Eminent Indian art theatre personality Heisnam Kanhailal will deliver a lecture on “Renewal of Ancestral Tradition for a Contemporary Cultural Expression” at the Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre, Gulshan-1 at 5pm today.
Shadhona, a centre for advancement of South Asian culture, organised the event as a part of series of public lectures on Indological Studies.
Kanhailal founded Kalakshetra Manipur in 1969. Since then he has been continuing experiment with tradition for an alternate theatre. He broke a new trend of theatrical expression in contemporary Indian theatre.
He worked with Badal Sircar in 1973. However, he didn’t sacrifice his own individuality.
In the process his alternative theatre could be identified with the live theatre that he ultimately conceived as the ‘Theatre of the Earth’.
He has conducted around 15 major workshops in the last twenty years for the actors from different cultural backgrounds in the country.
He also produced a short theatre film “PEBET” in 1985. The film secured the Best Short Fiction Film in the International Short Film Festival held in Kolkata.
He has been awarded several prestigious awards like “Sangeet Natak Akademi Award” in 1985, “Sangeet Natak Akademy Ratna Award” in 2011, “Padmashree” the highest civilian award by Government of India in 2004.
He was also awarded different Fellowships like Jawaharlal Nehru National Fellowship, Emeritus Fellowship, a research project by Ford Foundation and a research project by Theatre works, Singapore to study performance tradition in Indonesia and Malaysia.
