A SEASON OF BANGLA DRAMA
London Borough of Tower Hamlets will be hosting a cultural festival, titled ‘A Season of Bangla Drama’, from the 1st to the 24th of November this year. This festival has been celebrating the Bengali culture, in the form of enthralling performances and discussions from a diversified panel of writers, actors, directors and cultural personalities, since 2003. The platform creates an opportunity for UK based audiences to learn more about the Bengali culture.
The festival talk representatives of Bangladesh are as follow
Asaduzzaman Noor
in conversation with Leesa Gazi
Saturday, November 2, 2019
Asaduzzaman Noor is a Bangladeshi actor, politician and activist. He has been a member of the parliament since 2001, and was the Minister of Cultural Affairs (2014-2019). He began his acting career with theatre. The conversation with Leesa Gazi will focus on Assaduzzaman’s journey through the performing arts in Post-Independence Bangladesh, and portray the struggles his generation had faced in the field of performing arts and how they achieved so much, despite so many limitations.
Rafi Hossain’s Musings
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Full time journalist and editor of The Daily Star’s Anandadhara and Star Showbiz, Rafi Hossain, joins the festival to share his journey as a theatre activist in Bangladesh. He has worked with the late Safdar Hashmi’s group, Jana Natya Manch, and was an active member of Dhaka theatre, exploring different avenues, including acting, assisting with plays and designing costumes. This experience has informed his current role as a theatre critic, and in this talk, he will focus on the changes in Bangladeshi theatre and its evolution from its roots to current digitalisation.
Professor Syed Jamil Ahmed
A Personal Testimony in Confrontation:
From Nationalist Narratives to Heterogeneous Performatives
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
A prominent scholar in the field of theatre and arts, Syed Jamil Ahmed is the founder of the Department of Theatre and Music in Dhaka University. After Jerzy Grotowski’s assertion that the core of theatre is an extreme confrontation, this talk posits that confrontation between two ‘ensembles’ formed by the speaker and the audience. Hopefully, this will be a unique opportunity for the speaker to be sincere, disciplined, precise and total, as he attempts to unpeel his journey as a professional theatre-maker.
Professor Syed Jamil Ahmed will also be taking a Master Class on Key Techniques in Theatre-making: Scenic Presence, Action, Communion, and Tempo-Rhythm University of Dhaka on Sunday, November 24, 2019.
Workshop by Sudip Chakravarty
Sunday, November 17, 2019
Doctoral researcher at Goldsmiths University, Sudip Chakravarty, will conduct a workshop which explores identity and society as it is seen by different generations of the British Bangladeshi community. The workshop explores how our understanding of where we came from, where we are now, who we are and who others say we are, in the form dialogue and mutual understanding. The workshop aims to open dialogue that investigates the views of identity and plural society, and to highlight the significance of its diversity as an agent of inclusion and positive change.