Chetana

Arun Mukhopadhyay (b. 1937) started doing theatre with IPTA in the 60s, debuting with Gorky’s Mother and Fast’s Spartacus. After IPTA desolved, Mukhopadhyay formed Chetana and joined Group Theatre movement.
His Mareech Sambad and Jagannath brought him recognition as playwright, music composer, and director. He was awarded Sangeet Natak Academy award in 2002. Also, for his acting in a Mrinal Sen film Parashuram, he was awarded the national film Fair Award in 1978.

Chetana was founded in 1972 in Kolkata. Till 2006, it has produced 20 full length and more than a dozen short plays. It’s major productions include Mareech Sambad, Jagannath, Tista Parer brittanta, Mephisto. Chetana has performed in Europe, North America, Bangladesh, not to speak of almost all major cities of India. In one of its memorable European tours in 2004, it participated in the Ibsen Stage Festival in Oslo; it performed in London also.

In the 8th Bharat Rang Mahotsav (2006), Chetana produced Apni Kon Dike (Which side are you on), an adaptation of Roland Harwood’s Taking Sides. Set in Berlin captured by allied forces, the a play is about the Nazi trail of Willhelm Furtwaengler, the famouse conductor of Berlin Philharmonic. Mukhopadhyay saw the film Taking Sides by Istvan Szabo and was drawn to the fresh narrative of the old debate about the artist’s role in a facist society.

Contact: Chetana, 131, N. S. C. Bose Road, Block 13, Flat 8, Kolkata 700 040. Ph: 24810840. e: nirnoy_cal@rediffmail.com

Source: NSD Theatre Utsav 2006, Samik Bandyopadhyay (ed.), New Delhi: National School of Drama.

More

• Google maps: Chetana, 1/40, N. S. C. Bose Road, Suryanagar, Kolkata 700 040. Cell: 0983157992.
• Rabindra Utsav, Aug 2009, Kolkata – Chetana produces Tagore’s Chirakumar Sabha (Dir: Arun Mukerjee)

Link

Partha Chatterjee

He is a playwright; well, well! Works with Kushilav, when in Kolkata of course. Sudipto Chatterjee interviewed him on 29 Feb 95 for SAMAR. Link

Seagull Theatre Quarterly (STQ)

Seagull Book publishes STQ – probably since 1994 – contributors are of international repute and locations (e.g., Schechner) – important archive – tried to go on-line as e-STQ in June 2005; proved not economically viable; closed Mar 2006.

In 2001, STQ published an interview of theatre personalities titled “Celebrating Bengali Group Theatre.” The title of the actual page is “Conversations: Contemporary directors on the condition of group theatre and other theatre-related issue.” (Found this page on Seagull India’s SAMRC web-archive ). It does not name the interviewer, but the interviewee were the following :

• Meghnad Bhattacharya, director, Sayak;
• Dwijen Banerjee, director, Sangstab;
• Partho Chatterjee, playwright, Kushilab;
• Runu Chaudhuri, director, Kushilab;
• Chandan Sen, playwright-director, Natya Anan;
• Ambar Roy, director, Samakalin Shilpidal;
• Sangramjt Sengupta, playwright-director, Krishtisangsad, Sonarpur;
• Indrasish Lahiri, playwright-director, Chenamukh;
• Koushik Sen, director, Sapnasandhani;
• Suman Mukherjee, director, Chetana;
• Bratyabrata Basu, playwright-director, Ganakrishti.

Banerjee, Sudeshna. 2005.”Recent trends in theatre in Calcutta”. e-STQ. 027. 7 December 2005. Link.
Mentions about the following:

• Swapnasandhani’s Bhalo Rakkhoser Galpo became a celebration till its show on the 13th of August. What happened on that day?
• A panel discussion on 24 June 2005 title “Where have all the actors gone” with Samik Bandyopadhyay as the keynote speaker; Arun Mukerjee, Dhritiman Chatterjee, Jagannath Guha, and Gowri Ramanarayan discussant.
• Since 2001, Hutch has been sponsoring annually a 10-day theatre festival in Kolkata at Crossward Books, and sponsoring two play one from Kolkata (group Illusion), the other from ‘districts’ (group: Gobardanga Shilpayan, play: Antarjali Jatra)
• Celebration of 60 years of fall of fascism and 75th birthday anniversary of Utpal Dutta; plays produced in Kolkata and in district towns

Group Theatre movement in Bangladesh

Banglapedia has a page on Group Theatre Movement in Bangladesh. Probably I shall broaden the scope of my research.

Samik Bandyopadhyay

I have created a Wikipedia page on Samik Bandyopadhyay. It is not yet available on Google search; perhaps wiki takes a while to cache a page. At present it is available through Seagull Books wikipedia page. I do need a picture of him.

Professor Gayatri Spivak has been very kind and very prompt to give me Samik Banyadapdhyay’s contact.

Found this page on Seagull India’s SAMRC web-archive In 2001, they published an interview of theatre personalities titled “Celebrating Bengali Group Theatre.” The title of the actual page is “Conversations: Contemporary directors on the condition of group theatre and other theatre-related issue.” It does not name the interviewer, but the interviewee were the following :

• Meghnad Bhattacharya, director, Sayak;
• Dwijen Banerjee, director, Sangstab;
• Partho Chatterjee, playwright, Kushilab;
• Runu Cahudhuri, director, Kushilab;
• Chandan Sen, playwright-director, Natya Anan;
• Ambar Roy, director, Samakalin Shilpidal;
• Sangramjt Sengupta, playwright-director, Krishtisangsad, Sonarpur;
• Indrasish Lahiri, playwright-director, Chenamukh;
• Koushik Sen, director, Sapnasandhani;
• Suman Mukherjee, director, Chetana;
• Bratyabrata Basu, playwright-director, Ganakrishti.

Field Research Course

ANT 497Y1Y: Group Theatre Movement in India 10 May – 13 Aug 2010 Supervisor: Dr Francis Cody