Bhashwar Bandopadhyay's artistic experiences in USA
Dr Bhashwar Bandopadhyay is an eminent elocutionist, theatre artiste, trainer and connoisseur of dance. This year he went to Atlanta, GA, USA to attend in FOBANA 2018, a three-day convention of poets and artistes. He was the chief invited elocutionist at the event.
Following his participation in the convention, he performed in several other programmes held at different states of USA and conducted workshops there.
FOBANA (The Federation of Bangladeshi Associations in North America) convention was themed on the cultural fraternity connecting the entire Bengali community to celebrate our culture. “I started off the three-day event with reading out a prose piece. The entire cultural performance included songs, dances, recitations by the poets and the elocutionists,” said Bhashwar Bandopadhyay.
“The warmth I received from the Bangladeshi people was amazing,” said the elocutionist, who also took part in an FM radio programme Ek Cup Cha with one of his students, Maruna Rahi, where he recited poems and shared his artistic views.
He later conducted two workshops –one in New Jersey and another in New York. "One of my students, Golam Sarwar Harun, has directed a play titled Nirostro, written by Mahasweta Devi. The troupe is coming to Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy to perform in the upcoming December," said the artiste. "It was an intensive and interactive workshop. The next day, I went to New York to conduct another daylong workshop followed by a solo performance.”
Bhashwar Bandopadhyay performed several poems at the event. His repertoire included Bedonar Padabali by Mostafa Mir, Amar Porichoy and parts of Nurul Din-er Sarajibon by Syed Shamsul Haq, Kanu-Sidhu by Debabrata Singha, Prithibi and Dushsomoy by Ranbindranath Tagore, Aat Bochhor Ager Ekdin and Banalata Sen by Jibanananda Das, and Kobir Mukti by Kazi Nazrul Islam.
The artiste has two books –Natya: Swar O Sanglap and Abhigyan Natyakatha (both published by Sahitya Prakash). Natya: Swar O Sanglap is an important recommended textbook for the students from theatre departments of most Bangladeshi universities.
His father, Lohit Kanti Bandopadhyay was a renowned theatre artiste who was a member of Kolkata-based theatre troupe, Amateur. He performed in a Tagore play Sheshrokkha in front of Rabindranath Tagore himself. Both Bhashwar Bandopadhyay and his wife Sharmila Bandopadhyay, an eminent dancer-choreographer-teacher, received ICCR scholarship twice. Their daughter, promising dancer-actor Sudeshna Swayamprabha is also an ICCR scholar.
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