Release date: Aug. 21, 2003
Contact: Sally Corbett, Director of Public Relations, Arts,
at 404-727-6678 or sacorbe@emory.edu

Theater Emory Presents Theater From Contemporary India

Theater Emory's Sept. 12-13 festival, "Contemporary Indian Theater," celebrates more than 5,000 years of theater tradition in India while demonstrating how that rich and vast heritage speaks to contemporary issues in both eastern and western cultures. This entertaining and enlightening festival will include works by Indian artists with varied and diverse backgrounds whose works span a wide variety of topics.

All plays will be read in English. Events will be in The Theater Lab, Schwartz Center for Performing Arts, 1700 N. Decatur Rd., Emory University. The readings are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis, but seating is extremely limited. Free tickets will be available one hour before each event.

For more information, call 404-727-5050 or go on-line to www.emory.edu/ARTS/.

Theater has long been a part of Indian culture, whether as street plays, dance dramas or musicals. These forms continue to be used for education, for telling and remembering stories, and to affect social change. Following its independence from Great Britain, India has witnessed a re-emergence of its rich theatrical heritage in the many dialects and languages throughout the country. The playwrights creating these works are giving new voice and perspective to issues both ancient and modern, such as family obligation and identity in an ever-shrinking world. Also, India (which has the world's largest English-speaking population) is currently witnessing a trend to create more and more works in English. Writers such as Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie have transcended borders by presenting a distinctly Indian perspective to a wider, English-speaking audience, both in India and abroad.

Theater Emory's events will not be full productions, but staged readings of selected scripts by Indian playwrights who have not reached the same levels of international fame as Roy or Rushdie, but who nonetheless present an innovative and challenging perspective to contemporary issues. These artists have incredibly diverse backgrounds; some, such as artist Mahasweta Devi, live with tribals and write only in their native dialect, while others, such as Girish Karnad, write more in English to a larger audience. All of these artists, however, illustrate the fact that contemporary Indian Theater is developing its own distinct voice, one which is at once powerful, intense and refreshing.

Details of the readings are as follows:

Friday, Sept. 12 at 7 p.m.
"Hayavadhana" by Girish Karnad
Girish Karnad has become one of India's brightest rising stars, earning international praise as a playwright, poet, actor, director, critic and translator. For decades he has written distinct and powerful plays that use history and mythology to tackle contemporary themes. "Hayavadhana," which won the 1972 Kamaladevi Award for best Indian play, asks the question: "If two bodies switch heads, who is who?" Based on the 11th- century Indian fable "Kathasaritsagara" and Thomas Mann's development of this story in "The Transposed Heads," "Hayavadhana" (meaning, "the one with a horse's head) is a philosophical exploration layered with comedy, love triangles, talking dolls and much more.

Saturday, Sept. 13 at 2 p.m.
"Harvest" by Manjula Padmanabhan
Winner of the 1997 Onassis Award for Theatre, "Harvest" is a chilling tale that explores concerns that arise when two very different cultures with great economic disparities collide. Set in 2010, this story of an Indian family seduced by the wealth of the West and the human costs involved--identity, body, mind, organs--evokes a cross-cultural and individually motivated version of George Orwell's "1984."

Saturday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
A collage of readings from the work of playwrights Mahesh Dattani, Mahasweta Devi, Vijay Tendulkar and Alka Roy.
Scenes from well-known plays from India will give the audience a peek at works by some of the strongest voices of change in India today. These plays cover different styles, regions, political motivations, movement and poetry to explore contemporary issues in a very Indian way. Scenes also will be presented from a play by Alka Roy, an emerging playwright who lives in Atlanta.

For more information, call 404-727-5050 or go to www.emory.edu/ARTS/.

--Written by T. Brian Green

Theater Emory is the professional producing organization of Emory University and is affiliated with the Department of Theater Studies. It is a member of the Atlanta Coalition of Performing Arts and operates under a season agreement with Actors' Equity Association, the union of professional actors and stage managers in the United States.

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