JP NAGAR:Indian Ensemble, in association with Riad Mahmood Education and Arts Foundation, will present the final plays from the Director’s Training Programme at Ranga Shankara from July 7 to 9.
The programme was held over eight months to help theatre students bring their vision into life and evolve as directors. “The Director’s Training Programme was started as an effort to train up-and-coming directors so that the numerous scripts that are being written now could find direction and new companies can stage those plays,” says Abhishek Majumdar, co-founder of Indian Ensemble.
The programme started in November 2014 with three young directors — Karen D’Mello, Amit Sharma and Anju Alva Naik. They have worked through four terms with different plays, different mentors and guest lecturers.
“The training was intense as we were constantly getting more scripts to work with. Apart from hands-on experience, we learnt a lot of concepts and methodologies,” shares Anju Alwa Naik.
The first term focused on text analysis and character development, which the participants learnt by working on the modern classic, Sakharam Binder by Vijay Tendulkar. During their second term, the directors worked on their own adaptations of Equus by Peter Shaffer, to understand the view points of space and time. The third term gave them an opportunity to work with a contemporary writer which helped them explore the playwright-director relationship. The young directors also worked on Neel Chaudhuri’s Taramandal and were taught about finding their respective processes as directors.
The directors are working on Sandeep Shikhar’s Open Cast, Neel Chaudhuri’s Taramandal and Anushka Ravishankar’s The Cockroach Collector for their final presentations.
The plays will be staged at Ranga Shankara from 7.30 pm onwards on July 7,8 and 9. The event will also mark the official launch of the new theatre companies of the young directors.
