Kaffirs Show 27th, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.

Necropolis.jpg, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.

June 16th at 7:30 pm entrance: Free

-Necropolis: rehearsing Koltes in such times

A performance collaboration by Best of Kolkata Campus in association with Five Issues
dedicated to the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Solo performance, Direction and dramaturgy: Parnab Mukherjee
Language: English 

Duration: 65 minutes without any intermission

Inspired from a poem of Nirmaldendu Goon Thangjam Ibopishak and In the Solitude of Cottonfields by Bernard Marie Koltes

Additional text: Manto, Hijam Irabot, Saratchand Thiyam, Rajkumar Bhubonsana, Bhaskar Chakraborty, Rabindranath Tagore and Mishing and Kokbork proverbs
Collaboration: Gautam Bajoria and Five Issues 

Synopsis: 

Necropolis is a part of a three part repertoire called The Trilogy of Unrest, the first two being Hamletmachine: Images of Shakespeare-in-us and an installation performance with a series of visual artistes called This room is not my room.
The repertoire has toured the north-east, Siliguri, Kolkata, Pune and Mumbai. The touring performance will culminate in the release of a special commemorative edition of Five Issues on Indian theatre and subversions-dedicated to Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar, Bishnu Rabha, Ranjabati Chaki Sircar, Chandrasekhar and Arambam Samarendra. 

Necropolis has opened three international events: the prestigeous Amnesty International Festival on the 60th year Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 5, 2008 at the India Islamic Centre in New Delhi, the 9th conference of Comparitive Literature Association of India at the Hyderabad Central University on January 27, 2009 and the first Patumthani International Festival in Bangkok orgsnised by Mordokmai theatre group(the show was held on February1, 2009 at the Supreme Artist Hall-Patumathani . The production has also closed two important festivals. It has been the final event at the Chhobi Mela V-an International Festival of Photography organised by Drik at Dhaka and the inaugural Awami theatre festival organised by Awam Jaipur on March 23, 2009.

The production has completed more than 30 shows and will be touring East Timor, Singapore and Bali on May 2009.  
 
Summary: 

Two men meet on the street. They have to make a deal. Or rather they want to make a deal. One has something to sell and the other needs something to buy. The Dealer is unsure what to peddle or would he want to peddle anything in the first place. The Client knows what he has to buy but does not know exactly what to. A cat and mouse game begins between these nameless, faceless, shapeshifters who have to make a transaction which they are not sure why would make. For the next chunk of minutes they indulge in selling and buying of concepts without transacting anything. But they did make a deal. 
What are they selling? Or rather who is buying? Are technology, displacement, memories of a genocide the new road-map of the new universe. Are we such theoretical creatures that we have lost the power to engage with real issues and provide a balm to the displaced, destitute, fried, barbecued, roasted human-folk?
More often than not we are groping for words to describe routine violence. Routine cases of racial profiling. Of exclusion. Grappling with stereotypes. Cliches. Biases on the basis of human rights. Unethical treatment of workers by the globalised companies running roughshod over localised needs, the culture of building dams and more dams, refusal to discuss the politics of the body. Biases on the basis of sexual orientation. 
We are looking at images and we think either they supplement the words or complement them. Is image only a memory tool? Is it just a visual metaphor? Is it just to learn things by heart? By rote? What is a performance? Merely a text or an improvisation or?a series?of theatre exercises which are prescribed as typical workshop methods? The performance probes into the image -word relationship?gets into the rationale of images…
What images are we looking at? Nelllie-Morichjhaanpi, Malom, Mokokchung, Arrest of Binayak Sen in Chattisgarh….What was the process of transforming the “us” into “them”…..How are “they” celebrating diversity and “their” culturalness in these times? The performance negotiates these terrains. By the time the performance ends nobody has bought, nobody has sold. 
Yet those two individuals have transformed themselves enough to be probably up for sale. As the next set of clients gatecrash into the narrative. 
Or do we end up being commodities showcased in the glass windows for the global window shopping….and all this happens while we are window-shopping ourselves.

About the Director:

An independent media analyst and a performance consultant by profession, Mr. Parnab Mukherjee is one of the leading alternative theatre directors’ of the country. He divides his time between Kolkata, Imphal and the Darjeeling hills. Currently, a consultant with a publication initiative, he has earlier worked for a sports fortnightly, an English daily and a Bengali daily. He is an acclaimed authority on Badal Sircar’s theatre, Shakespeare-in-education and specialises in theatre-for-conflict-resolution and theatre-of-the-campus. 
He is considered as a leading light in alternative theatre in the country having directed more than 50 productions of performance texts including three international collaborations. He has also performed 14 full length solos which include an acclaimed series of plays on trafficking, HIV and segregation called the River series, Living Text series and Foothills to Hills, a series of plays with Darjeeling as the living inspiration. 
Parnab has created a personal idiom of using spaces for theatre exploration. He has extensively worked on a range of human rights issues which include specific theatre projects on anti-uranium project struggles in Jadugoda and Turamdihi, Save Tenzin campaign, rehabilitation after industrial shutdowns, shelter issue of the de-notified tribes, a widely acclaimed cycle of 12 plays against Gujarat genocide, and a range of issues on north-east with special reference to Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958. 
Four of his major workshop modules: Freedomspeak, The Otherness of the Body, Conflict as a Text and The Elastic Body have been conducted with major theatre groups and campuses all over the country. He has written five books on theatr and his production of Tagore’s Muktadhara in darjeeling and Sikkim is an important landmark to raise voice on ctiizens affected by projects in Teesta.
Best of Kolkata Campus: 
Best of Kolkata Campus, an autonomous performance collective and a non-profit performance foundry, has completed 15 years of doing dedicated theatre in found spaces and public arena. It has produced a number of young theatre workers who are active in the cultural and audio-visual training arena. It is a loosely formed collective of individuals who believe that theatre is an important an independent tool of dissent outside the ambit of party politics. 

Some of the most memorable productions of the group include Hamletmachine, The Country with a post office, Antigone, Raktakarabi-an urban sound opera, Bhul Rasta, Kasper-dipped and shredded, They Also Work, River Monologues, Dead-Talk series, Conversations with the dead, Crisis of Civilisation, Shakespeare shorts, Man to Man talk, Inviting Ibsen for a Dinner with Ibsen, Your path wrong path and And the Dead Tree Gives no Shelter.

The group also works in the field of installation performances and theatre-of-conflict-resolution and peace studies. The collective has travelled extensively all over the subcontinent doing shows, giving workshops and exploring alternative performance idioms.
 

Time Lost and Found, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.

Six married men will be
dropped on an island
with one car and
3 kids each for
six weeks.

Each kid will play
two sports
and either take music
or dance classes.

There is no fast food.

Each man must
take care of his 3 kids;
keep his assigned
house clean,
correct all homework,
and
complete science projects,
cook, do laundry,
and pay a list of
‘pretend’ bills with
not enough money.

In addition, each man
will have to budget
in money
for groceries each
week.

Each man
must remember the
birthdays
of all their friends
and relatives,
and send cards out
on time–no Emailing.

Each man must also
take each child to a
doctor’s appointment,
a dentist appointment
and a
haircut appointment.

He must make
one unscheduled and
inconvenient visit per
child to the A & E.

He must also
make biscuits or cakes
for a social function.

Each man will be
responsible for
decorating his own
assigned house,
planting flowers outside
and keeping it presentable
at all times.

The men will only
have access to television
when the kids are asleep
and all chores are done.

The men must
shave their legs,
wear makeup daily,
adorn himself with jewellery,
wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes,
keep fingernails polished
and eyebrows groomed.

During one of the six weeks,
the men will have to endure
severe abdominal cramps,
back aches,
and have extreme,
unexplained mood swings
but never once complain
or slow down from
other duties.

They must attend
weekly school meetings,
church, and find time
at least once to spend the
afternoon at the park or
a similar setting.

They will need to
read a book to the kids
each night and in the
morning,
feed them, dress them,
brush their teeth and
comb their hair by 8:00 am.

A test will be given at the
end of the six weeks,
and each father will
be required to know
all of the following
information:
each child’s birthday,
height, weight,
shoe size, clothes size
and doctor’s name.
Also the child’s
weight at birth,
length, time of birth,
and length of labour,
each child’s favourite colour,
middle name,
favourite snack,
favourite song,
favourite drink,
favourite toy,
biggest fear and
what they want to be
when they grow up.

All the above must be completed whilst working
in either full time
(preferably) or part time
employment to assist in
the financial input for
the family.

The kids vote them off
the island
based on performance.
The last man wins only if…
he still has enough energy
to be intimate with his
spouse at a moment’s
notice.

If the last man does win,
he can play the game over
and over and over again
for the next 18-25 years
eventually earning the
right
To be called Mum!

After you get done laughing,
send this to as many
females as you
think will get a laugh
out of it and as many
men as you think
can handle it!
Just don’t send it back
to me….
I’m going to bed.

Come hear the Chamber Music Society’s Brass line make some noise!
Monday 1st June 2009, 7.15 p.m at the Barefoot Garden Cafe
A delightful informal evening of classical music, food and drink.
Its free!


This TUESDAY 2nd JUNE - the Barefoot Film Club will screen SPELLBOUND: “a nail-biting face-off among hundreds of teens who train as rigorously as any Olympic athlete on their heroic quest for glory” …

Finally the world’s geeks get their very own Rocky in the shape of this quirky documentary, which follows eight teenagers as they compete in the 1999 American National Spelling Bee. While the competition is exciting enough, it’s the kids’ differing backgrounds that give this film its real heart. From the daughter of Mexican immigrants whose father speaks no English to a gawky farmboy whose parents struggle to understand their talented offspring, this is really a story of the trials and occasional triumphs of what it’s like to be young and “different” in America. http://www.radiotimes.com/

When: Tuesday 2nd June – 7:30pm for 7:45pm start
Where: Barefoot Garden Cafe

Come along – for the film, or for an excuse to just to get out of your house!

MAHEN PERERA’S ‘TIME LOST AND FOUND’opens on june 4th, 2009 at 7:30 pm.
“
Coming soon after his artistic training at the La Salle College of Art in Singapore, this exhibition marks Mahen Perera’s ‘professional debut’ in Sri Lanka. And it introduces some startling new themes, or at least startling treatment of some not so new themes. And in doing so he answers with a degree of originality the perennial question which gallery visitors ask, “why do some artists so willfully forsake ‘realism’ and representational ‘accuracy’, and why are the results so often forbidding to the eye and revolting to good sense? Little do they ask about the price art often pays for the accessible and pleasing effects of so-called ‘realism’.”

Lunuganga, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.

BETODIAF- A DANCE, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.

I am once again happy to announce the premiere of a new work by nATANDA Dance Theatre of Sri Lanka titled BETODIAF. Made in collaboration with a friend and fellow artist, Jennifer Lemanski, and sponsored by the Davis United World College Scholars Foundation and Bard College (New York, USA), BETODIAF is an international experimental performance project concerned with the body in both self- and social-confinement. The show explores the subjects of imprisonment, control and self-determination through a unique set of choreographic elements.

Having evolved from an open series of interdisciplinary workshops in the arts conducted at the Goethe-Institut from early February to May, this production will introduce a new group of young artistic talents. I am excited to share this performance with you and, as always, your sincere interest in nATANDA Dance Theatre of Sri Lanka is greatly appreciated. Thank you for helping us promote a new dimension of Modern dance culture.

BETODIAF will be performed one night only on Friday, May 15th. To reserve tickets please contact the Barefoot Gallery or call 0774702341.

***

Founded in 2002 by Kapila Palihawadana, nATANDA is a bold and energetic dance program that raises the standards of dance theatre in Sri Lanka. nATANDA provides a platform for the Sri Lankan dance tradition to be showcased while engaging with dance traditions and audiences from around the world. Its dance style looks beyond boundaries of form, physicality, culture and geography and portrays something richer and more vibrant. The dancers of nATANDA are trained in traditional Sri Lankan dance as well as the basics of Modern dance and western classical ballet. They are not molded into a pre-choreographed production, but are motivated to contribute with the uniqueness of their bodies and personalities.

Kapila Palihawadana is the artistic director and founder of nATANDA. Kapila has studied traditional dance in his native country Sri Lanka. He toured to India and Germany in 1999 and 2002. He was introduced to western classical ballet by Oosha Sarwanamuttu and was the solo dancer in Joie de la dance in 2003. Kapila won a scholarship though the Goethe-Institut in Colombo which led him to Germany in 2004 where he worked with some of the nation’s best dance companies including Das Theatre Haus in Freiburg and Das Theatre Haus in Heidelberg. He began his Modern dance training under Christino Kono, Biasuty and Tomi Paasonen, and gained experience from such well-known choreographers as Sasha Waltz, Irina Pauls, Manuel Quero and David Bolger. Kapila holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Kelaniya. He has led workshops in Thailand as a guest of the Bangkok International Dance Festival.

Bach and Hyden, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.

Thriloka and Betelnuts, originally uploaded by nazreen.sansoni.

The Fusion Dhyan Arts Circle presents:

‘Thriloka and Betelnuts go Barefoot’

The title should be self-explanatory, we think?

But just to clarify…

Thriloka:

The fusion band ‘Thriloka’ has been interacting with local audiences for close upon 3 years now, delivering a innovative blend of traditional folk music, raga, jazz and rock. With all 5 band members – Sarani Perera: guitars, Eshantha Peiris: keyboards, Uvindu Perera: bass, Harshan Gallage: drums, and Pabalu Wijegoonawardane: percussion – contributing musical ideas to the band’s repertoire of original music, Thriloka’s musical output is truly a fusion of global sounds and rhythms. This performance marks their return to the local performance arena after a 6-month musical-gestation-period, and serves to kick off a new season of hot grooves and refreshing harmonies (highlights to include the re-mix of ‘Bisura’, the release of the new ‘Rana Mayura’ video, and the much anticipated June 2009 ‘Thrilogy’ project).

The Betelnuts

Hailing from the Land of the Long White Cloud, musicians Reuben Derrick (saxophone), Misha Marks (guitar), Isaac Smith (double bass) and Sri Lankan/New Zealand musician Sumudi Suraweera (drums) have been residing in the Pearl of the Indian Ocean over the past month, working on an extensive collaboration project with a number of high profiled Sri Lankan traditional ritual masters. The product of this unique innovative collaboration will be debuted at the Barefoot Gallery at this event for a one-off public performance in Sri Lanka. The Betelnuts have already made plans to premier the ensemble at international festivals in the near future.

Performance to be held at the Barefoot Gallery Cafe on Friday April 24th: tickets priced at Rs. 600 available at the gallery office and at the door