Playwright: Tripurari Sharma

Director: Teekam Joshi

Group: Individual,Delhi

Language: Hindi

Duration: 1 hr 35 mins

The Play

Shifa is based on HIV+ people talking about the positivity of life, and about searching within oneself to find a new way of life. It is a play within a play where three real characters share their life experiences with the audience, not for consolation but about social stigma, discrimination, empowerment, acceptance and primarily, healing.

Director’s Note

One needs an inspiration for doing things, and I had several for doing this play. The first reason was Shri Ravi Nagar Ji, and the second was the need to fight against odds like illness, loneliness, stigma and discrimination that one sees and feels all around in society. Theatre can be inspiring, entertaining, and a platform for sharing. But sharing needs courage, and this play gives you that courage, to talk about those deeper experiences which you generally don’t and can’t share. This play is like opening a window on those subjects about which society has many reservations. I would like to convey my humble thanks to Tripurari Sharma Ji who gave me the permission to do it.

The Director

Teekam Joshi did P.G. diploma in Dramatic Arts from National School of Drama in 2001. He has received many awards including SangeetNatakAkadmiBismillah Khan YuvaPuruskar, Nat Samrat, IftekharAkadmi Award, and State Youth Festival Award. He has worked with the National School of Drama Repertory Co. and has been anexpert faculty for NSD extension program;visiting faculty at NSD for acting, voice and speech;visiting faculty at NSD Sikkim Centre,Gangtok for acting;Actor (consultant) Kingdom of Dreams;Associate and Assistant Director for NSD students productions;Associate Director of some NSD repertory productions;expert faculty for communication skills in different private universities;Executive Director of Aaj Theatre company(founded by BhanuBharti);Artistic Director of Unicorn Actor’s Studio;and Artistic Director of Flying Feather’s Art Association. He has participated in many national and international festivals.Teekam has worked with eminent theatre personalities like HabibTanvir, B.V.Karanth, Mohan Maharishi, M.K.Raina, BansiKaul, BhanuBharti, AnuradhaKapur, Kirti Jain,Ramgopal Bajaj,Robin Das, Tripurari Sharma, Rita Ganguly,D.R.Ankur, KavalamNarayan Panniker, John RusselBrown, WamanKendre, Prasanna, Kumar Verma, AlokChatterji, Sanjay Upadhyay, Raghunandan, K.S.Rajendran, Suresh Sharma, Bapi Bose, Ashok SagarBhagatetc.

The Playwright

Tripurari Sharma completed her diploma in direction from National School of Drama in 1979. She is a playwright, translator and director of repute. She has written and directed various plays for groups and institutions all over India. She has conducted workshops all over India and abroad. She has also written scripts of critically acclaimed films like Mirch Masala and HazarChaurasi Ki Maa. She has been honoured with the Sanskriti award and SangeetNatakAkademi award. Ms. Sharma retired as Professor of Acting fromNational School of Drama.

Cast & Credits

Sanjeev: Teekam Joshi

Chhaya: Nalini R Joshi / Nidhi Mishra

Barkha: PriyadarshiniPooja / ShradhaVasdev

Vinay: Manish Karnatak / Vaibhav Raj

Nani: GauriDewal / MuskanDua

Purush: Shaurya Shankar

Stage Manager: Harshvardhan / RajatDahiya

Reporter: MuskanDua / GauriDewal

Doctor: Akshay Sharma

Prof. Ganapati: AniruddhSagar

Students: Harshvardhan, Rajat, Akshay, Muskan, Shradha, Pooja

Child Artist: Nandini R Joshi , Lucky Lakshya

Group Actors: Harshvardhan, Rajat, Akshay, Akash, Muskan,Shradha, Nidhi, Nalini,     Praveen Parashar, Nirbhay Jain, Vaibhav Raj, Nikhil Singh Bhatti

Music: LateShri Ravi Nagar

Light Design: SoutiChakraborty

Set Design: Rajesh Singh

Sound Design: Sandy Singh

Poster Image: Indira Tiwari

Poster, Brochure & Video: Happy Ranjit

Choreography: HarshitKhatana

Sculpture: AniruddhSagar

Property: Sachin Shrivastav

Production Manager: GauriDewal

Production Assistant: Vaibhav

Sound Operation: ShubhamPaliwal

Playwright & Director: Pratap Phad

Group: Suyog Production, Mumbai

Language: Marathi

Duration: 2 hrs 30 mins

The Play

We often get inspired by various icons but seldom an ordinary person, who is just like one of us, steps out of all stereotypes, to do something unimaginable. This is a story of an ordinary girl, Ananya, who possesses the potential to do something extra – ordinary. Being a bright student, she was always showered by praise and her confidence never seemed to cease. She was a free girl with a lot of ambitions and had also got engaged to the person she saw a future with. Everything was pretty and full of sunshine until she meets with an accident. Things start turning upside down in no time and begin to change. But she doesn’t quit. What she does to overcome the obstacles becomes a story which is beyond one’s wildest imagination.

The Director & Playwright

Pratap M. Phad, born on 15th August 1980, has written & directed various one act plays and experimental plays in Marathi and Hindi. He has been awarded with the Best Play and Best Director at Malhar ’03, TESPO 2005-06, Parangat Sanman ’08 and various other competitions. For Ananyaa, he has been awarded Best Director Maharashtra Shasan Puraskar, 2018, Best Writer Sanskruti Kala Darpan Puraskar 2018, Shreshtha Natakakar Aacharya Atre Puraskar 2018. He has also worked and contributed in film industry.

