The group – fifty-five children between ten and sixteen years of age. An almost even split of Kashmiri pandit and Kashmiri Muslim children, of girls and boys. The pandit children were from migrant camps in Delhi and Jammu and areas around Jammu. A handful of them, five had worked with me before, the rest were new to the experience. The Muslim kids were from diverse parts of the valley, from camps, schools and orphanages in Brijbehara, Baramullah and areas around Srinagar. Most were poor and many had lost their parents. I had a target to have a production involving all the children ready for a performance in Srinagar on the seventh day. A unique experiment of putting the two communities together, literally in a 24 x 7 format, it was fraught with dangers. The situation was volatile as all the children carried baggage. A daunting creative task too made twice difficult by the physical hardship of its being a nature camp. The pandies’ methodology of individual followed by collective exercises, of short story writing, of creating twenty minute skits culminated this time in tying these short skits into a holistic mode of a final play of about ninety minutes duration.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The success emerged in the daunting display is Srinagar on the 1<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">st</span></sup> of July.</span><br />
<h1><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2006 MARGINS: Yeh sab tadan ke adhikari</span></b></span></h1><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Gender, class, religion and caste, the mainstreaming Indian state has evolved in a manner that many are excluded, they lie on the margins. MARGINS is the coming together of three short scripts linked in their critique of the mainstream of our state and society from diverse peripheral “women” perspectives. The fourteenth proscenium production of <b>pandies</b>, the play is being directed by Sanjay Kumar. Sourced from workshop experiences and conversations with and readings from those involved, the plays have been scripted by Sanjay Kumar, Anuradha Marwah and Anand Prakash respectively. The production is being directed by Sanjay Kumar. It was staged at the Shri Ram Centre, Safdar Hashmi Marg on the 18<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup>, 19<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> and 20<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> of August 2006. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The first plot borrows a real life story from the files of a women’s organisation Shaktishalini. The story is based in Delhi, centring round a lower middle class case of a Muslim family. The script examines state constructions of justice for Muslims, women and Muslim women. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The second leaning on archetypal Dalit autobiographies reconstructs another real story though from a different perspective. It juxtaposes caste and gender. Hidden within a sceptical anti-brahminical cover is the question whether gender transcends caste? Is it possible for a Dalit man to exploit an upper caste woman? Who is in the margins?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The third set in the lower class, is a rollicking farce. Slicing hegemonic patriarchal structures from diverse marginal perspectives, the script juxtaposes constructions of masculinity with the spirit of football.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Extremely successful and sought after, these episodes (collectively and singularly) have since been staged at Oxford Bookstore, in over 20 colleges of the University of Delhi as part of WSDC offered gender-courses and also at Ajmer (Savitri College as part of Pathways seminar and in Sophia College) and in the village of Indirapuram. The play is still continuing.</span><br />
<h2 align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Rajasthan: Sarvaar and Indirapuram (villages in Ajmer district) January 2007</span></b></span></h2><div align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A two and a half day workshop culminating in an in-house performance (parents and villagers). The workshop comprised of about 50 participants of the age group 15 to 25 (two older men too were there). This was part of a three-month literacy camp organised by another NGO (Ajmer Adult Education Association) for school dropouts in Sarvaar and the performance was held in Indirapuram.</span><br />
</div><h2 align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Nithari village, Noida Uttar Pradesh 2006 May – 2007 May</span></b></span></h2><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">pandies started theatre workshops with slum children in an informal school – Saksham, in Nithari village in May 2006, six months before nithari hit national headlines and became Nithari. Our workshops were geared along usual lines of sensitising children to issues of gender, religion and class through the medium of teaching them to make theatre. The discovery of carcasses and skeletons of children who had disappeared brought this somnolent village into limelight. The families of many of our participants were involved. Our first visit, after the discovery, was greeted with silence. I created a group of young people who had narrowly missed similar fate and those who had lost their siblings and started work. Articulation was difficult. We agreed to make a machine – gestures, movements, sounds (but no words). The machine that they created was repetitive acts comprising seduction, abuse, murder, cutting the body and then corruption and acquittal. Three workshops resulting in an oral narrative, one machine and two brief skits all dealing with the trauma and the participants had regained confidence to return with redoubled vigour to their workshops to make their contributions to issues of gender, class/caste and religion. The entire experience was staged at the Habitat Centre on the 10<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> and 11<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> of April 2007.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b>2007: Danger Zones</b></span><br />
