Theatre workshop on fusion of Western and Indian Culture
Rijita Chatterjee is a theater actress and theater director. with a degree from the University of Britain. Worked in theater acting, directing and training with several organizations abroad. Currently resident of Kolkata, Rijita is a drama instructor in a reputed English medium school. A theater workshop on the fusion of Western and Indian culture held on July 30 and 31 at the Conference Room of the Indian Language Council (3-Floor). 22 people aged 7 to 37 years were trained in the two-day workshop.
Rijita Says, We are Focusing on inter deceplenary theatre. Theatre means impression on agreed altogether. We are trying to say theatre workshops it has to be learning in totality. So, not only I will learn how act? How to act is not a drama or theatre. It is every ingredient together. You are knowing your space, you are knowing your own body, you are knowing that theatre can be used for various sorts of activism. You are knowing that decent can be expressed through theatre. Decenting through theatre. & Through that comes the crafts of theatre. How to deal with musical approach, what about stage approach, what about stage set design, what about do your self focal point of the stage approach, you are making your space.
The problem of Theatre acting a lot of boundaries. The question came whether Bengali will teach acting. What will teach acting in Hindi? English will teach acting. Theatre is theatre. People are actually going beyond this, people are understanding that theatre is important. people are understanding that theatre need to be in life, within classrooms, within academic, within syllybys & it is important to go beyond the given. But what is beyond that. Now I get response for this workshop below overboudaries. Theatre age cannot be a boundries. It cannot be a indicate,, It cannot be a restriction we are all a families.
Rijita feels that the first solo theater workshop has been quite successful. In the coming days, Rijita wants to conduct theater workshops in Kolkata on a larger scale. Eminent theater personality Janardhan Ghosh was present as instructor in Rijita’s workshop. Soumitra Banerjee worked as a member of the music team.
Profile–
Rijita Chatterjee is an actor, director and theatre trainer of repute with a rich experience in the field of acting and singing. After a substantial experience in Dramatic arts in Kolkata she had been to the University of Surrey, UK, for a special training in acting and theatre. Thereafter, she had been to the premier institute of Music and Drama in London, LAMDA, for an in-depth understanding of musicality and performance. Recently, she had an opportunity to explore Activism via Theatre at the University College Cork in Ireland. She has worked with many renowned directors in theatre.
She is the founder member and director-actor of the popular theatre group, Part Time Lovers. She has created some great memorable productions like Nasbandi, Lipsticks and Muscles, Hai Bharat and many others in Academy of Fine Arts, Gyan Manch, and Tapan theatre. Nasbandi, is one of the most liked and appreciated work of the Part Time Lovers performed by Rijita along with Saurav Das.
Their performances were considered to be phenomenal by the critics and the viewers. Recently, she is working on a solo piece Clairvoyant, based on internal monologues of a socially molested victim.
She is into teaching theatre for more than a decade. She is working with young people from premier schools of Kolkata. At present, she is the resource person for Drama in Lakshmipath Singhania Academy. She believes in empowering young minds through theatre.
Her philosophy of theatre is to treat the craft like the most important agent of change and transformation. To her theatre is the very narrative that needs to reach the minds of individuals. She is now working on various modules to make theatre the backbone of school academics and academics beyond syllabus.
She teaches theatre as a craft which is interdisciplinary- involving techniques within madness. Rijita aims at creating platforms for young minds for them to be able to nourish their creative goals. She aims at making theatre the tool by which inclusivity gets to be celebrated. The journey is unending and ongoing.
