Presenting Unrehearsed Futures: Theatre Making livestreamed on the global, commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv Thursday 29 April 2021 at 5 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 10 a.m. BST (London, UTC +1) / 11 a.m. SAST (Cape Town, UTC +2) / 2:30 p.m. IST (Mumbai, UTC +5:30) / 7 p.m. AEST (Hobart, UTC +10).
The pandemic has given rise to the need to investigate and explore how students can take their theatre-making and performance skills, awareness and sensibilities, to apply them in creating or adapting work into other mediums. In what ways can we be informed by those who have been working in these spaces all along? What are the ways in which the theatre-maker exists and operates when outside their medium?
Curator:
Jehan Manekshaw
Since his Masters in Theatre Direction from the University of London, Jehan Manekshaw’s contributions to the Indian theatre sphere have been considerable. He founded and heads the Drama School Mumbai, driven to forging a new generation of theatre-makers, is director of Theatre Professionals to promote theatre-based learning through school education, and has built partnerships across theatre institutions to strengthen the training and upskilling of theatre professionals. His contribution has been acknowledged by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the Indian government's apex body for performing arts and culture, by conferring Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar (award). With a rich background in pedagogy, and practice, Jehan conceptualised Unrehearsed Futures, and co-curates it with peers for a global, holistic overview of the challenges facing the theatre industry.
Speaker 1: Amitesh Grover
Organization / School: Professor, National School of Drama / Interdisciplinary Artist
Amitesh Grover is an award-winning interdisciplinary artist. He moves beyond theatre into visual art, film, installation, and digital art. His works shift away from the artwork or medium, and produce open-ended actions, series, processes and projects. His work is anchored in social practice and revolves around themes like absence/presence, staging abandonment, the necessity of mourning, the performance of resistance to keep on living, and how to embody unsayable knowledge. His projects are shown internationally in theatres, galleries, public spaces, and on the internet. He also teaches, writes, and curates for performance.
Speaker 2: Benjamin Samuels
Organization / School: Freelance Theatre Director / Artistic Director Limbik Theatre
Ben Samuels is an award-winning director, writer and performer. His genre-defying work extends from visual storytelling and music theatre to interactive fiction, and celebrates ensemble, collaboration, and internationalism. As the Artistic Director of Limbik, he writes, performs and directs productions. The company took a new direction with Fatherland (2019), which pioneered the use of real-time motion capture and immersive virtual reality technology in live theatre. Through the pandemic, Ben has focused on creating new work for immersive, spatial audio - such as his short story The Garden which combines animated text with a 3D audio soundscape, and is currently live on BBC Taster. Ben also works extensively as a Visiting Director and Associate Artist with universities and professional actor training programmes such as the London College of Music, Drama School Mumbai, and Cumbria Institute of the Arts.
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