<h2 align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">DANGER ZONES – 14, 15 AND 16 NOVEMBER 2007, SHRI RAM CENTRE</span></b></span></h2><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Our latest production is again culled from workshop experiences and original research. The scripts have been written by Anuradha Marwah, Sanjay Kumar and Anand Prakash respectively. The play consists of three episodes:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The first episode deals with the rights of marginalized children and draws on our years of experience of working with marginalized children and specially distils from our recent work in Nithari. The play uses Browning’s The Pied Piper of Hamelin as a tying thread and reveals the callous hypocrisy of the adult world towards child desires.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The second deals with issues of alternate sexuality and draws on decades of experience of dealing with women’s issues. The play deals with a working class lesbian couple and examines its travails. The script has been built from repeated discussions with such couples in a workshop format.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The third moves into the future and re-examines the country’s negotiations with capitalism in the light of the phenomenon of the Special Economic Zones. Who progresses, where are we headed? A relocation of the economics of our country</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The first two episodes of Danger Zones have been performed in Bangalore in the Centre for Film and Drama on the 22<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">nd</span></sup> of February 2008. The play was taken to Kanpur at the invitation of IIT Kanpur and a performance was held on the 30<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">th</span></sup> of March.</span><br />
<h3><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Workshops with platform children, Kota, Rajasthan December 2007</span></b></span></h3><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">In what was a first, and a mind-blowing first, five of us did a four day workshop in Kota in a de-addiction cum home-placement camp organised jointly by Child care NGOs – Prayas and Sathi. The experience has left us shaken and the facilitators are still trying to cope. Over twenty children from the three platforms of Delhi, all of them victims of substance abuse and of sexual exploitation. We had reservations about the agenda – of placing them in home from where they had run away in the first place. Innocence and experience of the sort we do not want children to have. We put them through our workshop and four skits emerged one on home life and three on platform life. Travails and desires were highlighted. The conjoint play was staged at the Gandhi Peace Foundation on the 2<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">nd</span></sup> January 2008. Work has continued with platform children in Delhi. We have been having twice a month workshops in the Nabi Karim camp for platform children organised by Sathi. The work continues to pose a serious challenge as home-placement and de-addiction methodologies of NGOs and government sectors alike continue to dissatisfy facilitators from pandies.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">if i look back at the brief wshop we did in kota and the four skits that emerged in the space of just three days. one wanted a restoration of (and not just into) a violence-free and alcohol-free family. he has to go back feeling empowered that he can be the agent of creating/bettering the family. second skit ended with children preferring a "home" albeit run by prayas or sathi to life on the platform. the brief dramatisation had enabled them to objectify and reject the harshness of platform life. the third ended in ominous silence, ominous but not disempowering because the creation of the skit was the breaking of that silence, in fact the silence was deafening. the children were articulating the harshness of the protectors and the callousness of the adult world as such, the empowering aspect of this enactment, that you can say what you cannot say isthe max and difficult to measure. it also tells all of us what we as care-givers are up against. fourth, the one that ended in boyish assertion of independence with the children creating a home of their own and a profession of their own. given a little more time it needed to be told to these kids that independence is not contrary to home</span><br />
