Thursday, June 21, 2012 9:00 AM until Monday, July 2, 2012 4:00 PM

The Australia India Institute is pleased to invite you to participate in a workshop on Indian Theatre.

The workshop aims to introduce Australians to Indian dramatic texts through an intensive workshop and will be facilitated by world renowned theatre and dance artists Professor K. Madavane and Professor Vijaya Rao visiting from the Centre for French & Francophone Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.

Participants will learn techniques of theatre, such as stage balance, blocking, character building, work on subtext, use of body etc. through a discovery of Indian texts. The workshop will particularly focus on the use of the body to express emotion in the text.

The intercultural approach used in the workshop will be based on the exchange of energies between actors on stage, once the individual actor learns to identify his/her energy. This will enable the actor to effectively communicate on stage to his/her co-actors. The workshop will strive to impart the idea of asymmetrical gestures in a quest to find a different aesthetic.

Through an exploration of Indian dramatic texts, the participants will be exposed to Hindu mythology and popular legends that are an integral part of the social and cultural fabric of India. The dramatic pieces chosen for the workshop are a modernization of age-old epics (such as the Mahabharata) and local legends.

The aim of the workshop is twofold, firstly to initiate participants to the language of theatre and secondly to help discover aspects of Indian mythology and theatre.

Presentations will be made in the course of the workshop on traditional Indian theatre, genealogy of mythological characters and trends in modern Indian theatre. The workshop will end with a show where participants will present short extracts from Indian plays in small groups. The relevant texts will be available to the participants prior to the commencement of the workshop.

The workshop is open to all who are interested, no  prior knowledge or experience of theatre is needed. Students of theatre are, of course, more than welcome to attend.

The workshop will run from Thursday 21 June – Monday 2 July, 2012.

Professor K. Madavane

Born in Pondicherry in 1946, Professor K. Madavane obtained his Baccalauréat from the Lycée français de Pondichéry. He later completed his Masters in French Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi. He spent three years in Paris at the Institut de Sciences Politiques (rue Saint Guillaume). His doctorate also from JNU was on the representation of death in Eugene Ionesco’s theatre. Madavane teaches at the Centre for French & Francophone Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Among his areas of specialization are Francophone literatures of the Indian Océan, Indian Diaspora, French theatre and cinema. As senior faculty member at JNU he has thrice headed the Centre and has been involved in many decision making bodies of JNU. He has directed over 50 plays in English, French and Hindi. Madavane was invited to teach acting and direction in 2011 at Université Libre de Bruxelles in Brussels,  University of Nice in the south of France, Goethe University in Frankfurt and the University of Paris 8, as part of the Erasmus Mundus programme. He also conducted a similar workshop in Lomé (Togo) in March 2012 as part fo the Festival of Francophone letters.

Professor Vijaya Rao
Vijaya Rao is a trained dancer in the classical dance form Bharatanatyam and has learnt Carnatic music for several years. She has acted in more than 25 plays staged in India. She has conducted several workshops in theatre along with K.Madavane and assisted him in direction.