CFP: Inter-University Students’ and Researchers’ Conference on Off the Stage: Performance Practices in Postcolonial India-November 19—20, 2024-Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur

10th Inter-University Students’ and Researchers’ Conference 2024

November 19—20, 2024

 Off the Stage: Performance Practices in Postcolonial India

The post-Independence Indian theatre has been largely influenced by the realist theatre tradition of the West with some persistent exceptions in different regions across India, that are committed to revive, explore and establish the Indianness of Indian theatre, however complex the notion of ‘Indian’ may be. As the nationalist movement in colonial India had gained momentum in the first half of the twentieth century, theatre practitioners attempted to decolonise Indian theatre by imbibing indigenous cultural forms and expressions beyond the Proscenium. In fact, the postcolonial intersection in Indian theatre was ushered in by rejecting ‘the modernity associated with western modes of representation’ and by asserting an ‘alternative postcolonial modernity based on premodern indigenous traditions of performance’ (Dharwadker 2019, 22). The concerns raised in the First Drama Seminar in New Delhi in 1956 on the need to create a ‘new’ theatre for the ‘new’ nation, that was self-conscious and self-reflexive, found expressions through movements such as People’s Theatre (already practised by IPTA), the Theatre of Roots and Third Theatre. Various forms of folk, traditional and regional performances were also revived to strengthen the drive towards Indianness in performance making—in terms of the use of performance elements, performers’ training, selection of performance space and content for dramatization. These performances have been mostly addressed to the commons of the society, where the issues and concerns of the grassroots are primarily explored.

One of the most significant engagements in the postcolonial Indian theatre has been with place as performance space, where place and person intersect to allow place to be a potential actant in the playmaking process as well as its meaning production. When a performance embodies social or historical situatedness beyond the Proscenium stage, it attains a wider provision to intersect with performance of protest, narrative of resistance, sociopolitical activism and unorthodox conditions. The environment of an open-air unorthodox performance space surrounds, sustains and contains the performance and contributes to its meaning production—creating an embodied experience for the spectators.  

Postcolonial Indian theatre has also witnessed the rise of applied performance practices where a play is developed through participatory workshop with non-actors belonging to a particular community in focus. Such productions are mostly research-oriented, workshop-based, community-centred and purpose-driven, where the entire playmaking process is shared by the participants, collaborators, facilitators or performers. Sometimes the barrier between the performers and the spectators becomes fluid and an intersection of body, space and environment is observed. Although the community performances in unorthodox performance spaces in local communities broadly diverge from the commerciality of the Proscenium convention, the lack of consistent financial support and enthusiastic collaborators poses a constant threat to their survival in India.

In this background, the conference seeks deliberations on the non-Proscenium forms and practices of theatre performances in postcolonial India, which shape a distinct Indian identity in terms of performance making. The performance forms and practices may be examined through diverse cultural, theoretical and theatrical discourses in the postcolonial Indian context. The seemingly overlapping performance practices and ideas listed below are only indicative and not restrictive in nature.  

People’s theatre: Nationalism, Cultural activism and the Mass

Indigenous performance: Folk, Traditional and Ritual

The Theatre of Roots: Rooted, Uprooted or De-rooted?

Street theatre: Politics, Propaganda and Social activism

Performance of protest: Art, Dissent and Performativity

Applied performance: Therapy, Education and Engagement

Participatory performance: Research, Workshop and Collaboration

Intimate performance: Body, Space and Proximity

Ecological performance: Ecology, Climate change and Green dramaturgy

Organic theatre: Nature, Embeddedness and Organicity

Site-specific performance: Art, Aesthetics and Environment

We invite abstracts of not more than 300 words from college/University students, research scholars and early career researchers to be emailed to the conference convenor at english.rkm@gmail.com. The names, contact numbers, email ids and affiliations should be clearly mentioned in the abstracts. Please write “SRC2024 Abstract” in the subject heading of your email.

Important Dates

Last Date of submission of Abstract: Friday, 20th September 2024

Notification of acceptance of Abstract: Wednesday, 25th September 2024

For queries: english.rkm@gmail.com

Convenor: Pranab Kumar Mandal, Assistant Professor, Department of English, Ramakrishna Mission Residential College (Autonomous), Narendrapur

CFP: Contemporary Theatres of the Indian Sub-Continent: Perspectives and Prospects-Thespian Magazine(ISSN 2321-4805)

