The Hindu : Karnataka News : Enthralling, enriching experience

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Friday, Nov 23, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka

Enthralling, enriching experience

Ganesh Prabhu

NSD students plan to perform ‘Chitrapata Ramayana’ in Hindi

ENCOURAGEMENT: Chidambararao Jambe, camp director, explaining the finer points of Yaskhagana to students at the Yakshagana Kendra in Udupi on Thursday.

Udupi: For the 19 students of National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, the calm yet vibrant atmosphere at the Yakshagana Kendra has helped experience the unique quintessence of the lively and colourful art form, and also to understand and learn it.

The second year students of NSD arrived at the Yakshagana Kendra on November 19 to participate in a month-long workshop on Traditional and Ritualistic Theatre. A 10-day Festival of Traditional and Ritualistic Theatre kicked off on November 20 with a “Jodata” performance to help the students get acquainted with the different performing art forms. The festival is being held as part of the workshop.

The workshop is a tough and learning experience. The students have to keep up with a gruelling schedule every day. They learn the steps of Yakshagana from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. in the mornings. Principal of the Yakshagana Kendra Sanjeeva Suvarna tells them about the theoretical aspects of Yakshagana.

From 10.30 a.m. to 1.30 p.m., the students discuss the previous day’s performance at the festival. They are also introduced to that day’s performance. They discuss issues such as costumes and makeup. They also participate in lecture-demonstrations.

They are told about the concepts of Yakshagana such as “Odolaga” and others. They watch the festival from 6 p.m. to 9.30 p.m., before retiring for the day.

Camp director Chidambararao Jambe says, “The students will do an intensive study after a week’s exposure to the traditional and ritualistic theatre. They will study the facial makeup of ‘Tenkuthittu’ school of Yakshagana and try it on themselves. The students are also being exposed to other related folk and traditionalist ritual theatre forms.”

That is not all. The students have to produce a Yakshagana “prasanga” (episode) which they will perform in Udupi on December 21 and December 22. Accordingly, the students will perform the episode of “Chitrapata Ramayana” in Hindi. The text, the songs and dialogues for this episode are ready. The students were introduced to it on Thursday and they along with the teachers of Yakshagana Kendra discussed about the changes to be brought in it to make it more appealing.

A student from Assam, Pranami Bora says, “The Yakshagana Kendra imparts Gurukula style of education. It is disciplined. I found Yakshagana to be celebratory in nature. I am enjoying my training here.”

Another student from Haryana, Vikram Kochhar, says, “We are going to our cultural roots, which is important. We are being taught about both the ‘Badaguthittu’ and ‘Tenkuthittu’ schools here. The schedule is tight. But it is an enriching experience for me. We are curious and want to learn more about Yakshagana. We saw a Hindi Yakshagana episode ‘Panchavati’ on Wednesday at the festival. That has given us more confidence to perform the Hindi episode.”

The initial plan was to expose the students of NSD to traditional and ritual theatre in the State. The programme to show the students the theatre forms was to begin from Gulbarga, move to Bijapur, Dharwad and Tumkur and culminate at Udupi. But for the want of time, it was decided to have a month-long workshop in Udupi. “Hence, we are exposing the students to ‘Mudalapaya Yakshagana’, ‘Dodatta’ and a folk drama at the festival here. Ideally these art forms should be seen and studied in their places of their origin,” Mr. Jambe says.

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