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World Theatre Day marked in Kathmandu
The 70th World Theatre Day was marked in Kathmandu with collective prayers, performance art, reading of World Theatre Day messages, solo dramatic presentations, charya nritya and an interaction about Hippie culture and its relation to the Nepali theatre.bookmark
Published at : March 29, 2018
Updated at : March 29, 2018 10:09
Kathmandu
The 70th World Theatre Day was marked in Kathmandu with collective prayers, performance art, reading of World Theatre Day messages, solo dramatic presentations, charya nritya and an interaction about Hippie culture and its relation to the Nepali theatre.
The celebration started from the Swoyambhu stupa in front of the Amitabh Buddha shrine, where Deepak Buddhacharya, the traditional resident Vajrayana priest of Swoyambhu, offered prayers for the well being of all the species, for those who lost their lives in the recent aircrash, and the entire theatre community.
Performing artists Salil Subedi, Saroj Aryal, Sandeep Dangol and visual artist Manish Lal Shrestha started the performance act by moving a 5-metre long white canvas out into the open square from a small house corridor in sync with the drumming by the American musician Graham Shaw and Subedi’s Didgeridoo vibrations.
The act showed a huge white object that seem to first appear as floating in the skies suddenly crash onto the ground. It was followed by two actors Aryal and Dangol dressed up in black struggling inside the white canvas projecting their limbs and making painful voices. These voices were soothed by the overtone throat singing by Salil, humming by the participants, and the Singing Bowl and bell chimes played by Shrestha. It was followed by a performance by four male painters who splattered four different colours on the canvas around the two fallen actor’s body including the didgeridoo player’s white attire. The group was led by the American visual artist Bethany M. Richards.
Moreover, the event also saw Prof Abhi Subedi, the honorary member of International Theatre Institute (ITI) and former president of ITI Nepal Chapter, read out this year’s message which he had translated in the Nepali language. The ITI every year releases five different messages for the Americas, Europe, Arabic Countries, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region written by renowned theatre, dance and performance art personalities. This year’s message for the Asia-Pacific region was written by the Indian director, film and theatre artist, and the former director of National School Of Drama (NSD) Ram Gopal Bajaj.
The second round of the celebration continued inside the Naga Theatre of Studio 7, where Charya and traditional dancer-actor Ramesh Maharjan performed a tantric dance of Vajrayogini; while actors Asmita Khanal and Surabhi Sapkota performed their solo acts. Likewises, Sambhu Lama presented the slides of Studio 7 acts, researcher Megh Raj Adhikary read out the introduction of ITI and the history of the world theatre day. Prof Abhi Subedi summed up the event recounting stories about the hippies and their influence in Nepali theatre and music.
The celebration, organised by Earthbeat Live!—which works towards conserving drama and dance traditons in the country—was probably the only elaborate event to mark the World Theatre Day in the country this year. The celebration was collaborated by MCube Gallery Patan, Studio 7 Bijesori, and attended by theatre artists representing theatre groups in Kathmandu, namely Purano Ghar, Theatre Village, Katha Ghera, Theatre Mall, Garden Theatre, Shailee Theatre, Sumeru Kala Sarovar, Studio 7, Earthbeat Live, and independent artists.
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