By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Dec 9: Teachers from NEHU and various colleges from Shillong, PG students, research scholars and others took part in a national theatre workshop at NEHU on Thursday conducted by award winning theatre director, Avi Chakraborty, Ashoknagar Nattyamukh, Kolkata, and his team.
The participants were given training on Natya Rasas, theatrical expressions, body coordination, mental exercises, voice modulation etc.
In the workshop, participants also learnt about production designs and planning and enacted scenes from the American absurd play The Zoo Story by Edward Albee.
Dr Jyotirmoy Prodhani, Head of English Department, NEHU, said that the department would collaborate with Avi Chakraborty towards the actual production of the play.
In her opening remark of the workshop, Prof Sukalpa Bhattacharjee said theatre had always been strongly political, and therefore, a powerful platform of bold social discourses.
In the evening, the Ashoknagar Theatre group performed the play Bengali Vemula’s Ramayana,
written by Angshuman Kar and directed by Avi Chakraborty, based on the suicide notes of Rohit Vemula which is juxtaposed against the story of Shambook from the Ramayana who was killed by Rama following the supposed violation of the social codes when he began ‘tapasya’, total commitment to learning was considered the sole domain of the Brahmins.
The play was enacted by the superbly choreographed performance and brilliant interplay of lights and sound.
The play was inaugurated by Prof DK Naik, Vice Chancellor in-Charge of NEHU. The entire programme was coordinated by Dr Setolu Tunyi.