<h3><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Badarpur Khadar, Delhi Border May 2008</span></b></span></h3><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">A sleepy hamlet constituting four villages lying right next to Delhi’s Yamuna river next to the porous UP border. The religion and caste components of the village are interesting. One consists entirely of Muslims – low caste and low class, second lowest of the low caste Hindus – primarily those who we find begging in the name of “shani” on Saturdays. The other two villages also consist of diverse low caste Hindus. The topography of the villages is equally interesting. UP surrounds on three sides and the fourth side is Yamuna and that means no electricity, no water and above all, no education for the children. Till last year many of them were crossing the river to go to schools across the river and then in the monsoons more than twenty drowned and that put paid to all efforts. Pandies started there with its usual theatre format but realised that schooling and education had to be addressed. We are at the moment focussing on the Muslim village which has over 200 children. A usual workshop here begins with two hours of schooling, most of the kids do not know how to read or write, do not know the alphabet. Two classes focussing on the English alphabet and word formation are held and another for those who have gone to school some time (about twenty in all) who like to be taught mathematics. This is followed often by a presentation on topical issues, including gender and religion and then we make them perform. Pandies is toying with the idea of opening a more regular school here.</span><br />
<h2 align="justify"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Rajasthan: Sarvaar (villages in Ajmer district) June 2008</span></b></span></h2><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Continuing with the work initiated in 2007 pandies’ organised a five-day workshop culminating in an open performance. The workshop comprised of over 60 participants of the age group 14 to 18. Again a part of a three-month literacy camp organised by Ajmer Adult Education Association for school dropouts in Sarvaar, the themes dealt took the issues further (for instance, while dealing with gender the children brought issues of same sex relationships and desire and fantasies were explored. A special module of a TOT programme was held for the eight children who had attended the earlier workshop enabling them to train children in a similar manner.</span><br />
<h3><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">2008: THE CURSE CONQUERED</span></b></span></h3><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The Curse Conquered was focussed towards spreading awareness regarding cervical cancer, the highest killer cancer among women in India, possibly in the world today. Despite this it remains a hidden disease, seldom talked about and often detected when it is too late. The attempt is to put this disease on the forum and create awareness regarding symptoms, detection and cure. The available vaccine, though expensive, if followed by constant scanning and related tests also helps in mitigating its occurrence.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Highlighting a particular disease, the production used it as a point of entry into instigating a discussion on women’s health, specially reproductive health, a low priority zone in state and government policy because of the existing patriarchal bias. Social behavioural modes and masculinist constructions that put women and their health at risk are examined and critiqued, specially before the onslaught of the H P Virus that afflicts women, often making men the unharmed carriers of the disease.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Done in conjunction with MSD (Merck) the premier show at SRC on the 3<sup><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">rd</span></sup> of December was followed by seven shows in colleges of DU and one in JNU.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b>2009: JAB WE ELECT – 23, 24 AND 25 February SHRI RAM CENTRE</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">JAB WE ELECT is not about who we elect but how we elect. Speaking from a progressive, feminist perspective the play looks at many topical issues in the ambit of globalisation and liberalisation, these include the nuclear deal, moral policing, religious fundamentals, economic troughs apart from others.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">With an episodic plot that cuts across classes and regions, urban and rural scenes, the play uses a combination of forum theatre and alienating devices (songs and choreographed sequences) to engage with the audience and ask it to repeatedly interact with the cast. The endeavour is to collectively examine our polity and its mainstreaming, dominant elements.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The play does not provide answers, it does not raise questions, rather prompts the audience to think, respond and take the play further. Deviating from its usual English-hindi format pandies is doing this play primarily in Hindi (and diverse dialects).</span><br />
<h3><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Workshops with platform children, Ajmer, Rajasthan April 2009</span></b></span></h3><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Ongoing projects</span><br />
