Devendra raj ankur biography of abraham

In this form, the story is not adapted or altered in any way. The original form of the story is retained in the presentation. Since the existing framework is inadequate for enacting the story on stage, actors evolve a new form and style in the production process. What is this new style and form? How has it evolved? Does it have a historical tradition to fall back on?

The answers to these questions are indeed interesting. Should one turn to the classical tradition of Sanskrit theatre or the traditions of folk theatre to find the answer? Or should we probe the methods of Parsi theatre or look to the form of surrealist theatre? The fact is that when a story is actually performed on stage, not one of these alternatives is of much help.

And every time the actor has to evolve a fresh, spontaneous and original style. If a repertory has as many artists as there are characters in the story, the task is somewhat easy, but the real challenge arises when the number of available artistes is far less than the number of characters in the story. It is here that the creative process begins, as the drama within the story is unfolded before the audience.

In the process, the story breaks free from the constraint of being presented as a theatrical adaptation. And this freedom opens up a number of alternatives and possibilities. For instance, the artist cannot tie himself down to a fixed framework because the story is, first and foremost, a descriptive medium. So the first challenge is how to depict the descriptions on stage.

Should one just speak them out? Or should one first convert the descriptive elements into emotions and then act them out? Or should a situation or ambience be created to express them? The artist has to weigh all these alternatives and, every time, seek a new path. In the Indian context, right from ancient times, the Ramayana , the Mahabharata , the Puranas, historical legends and folk tales have been enacted as theatre.

In fact, Bible stories have also been a source for theatre. Literature has been a source for many other art forms as well. For instance, the Jataka tales of Buddhism are depicted in the Ajanta and Ellora frescoes while the biographies of the Mughal emperors, such as the Akbarnama and Jehangirnama, were illuminated by miniatures. Dance and music, too, turn to literature as a valuable source.

If we restrict our study to the relationship between literature and theatre, it is interesting to view the forms and levels at which this mutual exchange takes place. Significantly, it is narrative fiction, more than any other genre of literature, that theatre turns to time and again. I feel the story, the narrative form, provides drama with a framework.

Not just drama, the story also inspires poetry, memoirs, reportage and other literary forms. It will not be out of place to say that a story is essential to most art forms. But in the case of drama, there are some specific reasons for the importance of the story. For instance, the story contains many covert dramatic moments which can be accentuated in drama.

Besides, fiction offers perceptions on different aspects of life and provides an emotional context that can animate the content and ambience of drama. In fact, story preceded drama and it was through story-telling that drama arose as a form. Thus the art of narrating and writing a story has had a deep impact on the craft and structure of drama.

In this context, it becomes more meaningful to study some of the actual experiments with fiction by theatre directors to see how fiction has fared in contemporary theatre. An early practice was to adapt a play from a specific work of fiction. Many writers adapted their own fiction into plays. Nearer home, Mannu Bhandari adapted her novel Mahabhoj into a play.

If the novels and playscripts by these two writers are read together, one finds little difference except in their structure. In other words, the writers transformed their novels into plays by either eliminating the descriptive passages or presenting them as part of dialogue. This is true of most directors and playwrights who adapt novels into plays.

Of the many who have used this technique in Hindi theatre, I shall mention only a few. Be, Play, Love Subscriber Only. Madhavan's film nosedives when Neil Nitin Mukesh shows up. This brings attention to the impact of US trade restrictions on advanced chips, as Chinese engineers are finding ways to train their AI more efficiently with open-source tools.

Co-presented by. Associate Sponsors. News Cities Chandigarh A story to tell Premium. Written by Parul. Devendra Raj Ankur brings short stories and poems to the stage For the last 35 years,Devendra Raj Ankur has been creating magic on stage with just a story. More Premium Stories. Tags: poems. Post Comment. Technology 42 min ago. View all shorts.