February 5 - 14
February 5 - 14
February 5 - 14
February 5 - 14
February 5 - 14
February 5 - 14
If ecology indicates a concern with living beings and their environment, then theatre is concerned with the ecology of life in the broadest sense. In the last two years, the world has experienced an unprecedented state of emergency caused by the pandemic. The pandemic pushes us away from each other as words like quarantine, isolation, and social distancing become part of the fearful everyday. Together with that we witness war, mass migration, misery and starvation caused by territorial politics, greed and ignorance. Theatre has struggled to survive in this time. Yet in this time we have also seen exceptional solidarity, support and care towards fellow beings, restoring one’s faith in humanity.
This edition of ITFOK is an invitation to assemble, to gather, to meet and hold hands, as we remember the courage and the kindness we have experienced; it is a moment also to always remember the injustice and the disarray this pandemic has brought on. The festival will be an effort to rearticulate with energy the connection between humaneness, art making and artists.
The 13th edition of the International Theatre Festival of Kerala (ITFoK) is scheduled for February 5-14, 2023
Deepan Sivaraman is the founding Artistic Director of Oxygen Theatre Company Kerala and Performance Studies Collective Delhi. He was trained at School of Drama Thrissur, Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design and Wimbledon College of Art London. During the last 20 years of his theatre career he has designed and directed more than 70 theatre productions for various companies and academic institutions in India and Europe. Some of his notable works have been performed in several important theatre festivals around the world including Avignon, Alameda, Edinburgh, Krakow, Shanghai – Wuzhen, Prithvi, ITFOK, META and Bharat Rang Mahotsav. He was awarded Charles Wallace India Trust Scholarship in 2003, The Kerala Sangeet Nataka Academy Award for theatre direction in 2012 and Mahindra Excellence National Theatre Awards in 2010 and 2018 for Spinal Cord and The Cabinet of Dr Caligari respectively.
Deepan’s works represented Indian scenography at Prague Quadrennial in 2011 and he served as the artistic director of International Theatre Festival of Kerala in 2013. His notable works are Khasakkinte Ithihasam, Spinal Cord, Peer Gynt, Dark Things, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, Nationalism Project and Ubu Roi. Recently published 21 st Century Performance Reader by Routledge discusses Sivaraman’s work as one of the 70 key theatre practitioners of this century who made a substantial contribution to the language of theatre. Presently he teaches theatre and performance studies at School of Culture and Creative Expressions, Ambedkar University Delhi.
Anuradha Kapur is a theatre maker and teacher. Her theatre work has travelled nationally and internationally and she has taught in Universities in India and abroad. She is the founder member of Vivadi a cross-discipline working group of theatre- makers, visual artists, filmmakers, musicians and writers. Among her acclaimed productions are Nale Wali Ladki (2018), Dark Things (co-directed with Deepan Sivaraman, 2018) 409 Ramkinkars in collaborator project with artist Vivan Sundaram (2015), Virasat,(2013) Dr Jekyll and Hyde (2012), Jeevit ya Mrit (2011), Heiner Muller’s Centaurs (2006), Pata Shahar Mumbai,(2004), Antigone Project, (co-directed with Ein Lall, 2003), Sundari:An Actor Prepares (1997), The Job (1996), Vijay Tendulkar’s Pata Shahar Mumbai,(2004). Her writings on performance have been widely anthologized and her book Actors Pilgrims Kings and Gods: the Ramlila at Ramnagar was published by Seagull Books, Calcutta (1993, 2004).
Anuradha Kapur has been part of the curatorial teams of festivals in India and abroad, among them, at the House of World Cultures, Berlin, the Serendipity Arts Festival, and ITFoK 2017. Anuradha Kapur completed her term as Director National School of Drama, New Delhi in 2013 where she was also Professor of Acting and Direction. She is presently Visiting Professor at Ambedkar University, Delhi. For her work in the theatre, Anuradha Kapur was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi award for Direction in 2004.
B. Ananthakrishnan is professor at Department of Theatre Arts, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad. He was the executive committee member (2009-2013 & 2015-2018) of the International Federation for Theatre Research (IFTR) and founder general secretary (2004-2013) of the Indian Society for Theatre Research (ISTR). He was a fellow at Freie University, Berlin 2016-18 and University of Amsterdam (2014).
Specializing in Indian performance studies, he has published articles on Indian theatre in journals such as Theatre India and Theatre Research International (Cambridge), Studies in Theatre and Performance (Routledge) and has contributed to different anthologies and encyclopaedia such as the Encyclopaedia of Asian Theatre. ‘13 Views on Panopticon’ is the recent performance made by him with the students of the department.
Theatre is a cultural expression as well as an academic field, and the theatre institutions create a new generation of theatre makers, and academicians spread all over the world with diverse magnitudes; the curatorial team of ITFOK with SDFA felt that it is essential to have a platform to meet and discuss the pertinent issues in teaching practices, curriculums and pedagogy with a progressive perspective involving the active participation of teachers, students and practitioners from different languages and cultures. This would be the first initiative in India in this direction.
We are delighted to invite you to participate with your students and teachers in the ‘meet’ scheduled between February 01 and February 05, 2023, at the School of Drama and Fine Arts, Thrissur, Kerala, India. For more information, Click Here
Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi (KSNA), under the department of culture, Govt of Kerala is based at Thrissur in the cultural capital of Kerala. KSNA, since its inception in 1958 has been promoting indigenous theatre and music of Kerala. When the Governing body of Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Academy was headed by Film /stage actor and author Murali, the international theatre festival of Kerala began in 2008.The first ever edition of the festival had Asian focus as highlight, African theatre, Latin American theatre, Classics revisited, Eastern European theatre, Spectatorship & Gender, Body, Street performances and Imagining communities were the thematic focus of editions that had ensued. After a hiatus of two years the international theatre festival of Kerala is now getting kick started on the theme "Humanity must unite".