<ol type="1"><li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Badarpur, Khadar.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Work of making the senior children at Nithari into facilitators to teach theatre techniques and issues of gender and religion continues.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Work with mentally challenged children at the PURTI, school continues.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Work with platform children continues – with divergent voices in the group, some seeking to broaden out and work with other NGOs as well and some wanting to create a shelter by pandies in 2009.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">Pandies has started work on two new plays/projects. One an awareness campaign on Cervical Cancer zeroing in, for the while, on college students, is aimed for November and December. The other, our next major production focussing on election issues is headed for February 2009.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">SANJAY KUMAR</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';">MAY 2007</span>sukhmanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07950069599234340151noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-8090884618358052392009-08-25T02:14:00.000+05:302009-08-25T02:15:45.211+05:30<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/SpL73u38t0I/AAAAAAAAAWg/OOVMzEqRDTI/s1600-h/image002.jpg"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 283px; height: 400px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/SpL73u38t0I/AAAAAAAAAWg/OOVMzEqRDTI/s400/image002.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373634240300496706" border="0"></a><br /><br />theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-5957138623436738332009-08-25T01:44:00.000+05:302009-08-25T02:08:36.846+05:30down memory lane...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/SpL6IAV3MeI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/1Za22Ctw-ME/s1600-h/noisy.JPG"><img style="cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/SpL6IAV3MeI/AAAAAAAAAWQ/1Za22Ctw-ME/s200/noisy.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5373632320844018146" border="0"></a><br /><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="City"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--><font style="text-decoration: underline;"><font style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></font></font><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">Sounds of laughter shades of life<br />are ringing through my open ears<br />exciting and inviting me<br />Limitless undying love which<br />shines around me like a million suns<br />It calls me on and on across the universe<br /><br />Nothing's gonna change my world<br />Nothing's gonna change my world <!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--> <!--[endif]--></p> <p class="MsoNormal">A friend sang as she spoke of a VHS circulating library disappearing in the early 90’s. I couldn’t help but get nostalgic about everything that has forced itself into my overflowing memory box from the city’s landscape I once knew. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Looking at the deformed structures disrupting and deviating traffic onto lanes above glass buildings and broken tree stumps, it is indeed an overwhelming sight to find the city stuck midst its forced makeover. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Day in and day out taking over another road, another building, yet another slipping into congested memory lanes…</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The last jam brought back the many hours spent over zillion cups of coffee with scrambled eggs and toast as we chased various deadlines over random scripts and relationship dilemmas. Meeting interesting strangers or catching up with an old friend over yet another cup of coffee and masala dosa as we watched MG road at its different stages. ICH in its original avatar came alive for those few moments as Chandran spoke of place very close to me and a time that I could relate to. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font style=""> </font>‘jothe jotheyali’</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Deepak’s stories fused with film songs reeled back matinee memories of bunking class, matinee memories, 25/- Gandhi class tickets, watching ‘Jurassic park’ for the fourth time with a stiff neck occasionally tackling with rats and cockroaches, plaza and galaxy. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Auntie and Uncle’s (yashu’s parents) <st1:city st="on">Bangalore</st1:city> was a <st1:place st="on"><st1:city st="on">Bangalore</st1:city></st1:place> I never knew. The stories of a young couple in the 80’s to getting used to the eruption of the many malls, apartment complexes, as simple as the buses turning blue from red. Luxurious auto rides with meters blinking from a min of Rs 2/- to 14/- now. I guess it had already begun its evolution long before we even knew. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Getting used to that change at it’s different phases was Harsha’s grandma as she sketched out the entire landscape of Bangalore in the 50’s to how she copes with the crowded city as it metamorphosed from a pensioner’s paradise to a youngsters quick ‘change’ lane. </p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Watching the K R Puram experience performed by the students from Srishti brings back one to reality. As the act of balancing out continues as we begin our journey if not to undo at least be aware of this mistaken modernity that is taking over the city.