Meet the Shakespeare wallahs from Pune

"I'm a costume designer and have never acted in any play and felt very happy to be a part of the workshop, as I learnt a lot from it", said Madhura Pendse, a participant at the recently concluded workshop on the Titus project

The project gives theatre enthusiasts in the city an opportunity to be a part of the international project on William Shakespeare’s lesser-known tragedy play, Titus Andronicus.

Taking centre stage: Prasad Vanarase conducting an acting workshop on the William Shakespeare play. Pic/Krunal Gosavi

The workshop was held from November 21 to 23 at Raosaheb Patwardhan High School, near Parvati, and saw nearly 74 aspiring theatre persons participate.

The affair is being organised by MIDAS (Management, Innovation, Design, Arts and Social Sciences) and the International Association for Performing Arts and Research (IAPAR), in collaboration with the University of Georgetown, USA and the University of Cape Town, South Africa. The project will showcase three performances in three countries, and these productions are expected to be performed together in Cape Town, South Africa in March- April 2014.

Aspirants, short-listed at the orientation workshop, will go through another 15-day workshop over a period of five weeks before the final selection. Two similar groups will be formed in the US and South Africa. The play will be co-directed by Prasad Vanarase, founder-director of the IAPAR, and Prof Jeffrey Sichel from the US.

“We got a very good response from the city with more than 70 applications, of which 50 participated in the workshop”, said Vanarase, founder-director of IAPAR.

“We had invited applications from the age group of 16- 35 years, but got a large number from the middle-age group. The applicants were asked one question: Why do you want to participate in the workshop? Based on the answers received, we picked out the candidates,” said Vanarse.

“The main aim of the initiative is to engage talented people and get the best out of them in order to do justice to the playwright’s creation, though with an Indian approach”, said Vanarase.

Nupur Joshi, a participant, said, “I learnt a lot about the acting at the workshop. I have taken part in various plays in my college days, but this experience is surely going to be different”.
“This is a one- of-a-kind international collaboration, and I’m hopeful more countries will participate in future,” Vanarase concluded.

50
Number of people from the city who participated in the workshopu00a0

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