Santanil Ganguly
New Performance | 01-11-2008 - 30-06-2009 | Completed

Jhalpala, a Kolkata-based theatre group has been active in children's theatre since 1996. Santonil Ganguly, one of the founder members of Jhalpala, observes that the large majority of children in rural, suburban and small town schools or those outside the schooling system seldom get opportunities to engage in the activity of theatre. In this context, Jhalpala's theatre activities with and for children acquire importance. 

This grant supports Santonil Ganguly to transform a story written for children, Dushtu Bagh into a stage performance. The story is written by Upendra Kishore Roychowdhury (1863-1915), a pioneering figure of the Bengali printing industry, who wrote illustrated stories- for children. Dushtu Bagh, simply put, is a story about the selfishness of human beings towards animals and nature. This story will be improvised and performed by the child artists of Jhalpala. 

The production will be developed through working closely with the patua community in West Bengal. Patuas paint stories on patas (sheets of paper) or embroider them on cloth. The patachitra art form flourished during the Buddhist period. In those days, Patuas would narrate stories of Buddha and also mythological and historical stories. In recent times, ecological and social themes have become part of their repertoire. 

One of the most significant aspects of the work process will be the workshops with Patua artists, which will enable the children to understand the history, techniques and colours of patachitras. They will practice painting various patas before attempting their own visualisation of Roychowdhury's story on scrolls. The interpretation of the characters will be based on the visuals on the scrolls. Apart from visualising the story, the children will also evolve the script for the play in their own language. While the patas, painted by the children, will be used as a backdrop in the production, rhymes, songs and music will enhance the children's engagement with the play. 

Jhalpala plans to travel with the production and show it in rural and urban West Bengal. It will be performed for children and adults in indoor as well as outdoor locations. The production will therefore be designed keeping portability in mind and the need to adapt to diverse performance circumstances and minimal inirastructural facilities. The first show is expected to be held in a patua village in June 2009. 

 

This description is part of the institutional records created by IFA at the onset of the grant. The project may have changed in due course as reflected in the deliverables from the Grantee.

Mid-term Deliverables

Final Deliverables

Media Coverage

Metadata

Project/Grant No : 2008-0-006

Project Coordinator/Grantee Name : Santanil Ganguly

Programme : New Performance

Status : Completed

Start Date : 01-11-2008

End Date : 30-06-2009

Duration : Seven months

Project/Grant Amount : 1,76,000

Geographical Area of Work : West Bengal

Disciplinary Field of Work :

Language :