<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal">The jam did bring in a wide range of stories that covered the City’s past at different times and different phases. But what does one do with this feeling of loss and nostalgia at the end of the day. Can be a frustrating one…but in my opinion it was a learning of the things that were and that could have been. Things change, people change, lifestyles change and we adapt. Why do we adapt and from what have we become. Becoming aware of the choices that we make in our dailiness. </p><p class="MsoNormal">she brought in a song, we clapped she danced... 'rab ne banadi jodi'...</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Dusted knitted sweaters or broken cycles, whether in your closet or in an old trunk, take three random mental shots of people and places around. As the present now, will soon be past!</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><h3 style="font-weight: normal;" class="UIIntentionalStory_Message"><font size="1"><a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=2291359&id=517341138&comments&alert#/album.php?aid=305489&id=779050563" onmousedown="'UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this)," target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><font>http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=22</font><wbr><font class="word_break"></font><font>91359&id=517341138&comments&alert#/album</font><wbr><font class="word_break"></font>.php?aid=305489&id=779050563</a></font></h3>(facebook pictures <meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]-->courtesy Shrikar Marur) <p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">pallavi<br /></p> theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-13546343273237088672009-07-24T22:46:00.000+05:302009-07-24T22:49:04.636+05:30Come tell the city your thoughts!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/Smns2gXLhvI/AAAAAAAAANM/dsW0--XJ_W8/s1600-h/image001.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362077252505536242" style="WIDTH: 247px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KApmOGFOdXA/Smns2gXLhvI/AAAAAAAAANM/dsW0--XJ_W8/s320/image001.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div></div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-9744521023257096282009-06-26T23:33:00.000+05:302009-06-26T23:41:03.914+05:30jamming at another park....<span style="font-family: verdana;font-family:";font-size:18;" ><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51);"> <span style="font-size:130%;">Calling for stories, songs, dances, art work,<br /></span></span></span></span><p style="text-align: left; color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > film, music, sound, solo pieces, poetry, improvisations...</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > and anything you feel like you have always wanted to share</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > but never knew where and when.</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > its time now, to bring it to Theatre Jam...<br /></span></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > <wbr> <span style="font-style: italic;">We're hopping away....</span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > from</span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Nanda</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > Park</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >..</span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > To</span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Sri</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" > Chamarajendra Park</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >,</span></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > <span style="font-style: italic;">Meade's Park..</span></span></p> <p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > Some even call it</span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Lover's Park,</span><span style=";font-size:130%;" ><br /></span></p><p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > for non-snozzers it's</span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >Jogger's Park</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >, </span></p><div style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;" class="im"> <p><span style=";font-size:130%;" > for many others it was</span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >the toy train Park</span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >, </span></p> <p><span style=";font-size:130%;" > better known as</span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="">Cubbon</span><span style=""> Park</span></span><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >...</span></p> <p><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > you know where it is...</span></p><p><span style=";font-size:130%;" > Land up by the Victoria statue<br /></span></p><p><span style=";font-size:130%;" > <wbr> on<br /></span></p><p><span style=";font-size:130%;" > <span style="font-style: italic;">Sunday 5th of July</span></span></p> <p> <wbr style="font-style: italic;"> <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" >by 12 noon </span><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /></span><span style=";font-size:130%;" > </span></p> <p><span style=";font-size:130%;" > we'll move into the 100 acre green canoe...