Fest '08
Ranga Shankara Theatre Festival ’08 paid a tribute to and celebrated the “Golden Era of Indian Theatre”, the era of the Company and the Sangeet Natak Theatre. Apart from two landmark Kannada plays, “Jagajyothi” and “Sadarame”, there were plays performed in Telugu, Hindi and Marathi.The special features of this festival were “Ranga Sadhaka” , an evening on unforgettable solo performances by senior artistes who have lived glorious lives in the Company era, Karnataka Nataka Sangeetha Vaibhava, a musical extravaganza which narrted the story of 70 years of Company Nataka in Karnataka through its awe-inspiring music. There was also a photo exhibition called ‘Walk Down Memory Lane’ comprising rare archival photographs of the Golden Era of Indian Theatre.
The festival marked the second edition of a special ancillary programme, the Theatre and Arts Appreciation Course. This year’s edition was spearheaded by renowned culture critic Sadanand Menon.
FESTIVAL DIRECTOR’S NOTE
We have completed four years of continuous activity in the service of Theatre…Ranga Shankara is nothing without its small and tight team…Thanks to the efficiency of teamwork, Ranga Shankara can today boast of being a world-class institution that has a charter to nurture theatre… We hope that our choices will give you an insight into the way theatre was performed then and also how our modern practitioners view some issues of that time…we have tried to give the amateur performing community and our audiences an opportunity to connect with a very vital part of our history and heritage. Our next festival maybe a celebration of our folk performance tradition or the best plays ever written in the world.
