Come and celebrate Play With Poetry- 5th April, 2015

World Hindi Theatre Day falls on April 3rd every year. It is understood that in the year 1868, Bhartendu Harishchandra, The father of modern Hindi has staged his first play at Nagri Pracharini Sabha Hall in Varanasi. In that play, he had acted also. 

April month is being celebrated as a Month of Poetry. Inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets in 1996, National Poetry Month, held every April, in America, is the largest literary celebration in the world with schools, publishers, libraries, booksellers and poets celebrating poetry’s vital place in our culture.

Good acts are always good. No mention, from where it gets originated. To give an expansion of the thought of these great American poets and to expand it from nation to International ground, AVITOKO has started celebrating International Poetry Month from the year 2014 by conducting a poetry performance program, where poems of women poets of Hindi, English, Gujarati, Marathi, Maithili, Santhali were performed by various theatre persona. 

Poetry gets a good shape through theatre and theatre gets a

meaning, while performing good poems of veteran poets. To

 celebrate both the occasion and give a correlation between

 poetry and plays, AVITOKO Room Theatre is celebrating 

World Hindi Theatre 

Day and presents "Poetry with Play" 

 on  Sun, April 5, 2015 @ Room No 801,SVP Institute 

of Engineering, Bhawans, Andheri West, Mumbai@ 4pm.

Performance of poetry- Sharmila Irom by Virat Kalodbhav

 Hawk: Ayat Khan, Nagarjun: Dr. Ramesh Rajhans, Quazi

 Nazrul Islam : Dr. Anirban 

Dasgupta & Madhuri Bhatia,

Vartika: Kanupriya & B Gauri,

 Bachchan: Bhaskar Jha.

 Poetry recitation: Abhilash

 Awasthi, Om Prakash Tiwari,

Sulbha Kore, Rita Das Ram,

 Santosh Gulati, Sri Vijay 

Bhandari . Dr Narendra Mohan will discuss on "Correlation in

 play and poetry". 

Programs reaches on a high note, when its well anchored. 

For this, the entire program will be Anchored by senior 

advocate Purnima Awasthi. Gift of magazines will be 

presented by Suraj Prakash on a  minimal cost. Join and

 enjoy poetry & plays. Contact:

 09820619161/ gonujha.jha@gmail.com

Naurangi Natni on World Theatre Day

‪#‎AVITOKO‬ ‪#‎RoomTheatre‬ celebrated ‪#‎WorldTheatreDay‬ on March 27, with colaboration of Virat Kalodbhav and presented 3 plays- 1."Shahadat ke Baad". 2."Sharmila Erom- Ek Anugunj" (Dir. RS Vikal) and 3."Naurangi Natni" (Dir. Rajendra Joshi) with Vibha Rani, Kuldip Vashishtha, Akshay Yadav, Subodh Shrivastav, Sana, Aditi at YWCA. 53,JP Road. Andheri (West) followed by a discussion with veteran writer and playwright Dr. Narendra Mohan. Yet another success of Room Theatre. 

Yet another step of Room Theatre. 

Three Cheers with Three Plays on World theatre Day (WTD)

A very good wishes to all theatre lovers and creative personas for World Theatre Day (27^th March). Just a few ours are remaining to entre to the gala Day. So, let celebrate the Day with the various forms of theatre- revolutionary, poetic, folk! You might have been thinking that where should we go and enjoy these varieties of theatre? Do not roam here and there. Come tomorrow i.e. March 27, 2015 at 4.30 pm at YWCA, 53, JP Road, Andheri (West), Mumbai, (Near Navrang Cinema) and be with the line and life of theatre, form of theatre, enjoyment of theatre.

Because, AVITOKO and Virat Kalodbhav jointly have put the effort to serve you the different genre of theatre and bringing THREE plays on the Day for you- 1."Shahadat ke Baad", 2."Sharmila Erom- Ek Anugunj" (Dir. RS Vikal) and 3."Naurangi Natni" (Dir. Rajendra Joshi) with Vibha Rani, Sangita Vaajpei, Ram Giridhar, Rajesh Gupta, Kuldip Vashishtha, Akshay Yadav, Subodh Shrivastav and Ram Milan. For any kind of assistance or further plan, you may contact us here: 09820619161/gonujha.jha@gmail.com.

