Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 22: Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA), New Delhi – the national academy of music, dance and drama- is going to organize the Natya Samagama – a festival of contemporary theatre practices, traditions and diverse cultural expressions of India in Jammu from September 24 to 28, 2016.
The festival is being organized in collaboration with the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Jammu (JKAACL). The festival is an effort to connect the diverse creative aspects of Jammu and Kashmir with rest of the world.
Balwant Thakur, the festival director whose much talked-about play Bawa Jitto will be featured in the festival, informed that the participating directors apart from himself include names such as Bansi Kaul, Zafar Sanjari, Kewal Dhaliwal, Rajkamal Nayak and Arjun Deo Charan among others.
Arvinder Singh Amn, Additional Secretary of JKAACL informed the media that the Abhinav Theatre is ready to showcase performances of six hundred artists including the Bhand Pather groups from Kashmir, folk performing artists of Jammu and surrounding regions apart from the contemporary theatre groups from Raipur, Jodhpur, Bhopal, Kolkata, Amritsar, Ranchi, Mumbai, Hissar and Gwalior.
An exhibition on Thatheras (the utensils makers), has also been made a part of the Natya Samagama. The Thatheras of Jandiala Guru, Amritsar have been inscribed in the UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
A special team from Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi has come apart from the officials of Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages for smooth organization of the festival. Local theatre artists have been roped in as volunteers to enrich their work experiences. Experts such as Mushtaq Ali from Kashmir, Dr. Navdeep Kaur, Chairperson, Department of Indian Theatre, Panjab University, Chandigarh, and Amit Dixit – an artist of Nautanki from Lucknow will participate as an expert and observer.
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