M. K. Raina’s STAY YET AWHILE

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Playwright & Director: M. K. Raina
Group: Peoples Television, NOIDA
Language: English
Duration: 2 hrs

The Play and Director’s Note
This is a dialogue between two great minds of the 20th century – Mahatama Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore. A dialogue, which has direct bearing on the future of India and the rest of mankind. The quality of the dialogue is intense, philosophical, spiritual, aesthetic and highly political. Yet this dialogue of agreements and disagreements through letters and articles between the Mahatama and Gurudev, never lowers itself to the realm of anger, negativity or animosity. There is tremendous love, admiration, camaraderie and respect for the other’s point of view, which unfortunately is not a quality we find in the political class of today’s world. Hence, this dialogue between the Mahatama and The Poet is of great significance, an eye-opener and absolutely relevant to the present debate on the global world with neo-liberal modules of development and open market economy.

The Director & Playwright
Graduate of National School of Drama with Best Actor’s Award is an actor, director, writer and media person. He has been working in theatre, cinema, television and media for the last five decades. He has directed more than 200 plays in various Indian languages. These productions include the works of Bhasa, Shakespeare, Gorky, Chekov, Bertolt Brecht, Tagore, Premchand, Badal Sircar, Bhishm Sahani, Dhramvir Bharati, Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, Manto, Moti Lal Kemmu and many more. Terror and violence ridden Kashmir has been his working space for more than 15 years, where he has revived and revitalized the traditional Kashmiri theatre called “Bhand Pather” which was disappearing under the pressure of violence and fundamentalism. Raina has travelled widely across globe for his theatre work, as a guest director and as a guest teacher. He has been working with National School of Drama, Hyderabad Central University, Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad and Bhilai. He has been Fellow at University of Hawaii (U.S.A.) and at Stanford University (U.S.A.). He has been scholar in residence at Jamia Millia Islamia Central University. Raina is a trustee of Safdar Hashmi Trust and South Asia Foundation, India. He has been recipient of many national & regional awards like Sanskriti Award, JK Gold Medal, Sahitya Kala Parishad Samman, Shikhar Samman (Hindi Academy, Delhi), B.V. Karanth Lifetime Achievement Award and Sangeet Natak Akademi Award.

The Group
Peoples Television’s journey started with the making of socially relevant documentaries, plays and cultural events. It has been a platform for the exchange of ideas on the burning issue of culture cutting across disciplines of arts. Our video films on the cultural heritage of Kashmir have been screened in many parts of India and in many countries of west and central Asia. People Television has also performed its theatre plays at major festivals in India like Kerala National Theatre Festival, Kashmir National Festival. Our work with children through workshops at various centres in India has earned Peoples Television a prestige position in the field of theatre in education.

Cast & Credits
On Stage: Avijit Dutt, Oorun Das, Preeti Agarwal Metha

Light: Govind Yadav

Videography: Anant Raina

Costume: Kriti V. Sharma

Stage Manager: Vipin Sharma

Performance Text & Direction: M.K. Raina

Manohar Khushalani

Manohar Khushalani

Prof. Manohar Khushalani is a former Visiting Faculty at Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology, Delhi. The courses he taught were: Animation & Graphics, Non-Linear Editing for Film and Radio and Theatre Appreciation.  He has won a total of nine Excellence in Teaching awards for all the courses he has taught at IIITD Earlier he retired from Government of India as Director Environment Management, Central Water Commission and held many senior positions in the Government Based on a Belief that Culture and Environment are the two keys to global sustainability , Manohar Khushalani has launched two portals: A Portal on Environment and Water called One Vorld at url: www.onevorld.org and two Ezines on Culture called Stage Buzz at url: www.stagebuzz.in He has taught extensively in varied subjects such as Dam Safety, Instrumentation, CAD, IT, Animation, Theatre, Newspaper Editing. He has conducted Courses on Environment Management, Water Shed Development, Team Building and Personality Development. He was an Expert Member of Prasar Bharti’s Committee for Grading & Short listing Films for Telecast on all channels of Doordarshan.  He is a Radio Anchor for All India Radio and has moderated several programs for the Rajdhani Channel He is a well-known Theatre Actor/Director and Critic, has been involved in theatre since 1977. He has worked as an actor in over 50 plays with almost every leading director/Actor in the Country including Badal Sircar, Feisal Alkazi, Amal Allana, M.K. Raina, Anuradha Kapoor, Maya Rao, Manohar Singh, Prasanna, Rati Bartholomew and Sushmita Mukherji. He has been active in the social sector as a street theatre activist. As a member of Workshop Theatre, Theatre Union and Prayog, Khushalani has participated in street plays taking up major social issues such as dowry, bride burning, Sati, banned medicinal drugs and communalism. Dario Fo’s Accidental Death of an Anarchist and Can’t Pay Won’t Pay, both directed by him, received rave notices from critics and audiences alike. Other plays directed by him include Badal Sircar’s, Sagina Mahato and Boris Vian’s Empire Builders for Ruchika Theatre Group. Khushalani has also acted in a few films such as Sudhir Mishra's Hazaron Khwaishen Aisi , Shoojit Sircar’s Madras Café and Pradeep Krishan's Annie Gives Those Ones. He is an Animator & Graphics Designer and has directed a number of documentaries. He also held a number of Honorary positions and was President of North India Films Association, He was the Chairman of  Jury for UGC CEC Educational Films Competition and has been on their Preview Committee since last many years. He was on the preview committee of Door Darshan Channel 3, was a visiting Professor at National School of Drama, New Delhi, and Film & Television Institute of India, Pune, AJKMCRR, Jamia Milia Islamia and Professor in Media at FICT, Delhi  He has judged a large number of Drama Competitions and conducted a number of Theatre / Management Games Workshops with Institutions such as AIIMS, NTPC, CWPRS, NWA, Karve Nari Prakshishan Sansthan, FICT, IIT, MAMC, Gargi College, KNC, Tagore International School and Vivekananda School. He is a Theatre Critic for IIC Diary, has also been a Columnist with Midday and Pioneer Daily and wrote Column's Called Culture Cocktail and Footlights Respectively. He was also the Guest Editor for an issue on Folk Theatre of ICCR Journal Horizons. He has written for Times of Indian, Hindustan Times, Blitz, Hard News, Hindu Business Line, Theatre India & Art Times. He has designed dams and hydraulic structures for the Government. He is a programmer and has developed Engineering design software in Fortran. He is a co-author of Irrigation Practice & Design (Vol 1 to5 - 1500 pages) published by Oxford & IBH and sponsored by National Book Trust. He has been a Director, Environment and Sociology, at the National Water Academy, Khadakwasla and Director, Environment Management Directorate, Central Water Commission and Member Secretary, National Environmental Monitoring Committee for River Valley Projects. He was also Director of Instrumentation Directorate in the Dam Safety Organisation. He was Chief General Manager and Head of Water Resources at Scott Wilson and is an accredited consultant with numerous other organizations He is a Delhi Public School, BITS Pilani, IIT Delhi and FTI Pune Alumini. He was also the President of BITS Pilani Alumni Association, Pune.

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