"Shahadat ke Baad" is a collage of the post Bhagat Singh condition of the country, where the play puts a question, that whether we got the freedom or whether we are serving our own people?

"Sharmila Erom- Ek Anugunj" is based on the poem on the woman activist Sharmila Erom, written by Dr. Narendra Mohan. It reveals the crude face of the system and the softness of a woman, who has taken such a harsh decision. Both the plays are directed by theatre veteran RS Vikal.

Naurangi Natni is a story of a mother and the challenge she accepts from a powerful king for the bright future of her son. It is also an illustration of a collective awakening felt by the mass and how they mobilize against injustice and deceipt. Based on a folk tale, the play has been written in free verse. The audience travel with the sentiments and emotions of Natni, her role and ambitions as a mother, the deceitful game of the king and the power of a congregated and awakened mass through various traditional songs and rituals. There is a delightful combination of folk traditions and theatrical experimentation in the play. The play has been directed by another theatre veteran Rajendra Joshi.

So, now, its your turn. Come and see the play, understand the life. 

AVITOKO celebrates World Theatre Day (WTD) on March 27, 2015

I celebrated World Theatre Day (WTD) in a jail with the inmates. Unfortunately, I am unable to remember the year. Perhaps, 2008.  

Last year, in 2014, I was totally sick and had just started AVITOKO Room Theatre on March 3^rd. Now, 27^th March! It was too close to organize any other program. I wonder, if I will open up my mouth, my family will throw me out. But hats of them!

Two young boys, Vinay Vinu and Shyam Dangi were studying theatre at my place. I gave them a challenge to observe the Day on 27^th. Though they were new to Mumbai, Somehow they managed. In the meantime, Shri Hrishikesh Sulabh (Bhaiya), noted story writer, playwright and theatre persona had arrived in Mumbai. He is my brother-in-law also. He is very affectionate to me and wished to see me. Sitting with him and listening to him is always a very pleasant moment, not only for me but for  my entire family.

He came on 27^th afternoon along with Subhash Mishra, General Secretary, Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA), Raipur. He, every year organizes theatre festival. In 2012, I had also participated in it. Actor Pankaj Tripathi had also arrived at the same time. Avinash Das had invited him.

          Sulabh Bhaiya told that he will not sit for a long, because of his pre-occupation. Before that, I had requested him to address the children. But he showed his time constraints. I thought that no problem! It will be two programs in a Day. He has enormous numbers of interesting stories realated to theatre. He is a great travelers and lots of untold incidents are in his kitty. His art of narration can be learnt and can be followed. He came as usual and we got glued with his talks and experiences. Time was running and I was praying that he should forget the time. Some young boys came with Vinay and Shyam. They were introduced to everyone. They performed short story, poems and one boy performed a ten minutes act. Sulabh Bhaiya gave them valid and useful tips. Subhash ji addressed them and valued the role of theatre in our lives. Pankaj too participated in the discussion. Unknowingly, the entire program went of very well. Credit goes to Sulabh Bhaiya, Ajay, my husband and Toshi and Ali, my daughter and son-in-law.

          This year also, we are celebrating WED on March 27, at YWCA, Andheri (West), Mumbai at 5pm with three plays. 1."Shahadat ke Baad". 2."Sharmila Erom- Ek Anugunj" (Dir. RS Vikal) and3."Naurangi Natni" (Dir. Rajendra Joshi) with Vibha Rani. Sarita Hussain, Sangita Vaajpei, Ram Girdhar, Rajesh Gupta, Kuldip Vashishtha, Akshay Yadav, Subodh Shrivastav aur Ram Milan. March 27 @4.30pm. Venue: YWCA. 53,JP Road. Andheri (West). Near Navrang Cinema.

          There is a question that what is World Theatre Day? We just hear about it and start saying about the day. Here is the detail. 

        World Theatre Day was initiated in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). It is celebrated annually on the 27th March by ITI Centres and the international theatre community. Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark this occasion. One of the most important of these is the circulation of the World Theatre Day International Message through which at the invitation of ITI, a figure of world stature shares his or her reflections on the theme of Theatre and a Culture of Peace. The first World Theatre Day International Message was written by Jean Cocteau (France) in 1962. It was first in Helsinki, and then in Vienna at the 9th World Congress of the ITI in June 1961 that President Arvi Kivimaa proposed on behalf of the Finnish Centre of the International Theatre Institute that a World Theatre Day be instituted. The proposal, backed by the Scandinavian centres, was carried with acclamation.

