[Reader-list] Open Call for Applications for the "Ghosts of Shakespeare" Festival, 2013

[rohitrellan at aol.in]

The Arshingar Project is inviting open applications for the Ghosts of Shakespeare Festival, 2013, which will take place in Kumaon, Delhi and Kolkata between April 15th and 30th. The details of the festival are given below: 











Ghosts of Shakespeare - Background:



Ghosts of Shakespeare is an annual festival that is meant to confront the world of Shakespeare from the vantage of Indian performance idioms and aesthetics, as well as contemporary subjectivities and lived experience. It is meant to exist, both physically and metaphorically, in marginal spaces. This means that it intends to explore non-traditional venues, including open and public spaces, as well as reach out to genres other than traditional theatre, such as dance, performance art, street theatre and other forms of theatre activism, and genres which defy any easy categorization. It looks at Shakespeare not as an icon of elitism, but a living talisman of protest and humanistic articulation, and hence embraces artistic actions that articulate disturbing and perhaps unpopular truths about the world and times we inhabit.


Keeping in mind our essentially trans-disciplinary nature (performance research, social action (work related to education, ecological awareness, heritage/history) and theoretical discourse), we are interested in exploring Shakespeare as a living, and often disquieting presence, not as a dead icon of elitism. 


'Ghosts of shakespeare' reflects this - that Shakespeare has a contemporary afterlife in often unexpected forms. The spirit of it deliberately draws upon the anarchic ethos of small-scale, alternative fringe festivals in different parts of the world. We are interested in creative acts which are not big and well-funded, but rather which have rough-edges and are vulnerable. We'd like to bring together established names, emerging artists, as well as campus outfits on the same platform, without creating hierarchies. We are interested in the Shakespeare of in-betweens: between past and present, between east and west, between the sacral and the scatological - a sort of liminal Shakespeare. Following the ethos of Badal Sirkar's Third Theatre, we'd like to keep the whole event non-ticketed, essentially passing on audience collections to the artists/groups.




The genesis of the festival goes back to "Will and I", an event curated by The Arshinagar Project's founding member Arka Mukhopadhyay in partnership with Eureka Bookstore and Akshara Theatre in 2010; which focussed on Shakespeare in schools. Last year we initiated Ghosts of Shakespeare in Kolkata. The event took place in three venues across town - Oxford Book Store, Modern Academy of Continuing Education, and Proscenium's Art Centre, between April 23rd and 30th, and featured performances by The Arshinagar Project, Best of Kolkata Campus, and Oglam. 



The 2012 edition was a 'zero-budget' festival because the performers and venue-sponsors did not charge anything, nor was any money received as sponsorship. 


The 2013 Edition:


In 2013, the festival will grow to embrace two cities - Delhi and Kolkata. It will happen in Delhi between April 23rd (Shakespeare's birth anniversary) and 25th, and in Kolkata between April 27th and 30th. The principal event of the festival will be "Macbeth-of-the-Mountains", a workshop performance that will be created through "Macbeth-in-the-Mountains", a workshop which will be led by internationally acclaimed theatre practitioner John Britton between April 6th and 19th. 



We are inviting applications which can belong to any or none of the following genres, or combinations thereof: theatre, dance, performance art, video/installation, etc.The only criteria are that the presentation be able to adapt itself to non-traditional spaces (bookstores, college common rooms, dance studios, intimate studio theatres), and that it not involve more than six people. 


Please send in applications to: ghostsofshakespearefestival at gmail.com. Applications should include: 




Name of the Artist/Group
Name of the piece
Genre (optional)
Total size of the ensemble (including performers/technicians/others)
Duration
Technical requirements
Brief synopsis (100 words max)

As we are unable to provide for travel and stay, we are inviting applications only from Delhi and Kolkata (for performances in those respective cities). However, artists from other places are welcome to apply, provided they can take care of their own travel and accommodation expenses.


Last date for receiving applications is the 10th of April, and selected performers/groups will be informed by the 15th of April.


Please do circulate this widely


Warmly,
The Arshinagar Project


facebook.com/thearshinagarproject 

The Arshinagar Project is envisioned as a collective of artists
and cultural practitioners from different traditional and contemporary 
disciplines, as well as practitioners from other disciplines such as 
anthropology, education and ecology, for research into performance 
as transformational action.
'Arshinagar' means 'the city of mirrors', and the name is derived 
from a song by Lalon Phokir, one of the greatest masters among 
the Bauls of Bengal - wandering mystical musician-performers who 
through embodied practice attempt to touch the unbodied.The logo 
represents the 'ektara' (literally 'one-stringed') - a drone-like 
instrument used in different forms and names in different Asian 
cultures, which has come to symbolize the Bauls.
The Arshinagar Project aims to foster a spirit of freedom, respect for 
human diversity, ecological harmony and love, among young adults, 
youth in colleges and universities, educators and others, through 
performances, immersive workshops in urban and natural settings 
based on traditions of mystical performance and practice as well as 
contemporary performance-craft, through lecture-demonstrations, 
seminars, and journeys through inner and outer spaces.














   

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