The Group

Mr. Sudhir Bhat formed Suyog Production on 1st January 1985. In 32 years, around 80 plays were produced by Suyog production. Moruchi Mavashi, Gandhi Viruddha Gandhi, Vyaki aani Valli, Sandhyachaya, Char Divas Premache, Sunder Me Honar, Mitra, Lekure Udand Jhali are some of the best plays of Suyog Production. Dilip Prabhavalkar, Prashant Damale, Bharat Jadhav, Vijay Chavhan, Atul Parchure, Vandana Gupte, Bharati Aacharekar and Neena Kulkarni are amongst the known personalities who have performed under this production. Suyog Production is one of the best production houses in Marathi theater industry. Ananyaa is 85th presentation of Suyog Production and in 2018 Ananyaa received 34 awards in various competitions.

Cast & Credits

Baba: Pramod Pawar               

Ananyaa: Rutuja Bagwe               

Priyanka: Anagha Bhagare  

Dhananjay (Dada): Vishal More               

Shekhar Sarpotdar: Karan Bendre               

Jay Dikshit: Siddharth Bodke  

Setting: Pravin Gavali aani Mandali

Lights: Devidas Shivgan, Akshay Jadhav

Music and Projector: Prathamesh Bhuvad, Ruchir Chavhan, Sanjay Umbarkar

Make-up and Hair Dressers: Sharad Sawant, Jyotsna, Chhaya

Costume and Property: Pravin, Prashant, Nilesh

Manager: Santosh Mahadik

Producer: Rajesh Patil, Sandesh Bhat, Pratap Phad

Playwright: G. Krishanan

Director: D. Elumalai

Group: Sri Thanthoni Amman Therukkuthu Nadaga Sabha, Thiruvannamalai

Language: Tamil

Duration: 1 hr 30 mins

The Play

Duryodhana’s son, Lakshmana Kumaran, is eligible to marriage and Sakuni suggests he may be married to the daughter of Dhurgapuri’s Lord  Krishna. Duryodhana agrees and goes to Dhurgapuri Darbar. Entering, Duryodhana asks Lord Krishna to marry his daughter to his son. But Krishna decided to first speak with his wife. Duryodhana agrees. Mangalakshmi, wife of Lord Krishna, listenes to Krishna, but reminds him that he has promised his daughter’s marriage to Arjun’s son. Lord Krishna says that as Arjun has lost almost all his land, we must reconsider the match. They finally decide to marry their daughter to Duryodhan’s son and announcement of the same intent is made. When their daughter, Sundari, hears this, she gets upset, and sends a message to Abhimanyu through Vayu Bhagvan that he should come immediately and marry her. Abhimanyu gets the message and straightaway sets out to stop the wedding.

Director’s Note

This play is dramatized from Mahabharata’s story of Abhimanya Sundari Thirukalyanam. It was performed in our rural villages. The audience would eagerly wait for Sundari’s entry. Whenever we performed this play, the Kattiya Karan (Narrator), makes jokes and adds humour to the whole play.

The Director

At the age of sixteen, after finishing his school, D. Elumalai underwent training with two Koothu teachers, Kishtappa Meshtri and Srinivasa Meshtri. He learnt Adavu and songs from them. Later he joined Purisai Kalaimamani Subramaniya Thambirar Therukoothu group as an actor. There he learnt Adavu from Kannappa Thambiran and Sambanthan in 1987-88. He founded the Sri Thanthoniamman Therukoothu Nadaga Sabha in the year 1997. He gave training to Thalai -K-kol, a modern theatre group in Pondichery and organised the performance of Nadu Koothan there. In 2006-2008, he got trained in Therukoothu at Pondichery University. He also conducted a 10 days’ workshop at National School of Drama’s Bangalore Centre. He is the chief trainer for Therukoothu. He got Kalai Nan Mani award from the Government of Tamil Nadu.

The Playwright

G. Krishnan has been writing for the last 30 years. His plays have been translated in German and French. He teaches Thabasu and Krishnan Doodhu to the village youths. Thakkayagam, Arjunan Thabasu, Lavakusha, Baratham, Sundari thirukalyam are some of his famous plays.

The Group

Sri Thanthoniamman Therukoothu Nadaga Sabha is the leading Tamil folk Theatre group that promotes the traditional folk art form of Therukoothu. It was established in 1985 by a Group of folk theatre enthusiasts who were involved in promoting Therukoothu in the districts of Thiruvannamalai, Kanchipuram, Chennai, Vellore, Dharumapuri, Pondicherry. They have performed in the National Theatre festival (19th BRM at New Delhi) and have also conducted a number of workshops with college students, foreign research scholars and school children.

Cast & Credits

On Stage: Ravichandran, Madhavan, Vijay, A. Ramakrishnan, M. Haridass, Ethiraj, E. Manikandan, Subramanian, Mukundan, Elavarasu, S. Rajesh, Venkatesan,

Harmonium: Seetharaman

Mirudangam: Krishnamoorthy

Mughaveenai: S. Chandiran

Lighting: E. Sukumar

Design & Props: E. Suresh

Translator & Coordinator: M. Manivanna