Ever since, each year on the 27th March (date of the opening of the 1962 "Theatre of Nations" season in Paris), World Theatre Day has been celebrated in many and varied ways by ITI National Centres of which there are now almost 100 throughout the world.

The author of the Message of World Theatre Day 2015 is the Polish director Krzysztof Warlikowski! More information about the message author Download the Message 2015 and its translations World Theater Day Message 2015 The true masters of the theater are most easily found far from the stage. And they generally have no interest in theater as a machine for replicating conventions and reproducing clichés. They search out the pulsing source, the living currents that tend to bypass performance halls and the throngs of people bent on copying some world or another. We copy instead of create worlds that are focused or even reliant on debate with an audience, on emotions that swell below the surface. And actually there is nothing that can reveal hidden passions better than the theater.   Most often I turn to prose for guidance.  Day in and day out I find myself thinking about writers who nearly one hundred years ago described prophetically but also restrainedly the decline of the European gods, the twilight that plunged our civilization into a darkness that has yet to be illumined. I am thinking of Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann and Marcel Proust. Today I would also count John Maxwell Coetzee among that group of prophets. Their common sense of the inevitable end of the world—not of the planet but of the model of human relations—and of social order and upheaval, is poignantly current for us here and now. For us who live after the end of the world. Who live in the face of crimes and conflicts that daily flare in new places faster even than the ubiquitous media can keep up. These fires quickly grow boring and vanish from the press reports, never to return. And we feel helpless, horrified and hemmed in. We are no longer able to build towers, and the walls we stubbornly construct do not protect us from anything—on the contrary, they themselves demand protection and care that consumes a great part of our life energy. We no longer have the strength to try and glimpse what lies beyond the gate, behind the wall. And that’s exactly why theater should exist and where it should seek its strength. To peek inside where looking is forbidden.  “The legend seeks to explain what cannot be explained. Because it is grounded in truth, it must end in the inexplicable”—this is how Kafka described the transformation of the Prometheus legend.  I feel strongly that the same words should describe the theater. And it is that kind of theater, one which grounded in truth and which finds its end in the inexplicable that I wish for all its workers, those on the stage and those in the audience, and I wish that with all my heart. Krzysztof Warlikowski

© B

AVITOKO Room Theatre- beginning a new dawn

How Room Theatre came into existence?

Theatre always attracts me. It energises me. Working through theatre, I got an opportunity to learn and develop a lot. Doing theatre in school college days and in the late 90s in Delhi, I had taken myself in back foot from active theatre from 1987-2006 to fulfill my domestic, family and office responsibilities. In the meantime, I kept continuing writing plays along with short stories, poems and doing translations. Books were published. Got many awards. But active theatre was kept honking me. And finally, from 2007, I jumped into active theatre. My 1st play was Mr. Jinnah, directed by theatre veteran Mr. RS Vikal.  

I thought, after 20 years, why I am returning to theatre, if I have no visions for it. Solo performance is a great challenge for theatre actor and I accepted it. From 2007 onward, I prepared 7 solo plays in Hindi, English and Maithili, which are being staged in and around the world. 

In the month of October,2014, I was caught with Brest Cancer. 1st November, surgery was done. Chemo was started from the last week of November. My movement got restricted. Doctor clearly said that you are a free bird but you will have to fly within the sky of your house. 

I obeyed him and made my home ceiling as an open sky. I thought, what can I do for theatre? Some like minded people, such as Sudarshana Dwivedi, Sachin Shrivatva, Sarang Upadhyay, Ajay Brahmatmaj, Vidha Saumya, Koshy Brahmatmaj, Aditya Prasad, Parany Narain sat together and thus Room Theatre came into existence with the objectives 

 

1. To provide a platform to hidden talents of all age group of people,

2. To get expert advice and interaction with the veterans of their respective fields, and

3. To provide good and meaningful theatre in a nominal cost. 

First Sunday of March 2, 2014, the 1st Room Theatre program was organised with the performance of short stories of two young Hindi writers Gaurav Solanki and Sarang Upadhyay. Young film maker Shriram Dalton has performed Gaurav's story while Fil, TV actor Pranay Narain has performed Sarang's story followed by discussion. 

And journey of AVITOKO Room Theatre began.......! ####