</span></p> </div><p style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51); font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > come along... choose your spot, </span></p><div style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51);" class="im"> <p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > it's July, let's give this space a shot! </span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > under the trees or over a branch, </span></p> <p style="font-family: verdana;"><span style=";font-size:130%;" > amongst the rocks with a puppet sock!! </span></p> <p style="font-style: italic;"><span style=";font-family:";font-size:130%;" > <span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Bring your Friends, Lovers, Mothers, Aunties and Uncles and Neighbours...for stories, music, dance or as audience to talk or just to hang and nod.<br /></span></span></p><p style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style=";font-family:";" ></span></span></p> <p style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 204, 51);font-size:130%;" ><span style=";font-family:";" >Spread the word....it's an open space for ANYONE to share ANYTHING they want to. Come fill up this space.. regulars,don't be lazy, it's our first jam at Cubbon Park, let's make it memorable..forward it to friends and others...</span></span></p> <p><br /></p> <p><span style=";font-family:";" ></span></p><p style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">if you wanna know more or if you get lost...give us a call</p> <p style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">9880755875/ 9343763497/9889628582<br /></p><p style="font-family: comic sans ms,sans-serif;">or mail us on <a href="http://theatrejam@gmail.com/" target="_blank">theatrejam@gmail.com/</a> <a href="mailto:info@maraa.in" target="_blank">info@maraa.in</a></p> <p><span style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;">or blog us on <a href="http://www.theatresundays.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">www.theatresundays.blogspot.<wbr>com</a> </span></p></div>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-19708829322253631212009-06-03T15:59:00.000+05:302009-06-03T16:12:40.135+05:30Theatre JAM in its 9th month<p>kaeli kaeli kaeli… </p><p>AkkA Thangigale, </p><p>AnnA Thambigale!</p><p>It is time to theatre JAM once again!</p><p>7TH June 2009, 32rd Cross park space on Nanda Road, Jayanagar </p><p>Calling all PERFORMERS…</p><p>intensely light or dramatic floaty types, </p><p>gimmicks and mimics types, </p><p>sketch paint and music types,</p><p>scientist, motorist and cyclist types </p><p>Calling all AUDIENCES…</p><p>listeners and curious viewer types</p><p>Wah wah! Thoo thoo! types </p><p>jabbering thinker types </p><p>binoculars and spy glass holder types</p><p>innocent gossipy types...</p><p><br />Pack your backpacks with instruments, masks, handmade costumes, doodled scripts, scribbled notes, water, food, and candies fare...</p><p>And hike out with all of it to you know where! </p><p>Let us know if you have an idea or two</p><p>Call us on 9343763497 or 9880755875</p><p>Methinks you can blog too!</p>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-16191714163206105682009-04-30T10:59:00.000+05:302009-04-30T11:01:59.268+05:303RD MAY – Theatre Jam Hits The Streets <br />33rd Street, Nanda/RV road, JAYANAGAR<br />12 PM onwards<br />Bangalore needs you to express yourself… and the time has never been this right! <br />Calling Grandsons, mothers, lovers, musical types, creative types, passionate types, etc…<br />All who found refuge under grand green giants when it rained, and who drove through golden green canopies when the sun shone… <br />A green impersonator monster with purple font that calls itself Namma Metro is out to get those green giants…<br />All this happeningright around the corner in Jayanagar… <br />Would you want to come and say you don’t like this much?<br />Would you like to do more than that and celebrate the trees with music, theatre and activities that you or others have in mind? <br />Send out a strong pink heart sign to your city’s green giants. <br />Stand to protect, and be protected! <br /><br />THE METRO GUYS PLAN TO CUT 323 TREES ON NANDA ROAD<br />Want to express your outrage and ouch?<br /><br />Ideas we have<br /><br />The string thing…<br />String your hopes, memories, stories and togetherness together! Bring old pieces of cloth, bedsheets, colorful sarees you don’t want to use, lungis and dhotis…and tie shreds of these together around the trees on the street, to create your protective web.<br /><br />Doodle Banners<br />Bring white or near white dhotis or bedsheets that you don’t mind painting on to express what Bangalore with trees meant for you and tie them up for display on the streets between trees<br /><br />Growing up in Jayanagar, I befriended a tree…<br />Do you have a tree friend? <br />Does she have a name? <br />Did he talk to you on your way to school? <br />Would you like to reconnect to her? <br />Bring your own personal message and leave it on the tree on metal boards<br /><br />www.theatresundays.blogspot.com<br />www.maraa.in</span>theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-875918439242309228.post-64092023986053402692009-04-13T01:08:00.000+05:302009-04-13T01:22:55.311+05:30From the girl in a saree…<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CADMINI%7E1%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; panose-1:2 11 6 3 2 2 2 2 2 4; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:647 0 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">For the past few months I’ve been contemplating the whole idea of public spaces and how we’ve been trying to look beyond the constructed usage of the term ‘public spaces’. The jam has inevitably become that space. </p><p class="MsoNormal">Meet, greet and perform…. And that’s what exactly what happened. To start of with Andrea’s exercises - What I found really amazing was how the group enthusiastically participated. I, for one, found the exercises very liberating.