About the play:
It was mellow Japanese morning what happened on the tragedy. The Synopsis: In Kubi family, many young people were die, in 20 years. Old generations were left behind. This is a story started from Mitsu, a woman in the last Kubi family. She married to Intu family. A mountain dog attacked her. Whole night whole day she was missing. When she came back she was something suspicious. After 9 month, she was giving a birth. A baby came into this world, boy named Tsukio. But 5 years after Mitsu, mother killed herself. Only Tsukio and grandma were left. The old proverb is running in the village, villagers were started a rumor � Tsukio had "the running in the God's blood". He was so isolated, but he has had an offer of marriage. In the next morning of the wedding, the tragedy came. The morning was mellow Japanese morning what was suitable on tragedy.

This story was scripted in the northern part of Japan, and added several Asian story. This drama is Story telling by a woman poet. She is like a fortune and past teller. At the end of the story, when she stopped telling we notice this is a Japanese story but common in all over Asia.

Cast:

About the Play:
Because of the betrayal of her mother by a man, Phuong Nhuoc Minh was born without a father. Phuong Nhuoc Minh, in turn, gave up the love of her life and instead chose to marry a man who could offer her a stable life. But she could not forget her ex-boyfriend and always regretted her mistake. Moreover, as a leader of her district's Women's Union, she tried to solve other women's problems though she could not solve her own. She was living a fake life without even recognizing at herself.

The two generations, Nhuoc Minh and her mother always wishes that her children would have real love counted upon Chinese traditional values. 'God help me.... do not ever bring the tragedy to the third generation.......'. Her wish was yet disrupted by her two daughters: Phuong Lam, the second daughter fell in love with an electrician who was living in a very care village. While Phuong Vi, me first daughter fell in love with Phuong Nhuoc Mint's own ex-boyfriend who she had secretly been searching for long time in vain. A big hurricane came into their family and took away their serenity and happiness that they had tried to keep for many years.

The generation conflict was enhanced by six other characters who had their own fates and characteristics and never seemed to end. However it was the second daughter's feminine kind of loving point of view that easily solved the problem. They finally found out the best way to live together whereby every one of them reached the beauty of women's typical magnanimity. Nhuoc Minh eventually realized her hypocritical opinions and courageously allowed real love which she had lost to come to her daughter.

Ten women in the play by their own motives and dynamics drove away the storm and found the real happiness that they had chosen.

Performers:
Ms Bich Thu
Ms My Dung
Ms LanHuong
Ms Chieu Xuan
Ms Hong Loan
Ms Le Ngoc
Ms Thuy Phuong
Ms Thuy Huong
Ms Phuong Nga
Ms Phuong Nam
Mrs Dang Tu Mai
Ms Ha Thuc Van
Mr. Trang Cong Vinh

Adapted and directed by: Dang Tu Mai

About the director:
Dang Tu Mai was bom on October 27th, 1946 at Hanoi, Vietnam. Graduated from Vietnam Fine Arts College (Hanoi) (1964) and got her Master's degree on Theater Direction from Kiev (Ukraine) Film and Theater University (1987) and also in Stage and Film Direction from the same University (1999). Working as leading actress for 18 years in Veitnam National Theatre, she became Director of the company since 1987. Her performances in "Luigi's Heart" (1985), "The Last Customer" (1986) and "After the Death" were still remembered. She got the award of Golden Lotus at the Veitnam National Film Festival (1995) as second director o( the film "End of Misfortune" (1995). She was Co-director of the film "The whisper of the war" (1996). She also acted in French movie named "Road 11" (1997). "Life of Paris", an opera was directed by her in 1997. During 1998-1999 she was acting coach of the film "The vertical Rays of the Sun" made by Franco-Vietnamese director Tran Anh Hung. She was co-director of the plays like "The Glass Managerie", "Light Source in Life" and Playgirl in Maxim's "Restaurant" of the Artists Repertory Theatre. In 2002, she adapted "The Gorilla singer" of the Chinese author Trieu Dieu Dan and "Moonlight in a Small Courtyard" of Chinese author Bach Phong Khe (Nov. 2002).

Performance Description:
PANAW, meaning, journey, is multi media musical theatre performance by women music and theatre artists from Mindanao called the Mebuyan Peace Project.
The performance dwells on the themes of life, death, and peace-concerns faced by contemporary Filipino women every day. The story revolves around the Mindanao goddess Mebuyan and how her mythical presence weaves through and affects the lives of three contemporary women: battered wife and overseas worker Rosario, her dead mother Delia who died fighting to protect the sacred mountain Malakinay from logging, and tribal priestess Bae Malimlim who brings the two women together.