 In the introduction to her edited anthology, Modern Indian Theatre (2009), Nandi Bhatia pointed to the increasing number of critical works devoted to the history and development of modern Indian theatre. Such works, Bhatia argued, were crucial in reconstructing an Indian theatrical past and in dispelling oriental myths about modern Indian theatre. According to Bhatia, “. . . it indicates a growing interest in Indian theatre history and points towards the need for more work that subjects this highly pluralistic diverse field to critical scrutiny” (xii). The first decade of the twenty-first century saw the publication of crucial critical works on the historiography of Indian theatre which included Nandi Bhatia’s Acts of Authority/ Acts of Resistance(2004), Aparna Dharwadker’s monumental Theatres of Independence (2005), Vasudha Dalmia’s Poetics Plays and Performances: The Politics of Modern Indian Theatre (2006) and Erin B Mee’s Theatre of Roots: Redirecting the Modern Indian Stage (2008). Around the same time appeared Syed Jamil Ahmed’s Achinpakhi Infinity (2000), a major work in studying the indigenous theatre traditions of Bangladesh. These signposts have inspired theatre scholarship in diverse fields in the next decade leading to works that have addressed the plurality of theatre in the Indian sub-continent. The richness of theatrical and performative forms in the Indian sub-continent have expanded considerably in the contemporary times, manifesting a plural and vibrant theatrical culture that awaits further interpretation. 

While contemporary theatres and performances in the Indian sub-continent have been exploring the proscenium space in diverse ways, they have also moved out of the proscenium into alternative spaces, into the experimental realms of installation art and performance. These have resulted in greater engagement with immersive, intimate and interactive theatre practices where the ‘fourth wall’ has come down and the audience have been immersed into the play itself. What have been the ways in which audience reception has transformed in new experimental performance forms? How have contemporary theatres explored the proscenium space? How has alternative theatre spaces emerged? Did the widespread pandemic of Covid-19 foster the search for new spaces of performance? What emergent social and political issues are being addressed by the contemporary theatres? How ‘political’ is today’s theatre? How far do marginalised groups represent themselves and/or are being represented in contemporary theatre? How have the legacies of traditional and classical theatre been carried on in contemporary theatres? How far can the theatre discourse centring around Natyasastra be applied as a critical/theoretical context in today’s theatre? What are our theatrical ‘futures’ and ‘prospects’?                     

Premised on the above thoughts and questions, the proposed title invites scholarly articles on various issues related to contemporary theatre and performance in the Indian sub-continent. While we consider the phenomenon of performance as an inclusive concept ranging from daily life’s performance observations through indigenous tradition and classical to avant-garde initiatives, there are innumerable areas to be explored in the realm of the sub-continental performance tradition with the support of diverse theoretical tools from Natyasastra to recent theories. Once we see theatre and performance as a product of social process and its craft as a product of extensive enquiries to discover new expressive idioms, immense potential for further research and enquiry emerges. The frequent crossover of Indian theatre with various international criticism and streams of writing from the second half of the twentieth century onwards has also considerably impacted the contemporary scenario, which is a subject of intensive study. The call for papers and articles thus aims to address the plurality of Indian Sub-Continental theatre and drama, and its multiple streams that have variously contributed to the rich repository of Indian Sub-Continental performance practices.

 

Papers are invited (but not limited to) the following sub themes/ topics:

• Current trends in research on Indian Sub-Continental theatre, performance and drama
• Historiography and Post-Independence Indian theatre and drama
• Women in the theatre, performance and drama of the Indian sub-continent
• Queer identities in the theatre and drama of the Indian sub-continent
• Gender inclusivity in the theatre and drama of the Indian sub-continent
• Theatres of Protest
• Theatre In Education
• Political theatre
• Theatres of Alternative spaces: Immersive, interactive and intimate theatre experiences
• Relevance of Indigenous performance practices in Contemporary Theatre
• Beliefs and motifs of Tribal theatrical traditions and its relevance in contemporary practices  
• Urban-Folk theatre
• Theatres of Ritual/Ritual Theatre
• Covid-19 and the theatre and drama of the Indian sub-continent
• Theatre of Roots
• Environmental theatre
• Theatre from the Margins
• Contemporary Indian theatre and Drama
• Post-Independence Indian theatre and Pedagogy
• Regional theatre and criticism
• Playwrights and Theatre Directors of the Indian sub-continent.
• Wide practices of Amateur Theatre/Mobile Theatre in the Sub-Continent

 

Full articles within 5000 words (approx.) conforming to the latest MLA style guidelines should be sent along with a short bio-note (within 250 words) to thespian.articles@gmail.com.

Last Date of Submission

20 December 2023

 

For details, please strictly follow the guidelines provided on the website.

http://www.thespianmagazine.com/guidelines

 

Work Cited

Bhatia, Nandi, editor. Modern Indian Theatre: A Reader. Oxford UP, 2009.