<font style="font-style: italic;"> </font>In the sense, that it started with movement and body first from the ‘self’ to subtly moving into sharing that space with another, especially the ‘fall – hold’ and the ‘roll-over’ exercise. We did gather some inquisitive gazes, at one point even a truck load!!<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">But there is some sort of a barrier…wish people would join us at some point..just jump in… or do we come across as an eccentric intimidating crowd? (Just been playing on my mind) </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Vahid’s poem – I didn’t catch the name or the entire poem, but I did get bits of it…and that was enough to let my thoughts travel. The off-shot performance was interesting…would want to know what the poet thought of it? I decided to go with adding some kind of sound to it – because I felt the piece spoke a lot about ‘silence’ and how it magnifies thought to some extent (okie that’s a little something I got out off it), so picked a bottle and a twig to add to the movement enthusiasts …it became a piece in itself with the drummer adding his crazy chamaaks! </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Songs in Bangla to folk to rock to quawaali…..was a very fascinating mix. From singing mosquitoes and sharing jackfruits!Personally for me, I’m at a state of understanding this crisis of religion, tolerance, violence, secular, non secular, faith, belief and culture. Feel like a juggler trying to find a ‘where’ to walk amidst this clutter, right now it seems to be on a painful fence. And I couldn’t help but enjoy these songs from that fence. (Got a bit surreal…dunno if it was the space, the songs or the theme behind or all of it)</p> <p class="MsoNormal">And how could I forget the short piece Ekta read out from Sangamitra, remember ‘the black linen shirt’, I don’t know why it’s queer…it sounded so simple and regular to me. </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Deepak’s autobiographical piece – ‘When someone asks me who I am, I don’t know what to say!’, I think someone mentioned this at the Q and A post the performance, but I felt I was stepping into something that had already started. I particularly liked the repetition of certain parts of the text; it put the emphases in ‘quotes’! </p> <p class="MsoNormal">The form juxtaposes movements, text and fragments of songs, the method behind the autobiographical dramaturgy plays more on the impulse of movement and thus making it more abstract, yet I would think it is not that different. But I’m keen on understanding the process of decentralizing the individual’s story with spurts of disjoint body movements. Conceptually, as a viewer, I could still make some connections and somewhere draw a parallel with the content. But I wonder how 'fair' it would be to the actor and his story, that’s where I’m stuck in understanding the method itself..when one is directed….how far can you push it to being your own (autobiography), or does it even have to? However, I am interested to see how the piece evolves…</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Masrah’s stories from a park bench – phew... glad to be ‘finally’ performing at the jam. I thoroughly enjoyed coming up with the piece over ice-cream and cigarettes at some 3am two nights before the jam. All of us were super excited about sharing our stories, but more anxious about opening the bench out for the audience- hoping someone will want to share their stories. It was rewarding to see so many of them willingly come forward. Thank you guys :0 </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Coming back to the form, it wasn’t too defined but we made sure it followed a certain conversational feel. But would personally want to see how and where we can take the piece from here.</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Soumya and Andrea’s movement number –It was really cool to see how that space just transformed itself into this set for their piece. Hope you didn’t get a bump on your head Andrea?! </p> <p class="MsoNormal">For the next Jam, was wondering if we can see how to get the locals from the area involved. Maybe put up a poster or two, Do some door-to-door pamphlet thing? What do you guys think?</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Also found out today that they are going to chop some 300 trees around that area – Why…well because of the METRO…(duh) and it apparently happens during the night. Now…am not sure if anything we do CAN stop this mess. But it would be interesting to see how this spills into our performances next jam.<br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">until next,</p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">cheers,</p>pallavi<p class="MsoNormal"><br /><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> theatrejamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12426401979895121745noreply@blogger.com0