The music-theatre is inspired from the Manobo myth about Mebuyan, the goddess of the underworld who declared to rule over life and death after parting ways with her brother lumabet who ascended to rule the Sky.

Ten years from the last known research about Mebuyan (1992), the goddess has since transformed into an evil god banished to the depths of the earth for having committed an evil deed. The performance aims to reclaim the existence of the dying goddess.

Panaw promotes the concept of life and death as part of a long journey. It upholds the idea that Jiving people must resolve their lives in the here, and now lest their souls become restless and full of anguish in Mebuyan's domain and could get stuck there, unable to journey further to Gimokudan. the soul's final resting place. At the same time, the play nurtures the idea that the journey IS the destination as it tackles the issues of domestic violence, land loss, environmental destruction, and women's search tor empowerment and meaning in their lives.

The performance utilizes music, movement, and video showing, with music being the core form. The music is within the "world music" genre, employing various indigenous vocal and instrumental techniques � an orchestra of earthy female voices, acoustic guitars, and indigenous percussion instruments. The dance is inspired from various Asian forms, particularly Mindanaoan - all OF THE EARTH.

About the play:
Rosario is an overseas worker. Battered by a husband who never allowed her to go back home or see her siblings (or nine years, she finally returns home to find out her kin have either died or have gone away - nobody knows where.

Rosario decides to climb Mt. Malakinay to find comfort and there meets tribal priestess Bae Malimlim who tells her she hears the sounds of the goddess Mebuyan's laughter and footsteps. She allows Rosario a glimpse of Mebuyan's domain. In Mebuyan's domain, Rosario meets the restless soul of her mother Delia.

Delia was killed by company guards of a lagging company in a protest action against logging in Mt. Malakinay. Before she died, she told her children to run away and look for greener pastures - to escape poverty, and the violence of their everyday life. There was no future in the land. she said. Remorseful for her last words, Delia's soul roams Mebuyan's domain in dreary existence while the Goddess of the domain comforts her no end. Delia cannot journey to Gimokudan, her final destination, until her spirit Finds peace.

Seeing her mother in misery and reflecting on her own personal journeys filled with violence and despair, Rosario finally decides to take full control of her life.

Performers:
Geejay Arriola
Bayang Barrios
Kaikai Lamanilao
Christiane Lim Gauss Obenza
Ditz Villas

Credits:

The Play:
19771 Ajitesh Bandyopadhyay lef tthe organization which he had founded himself. Nandikar - in a huff, perhaps to prove its strength - decided to stage 'The Caucasian Chalk Circle'. Thanks to the massive production of Football, we had an ensemble of 551 We just didn't have an actress to tackle Grusha/LUtfunnesa. That's when Swatilekha joined Nandikar.

Swatilekha had, under her belt, a double first class in English Literature, she was at home both in Indian and Western Music (be it Piano or Violin or Flute!), she knew how to dabble with paints and she possessed a natural gift to blend in her acting virtuosity, creative joy and humanism. But. having hailed from 'small town' Allahabad, Swatilekha was an "outsider" in Calcutta. What with the snobbery of some "philistine" guardians, and what with her own inability to find clues to the labyrinth of Calcutta Culture. Swatilekha remained for long an "alien". Only a handful of friends and exceptions like Sombhu Mitra, Satyajit Ray, Subhas Mukhopadhyay warmed up to her.

More than once, Swatilekha has been invited - to act, direct and for cultural interaction - to England. Germany, France, the US 6 the USSR. Culcutta -the cultural capital of this nation - has recognized her talents (Best Actress Award/Best Musician Award and so on) rather late in the day. Only the other evening, having witnessed Swatilekha's versatile performance in 'Nagar Keertan'. a noted educationist friend gushed: 'Swatilekha inspires reverential awe!" Better late than never!

As the eldest in Nandikar, - I have often regretted that perhaps 'I have failed' to bring out the best in her. Willy Bussell's Shirley Valentine's a great play. Perhaps Swatilekha would measure up to its humaneness and its histrionic challenges. Hence, the re-creation of 'Shanu Roychowdhury'.

The Production-process of 'Shanu Roychowdhury' has been variously significant. Collective efforts of "Insider" of Nandikar have been complemented by friends from 'Outside'. And the juniors were privileged to learn from their interactive process!

This production-process of Shanu Roychowdhary has been variously significant. Collective efforts of 'Insiders' of Nandikar have been complemented by friends from 'Outside'. And the juniors were privileged to learn from their interactive process!

