3rd Satellite festival to celebrate 50 yrs of NSD

Mumbai, Dec 28: The 3rd Satellite Festival to mark the 50th anniversary of National School of Drama (NSD) will be held in the here from January 6 to 17.

The festival is a part of the 10th Bharat Rang Mahotsav to be held in Delhi from January 3 to 15. As many as 56 plays from about 16 countries will be showcased. Some of the plays will travel to the city for the Satellite festival. Twenty-six plays from 11 countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan will be staged in the festival.

Afghanistan is participating for the first time with two productions. The inaugural function will begin with eminent Manipuri director and NSD alumni Ratan Thiyam's 'Prologue', Amal Allana, chairperson of NSD told a press conference here today.

The Satellite festival is being held with the collaboration of Maharashtra government.

A distinctive feature of this year's festival will be the India premiere of Pina Bausch's new piece 'Bamboo Blues' which will also travel to the Satellite festival in the city.

Representation of contemporary international theatre will be showcased with plays from Poland, Switzerland, UK, Norway, China, Japan, Iran, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, with some of them seeking to explore new convergences between theatre and other performative art forms.

In its golden jubilee year, NSD is showcasing the works of more than 60 of its alumni from across India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Tanvir's evergreen 'Charandas Chor' in a Sri Lankan production, Tendulkar's 'Ghansiram Kotwal' in a Manipuri adaptation, a docu drama using rare archival footage and live acting on correspondence between Gandhi and Tagore, Gandhi and Nehru are some of the higlights.

The Manohar Singh and B V Karanth Smriti Puraskar, the two annual NSD awards for its alumnni, will be conferred at the inaugural function in Delhi.

As part of an initiative which begun last year, international festival directors from countries like Austria, Belgium, Switzerland, Pakistan and Croatia will be attending the festival to interact with directors and theatre groups here.

In the metropolis, festival plays will be held at Nehru Centre, Ravindra Natya Mandir, P L Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy and NCPA.

In the last 50 years, 750 students have passed out of NSD. Out of which 400 of the alumni live and work here. Prominent of them like Naseeruddin Shah, Nadira Zaheer Babbar, Rohini Hattangadi, Atul Kulkarni, Jaydev Hattangadi will be present on the occasion.

UNI