This production-process has heen traumatic, to say the least. We exchanged opinions, roughed up and sometimes even lacerated each other: In short, we dared the dangers of democracy! This interaction happened with friends like Jai Goswami, Jamil Ahmed and many others. In this celebration we failed to bring in many whether they have missed something or not is lor them to judge. We certainly feel deprived.

Did someone say brevity is the soul of wit!
Yours Truly,
Rudraprasad Sengupta

SHANU SPEAKS
I bet you won't recognize me now. Can you, now? Frankly, I can't recognize my own self - when the first rays of the sun reflect on me from the snowy peaks of Macchapuchhare. Or when I get friendly with the silvery fish while swimming in the blue waters of Pokhara. Or when my new friend Columbus comes along and asks: 'You search dream again?'

The walls around me: How long have I talked to you - only you! My husband, son, daughter, even my neighbours - all have been walls. I hate the joke of it! But then, you alone knew how I dreaded the life beyond the four walls. As a child, jumping from the high walls was just a child's play to me. What has happened since? Slowly, inexorably, Shanu Roychowdhary was buried in the shadows of the 42-year-old Mrs Shanu Mazumdar. You asked: 'How are you?' Shanu Mazumdar responded: 'I am OK.' OK, for the vegetables are fresh. OK, for we are all keeping well. OK, for the children are physically intact. Thus we merrily carry on. And, then, before we can discover ourselves, we cease to exist, crushed by unspent every and unrealised dreams.

I was a wife. I was a mother. Once again, "I'm Shanu Roychowdhary". Can't I ask you to sit beside me by this lake, overseeing mountains, and sip with me - though not officially - some Pepsi?

Yours truly,
Shanu Roychowdhary

I Confess
It was, I must confess, a long, hard, often painful journey right though the formitive phases of "Shanu RoyChowdhary". Often I felt greatly elated: this was one play that would be mine, entirety mine! But I was apprehensive, too, deeply so: I would have to bear the cross all by myself - whether on stage or in rehearsals! Suggestions from friends would hurt my pride. If, on the country, they stood aloof, I would feel like a forlorn child.

Conflicting as such pulls are, they have their rewards as well. One precious lesson I have learnt: Not in isolation, but, only in communion, you discover your true self.

Rudrababu has often remonstrated. Gautam has often matched my 'moods', but has always come back to offer me a true creative inspiration. And, for months together Debshankar, Sanchayan, along with other students of mine, have acted as true guardians, doling our indulgence and admonition in equal measure, making me feel like a queen!

Finally, in a pool of dazzling light, "Shanu RoyChowdhary" will cry, laugh, stumble, romp around and try to transcend her gravitational pulls. But deep inside, while performing allay myself, I shall happily know that my friends from far and near are all keeping me company!
In need of your best wishes.

I am,
Yours humbly,
Swatilekha Sengupta


Peformance: Swatilekha Sengupta

Credits:

The Poet:
Saint poet Jaideva writing about Mahakavi Kalidasa says, "Poetry was a child of Valmiki who was groomed and nurtured and brought to the enlightened world along with embellishments of numerous forms and hues of Leelas by Bhagwan Ved Vyasa. That damsel of muse (Kavita Kanya) with glittering ornamentations and adornments of Vidharaba tradition, on her own accord, accepted Kalidasa as her bridegroom".

Sixth century poet Kalidasa's gems of his poetic genius in Sanskrit literature that have been acknowledged world over and presented on stage in numerous translations include works like Abhignan Shakuntalam, Malavikagnimitram, Meghdootam, Ritusamharam, Kumarsambhav, Vikramaorvashiyam, etc. etc.

The Play:
Based on 'Ritusamharam' by Kalidasa, this play is a description of Indian cycle of seasons, portraying the close interaction of life and nature. Kalidasa writes about the six seasons: Grishma, Varsha, Sharad, Hemanta, Shishir, Vasanta in graphic details. It narrates, in impeccable detail, the impact of seasons not only on the human psyche, animals' and birds' behaviour but also on other animate or inanimate things like insects, flora and fauna. His poetic images are insightful, graphic and powerful.

Director's note:
A narrative poem by birth,'Ritu' is not a play in the conventional sense. Kalidasa describes six seasons in as many episodes and they are being presented in visual interpretation as it is. Each episode is complete in itself. There is no tangible story line and there is no effort to create one. The performances try to underline the fact that all human energy is derived from the nature. Now that man is isolating himself and moving away from nature, he is loosing that power and energy that he derived from the bountiful nature.

It is a simple expression, through his own vocabulary, of a director who lives in a contemporary world. It is that simple.

Cast: