Rehearsed Reading of Swati Simha's 'The Echoing Chamber'

Toto Funds the Arts 

is pleased to invite you to

a rehearsed reading of 

 Swati Simha’s play

The Echoing Chamber 

(Winner of the Toto Award for Creative Writing 2019)

Performed by actor-singer 

Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota

  Directed by Pallavi M D            

               

                              Swati Simha                                              Pallavi M D                                     Shilpa Mudbi Kothakota

Date and Time:  Saturday 5 October 2019, 6.30 p.m.

Venue:  The British Council, Prestige Takt, 23 Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), Bengaluru

Entry Free! All are welcome.

About the play

Set in Hyderabad a year after independence, The Echoing Chamber is about suppressed collective history and memory that were central to the making of this country. The play brings together subaltern voices and allows the audience to engage in an anachronistic reflection on the consequences of failing to recollect the making of the ‘nation’ and ‘national identity’. Our self and the actor embody different experiences and are restricted from forming a cohesive identity for themselves owing to their ‘forgetfulness’ and continue to “repeat what we cannot remember”.

About the playwright

Described as one of the most exciting young playwrights to emerge from India in recent years, Swati Simha is the author of several plays, many of which have been performed. She received her Master’s from Shanghai Theatre Academy, China and is currently pursuing a PhD at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. The Echoing Chamber won her the Toto Award for Creative Writing in 2019. She was one of the playwrights commissioned for the B!rth Festival at Royal Exchange, Manchester. Her play Flypaper Trap was written under the mentorship of Royal Court Theatre at the Writer’s Bloc residency.

About the director

Pallavi M D is a singer, actor, composer, editor, sound designer and filmmaker based in Bangalore. She has a degree in Psychology, English and Journalism from Bangalore University and a degree in Hindustani classical music from the Benares University. She has won the META Best Actress award for her one-woman performance in C Sharp C Blunt, and the Karnataka State Best Playback Singer Award for her song in the film Duniya. She was recently awarded the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for her work in the field of Bhav Sangeet.  She is keen on multidisciplinary collaborations.

Writing for Children's Picture Books

Toto Funds the Arts and Karadi Tales 

are pleased to announce a two–day workshop on 

Writing for Children’s Picture Books

Facilitator: Shobha Viswanath 

Venue: The Jamun, 521, 2^nd Main, 3^rd Block, RMV Extension 2^nd Stage, Bangalore-94

Dates: Saturday, 19 October & Sunday, 20 October 2019

Time:  10.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m. (both days)

Fee: Rs 4,000

To write for children, you must know what children want, and more importantly, what they do not want. They hate clichés, predictable plot lines and the moral-of-the-story trope. The workshop will help participants sift through ideas to pick those viable in the book market for four-to-eight-year-olds. They will get writing prompts to start on their stories, receive one-on-one feedback from the workshop conductors on specific areas of improvement, learn how to ruthlessly edit their own work, get a taste of what it’s like to work with professional editors, and come to know the do’s and don’ts of submitting manuscripts to publishers.

About the facilitator:

Shobha Viswanath is the co-founder and publishing director of Karadi Tales Company. She has written over 25 children’s books including Little Vinayak which was on the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY) List of Outstanding Books for Young People with Disabilities.

The workshop, limited to 18 participants, is open to those between the ages of 18 and 40. To apply, send a writing sample of not more than 1000 words to manuscripts@karaditales.com with the subject line ‘Writing workshop’ by 30 September 2019. In the email, please include your full name, age, mobile number, a bio-note and 3 story ideas of not more than 50 words each (a synopsis of each idea) which you would like to work on at the workshop. 

Note to applicants

Once you are selected, we will let you know how to remit the fee. Coffee/tea will be provided over the two days, but participants will have to make their own arrangements for lunch.

Conversation with Poomani

Toto Funds the Arts

and

British Council Library, Bangalore 

are delighted to invite you to meet  

Poomani 

The award-winning Tamil author will be in conversation with journalist Anjana Shekar and his translator N Kalyan Raman. 

The evening will focus on the origins of Poomani’s Vekkai (Heat) and Piragu, the author’s literary journey, his concerns as a writer, and his engagement with the times. Kalyan Raman will speak about his process of translation, particularly in relation to Heat. 

Date: Saturday, 31 August 2019.  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: The British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), Bangalore 560 001

Bangalore-based actors Anitha Santhanam and Vivek Vijayakumaran will read extracts from Poomani’s novel Heat (Vekkai), the first of his novels to be translated into English.

Poomani, the name by which generations of Tamil readers have known the writer P Manickavasagam, is considered to be among the greatest living writers in Tamil. Poomani has published seven novels and more than 50 short stories. Vekkai was first published in 1982 and its English translation was published as Heat in May 2019 by Juggernaut Books. Both Vekkai, his second novel, and Piragu, his first, are set in a subaltern rural Tamil landscape. The two books established Poomani, then in his mid-thirties, as a new star in the Tamil literary firmament. A 30^th anniversary edition of Vekkai was brought out in 2012, marking its status as a modernist Tamil classic. In 2014, Poomani won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his magnum opus Angyadi, a historical novel with its central event located in the late 19th century (for which he researched the Nadar community in Madurai and Tirunelveli with a two-year grant from the India Foundation for the Arts). Poomani lives in Kovilpatti in southern Tamilnadu.

N Kalyan Raman is a translator of contemporary Tamil fiction and poetry. He has translated works of fiction by authors ranging from Ashokamitran and Devibharathi to Perumal Murugan, Poomani, Vaasanthi and Salma. His translations of Tamil poetry have been published in important journals and anthologies in India and abroad. Heat is his twelfth volume of translated fiction. Kalyan Raman also contributes essays, articles and reviews on literature, cinema and public policy to leading magazines and journals. He lives in Chennai.

Anjana Shekar started her career in journalism in 2016 as a feature writer (Special Features Team) with The Hindu, Chennai.  She joined The News Minute in 2018 where, in addition to reporting from Tamil Nadu, she covers stories of human interest, culture, history and entertainment. Anjana is currently based in Madurai. 

About Heat (Vekkai)

“A classic tale of oppression, [Heat] provides a visceral understanding of caste violence.”

— Rajni George, Open Magazine

“The moral responsibility of parenthood, and its often contradictory demands for unconditional love, form the most disturbing and moving strain of the book.” — Poorna Swami, liveMint

“Profound and emotional - Poomani has drawn a complete universe evoking both the experience of a fugitive’s life and a world of nature, far away from humanity.” — Perumal Murugan

Creative Journeys 10: Benyamin

Toto Funds the Arts

and the

British Council Library, Bangalore 

are delighted to invite you to the tenth edition of the series

Creative Journeys

Award-winning Malayalam author 

Benyamin

will be in conversation with CK Meena & Nithin Manayath

Date: Saturday, 27 July 2019

  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: The British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross 

(Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), 

 Bangalore 560 001

Extracts from his novels (in English and Malayalam) will be read 

by the Bangalore actors Vivek Vijayakumaran & Abhitej Gupta

BENYAMIN says it was destiny, not fate, that turned him into a writer. Born Benny Daniel in 1971 to a taxi-driver father and housewife mother, he was working as a maintenance engineer in a bank in Bahrain when he plunged into the world of literature. Of his 20-odd novels, short story anthologies and works of non-fiction, his novel Aadujeevitham, which portrays the life of an Indian labourer in Saudi Arabia, won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi award in 2009. Translated into English as Goat Days, it was longlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2012 and shortlisted for the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature in 2013. He won the inaugural JCB Prize for Literature in 2018 for Jasmine Days, translated from his 2014 novel Mullapoo Niramulla Pakalukal, which describes the lives of foreign workers in an unnamed Middle Eastern country on the brink of a revolution. 

C.K. Meena is a freelance writer, author and journalism teacher.

Nithin Manayath teaches in the Communications Department of Mount Carmel College Autonomous.

About Goat Days: "Chilling account of extreme subjugation of body and mind … one of the most gripping books you’ll read."  Shreekumar Varma, The Hindu

"Very seldom in life does a book like Goat Days come along and ruin you for other books . . . You have read it and now other books just don’t compare."  Sheheryar Sheikh, Dawn

About Jasmine Days: "Benyamin’s craft of conversation-driven storytelling succeeds in revealing the tensions in a society starting to unravel."  Faizal Khan, Financial Express 

Previous speakers in TFA’S Creative Journeys Series have been Gieve Patel, Sunil Shanbag, Surupa Sen, Jitish Kallat, Sampurna Chattarji, Susmit Sen, Neel Choudhary and the Tadpole Repertory, Jayant Kaikini and MD Pallavi.

This Series provides a platform for both younger and more experienced writers, filmmakers, performing artists and visual artists to speak about the influences, impulses, processes and thinking that have shaped the art they produce

Finding Your Voice: Workshop by Anmol Vellani

Toto Funds the Arts

in association with Our Theatre

is inviting applications for a workshop on

Finding Your Voice

by Anmol Vellani

Venue: Our Theatre, #298, 3rd floor, 8th A Main Rd, 4th Block, Koramangala, Bengaluru, 560034.

Dates: June 15 &16 (Saturday & Sunday), 2019.

Time: 10.30 a.m. to 6.00 p.m.

This two-day voice workshop, conducted by Anmol Vellani, is intended for performing artists, teachers and others who use their voice extensively in their professional lives. The workshop will explore the whole physiological apparatus of voice production. It will focus on how breathing and the use of the palate, resonators and muscles in the torso influence the quality and fullness of the voice. 

Among the questions the workshop will address are: How do you protect your voice from strain and damage? How do you set your voice and discover its natural pitch? Which vocal habits inhibit the quality and fullness of your voice? How should you breathe and use your muscles and resonators to ensure effortless and strong voice projection? The workshop is designed to enable participants to experience dramatic improvements not only in voice production but also in speech. 
    

Eligibility and deadline

The workshop will be restricted to 20 participants between the ages of 18 and 40.

To apply, please send a bio-note and a short statement of interest, especially a few lines on what you see as the challenges and problems you have with your voice. Applications should be submitted latest by Friday, 7 June 2019 by email to sarita.tfaindia@gmail.com

Selected participants will be expected to memorise a few lines of a text for the workshop, preferably an excerpt from a speech or a play, in a language which they are most comfortable speaking.

Fee:  Rs 3,500 (inclusive of tea/coffee and snacks; participants are responsible for their own lunch.

About the facilitator

Anmol Vellani is the founder and former executive director of the India Foundation for the Arts, an independent philanthropic organisation. He has directed theatre productions in different languages and locations in India and abroad. He has designed courses on theatre design and the arts and management. Anmol now works regularly with performing artists on such subjects as voice, character building and script analysis, and conducts creativity workshops for corporate executives and management students. 

Creative Journeys 8: Jayant Kaikini

Toto Funds the Arts

and

British Council Library, Bangalore

are delighted to invite you to

the eighth talk of TFA’s series Creative Journeys

by the well-known Kannada writer

Jayant Kaikini

Date: Friday, 23 March 2018.  Time: 6.30 p.m.

Venue: British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23, Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), Bangalore

JAYANT KAIKINI is a Kannada poet, short story writer, columnist and playwright living in Bangalore. He has six short-story and five poetry anthologies, three collections of non-fiction, and three plays to his credit; he is also a much sought-after lyricist, script and dialogue writer for Kannada films. Among his many literary awards are the Karnataka Sahitya Academy award which he first won at the age of 19 in 1974 for his debut poetry collection, followed by three more in 1982, 1989 and 1996 for his short story collections. He received the Karnataka State Award for best dialogue and lyrics, and the Filmfare Award for best lyrics in Kannada four times — in 2008, 2009, 2016 and 2017. A well-known television personality, he was conferred with an honorary doctorate from the Tumkur University in 2011 for his contribution to Kannada literature, film and television. His latest book is an anthology of essays on cinema, and his latest short story collection in English translation is No Presents Please: Mumbai Stories (Harper 2017).

His unfettered anecdotal chat in English salted with Kannada, moderated by journalist-author C.K. Meena, will span the ups and downs in his life, his intense relationship with Mumbai, his literary universe, his experiences in television and cinema and — in true Jayant mode — unexpected forays into whatever strikes his mind and stirs his memory.

The TFA Creative Journeys is a series of talks, providing a platform for both younger and more experienced writers, filmmakers, performing artists and visual artists to speak about the influences, impulses, processes and thinking that have shaped the art they produce. 

Previous speakers have been Gieve Patel, Sunil Shanbag, Surupa Sen, Jitish Kallat, Sampurna Chattarji, Susmit Sen and Neel Chaudhuri with The Tadpole Repertory.  

Workshop on Scripting for Short Films: Call for Applications

Scripting for Short Films

Toto Funds the Arts  

in association with British Council Library, Bangalore 

is pleased to announce a two-day workshop on scriptwriting for short films 

by

Irawati Karnik

 

 Venue: British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23 Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum), Bangalore

Dates: Saturday, 24 February and Sunday, 25 February 2018

Time:  10.30 a.m. to 6.30 p.m.

Fee:  Rs 3,500 (For British Library members: Rs. 3,200)

 "The cinema is not an art which films life: the cinema is something between art and life. Unlike painting and literature, the cinema both gives to life and takes from it, and I try to render this concept in my films. Literature and painting both exist as art from the very start; the cinema doesn't."                                                                                                        --  Jean-Luc Godard

What is it about the form of the short film that finds such appeal among the makers as well as the viewers of cinema? To answer this question, this workshop will not only examine the form but also looking into a brief history of cinema and its relationship to the viewers. Participants will be introduced to tools and techniques for writing a short film. The fundamentals of scriptwriting for short films will be explored through some creative exercises, focusing on structure, treatment and characterisation. We will also refer to examples from a variety of short films to arrive at insights into how the writing on the page translates to the screen.

All great artists—in music, drama, literature, in art itself—have an understanding of the rules, whether that knowledge is conscious or not. The aim of the workshop is to explore and examine narrative shape, ask how and why it exists. When do rules help and when might it be a good idea to throw them out of the window. Such an analysis can act a bit like a barium metal: used correctly it illuminates not just all story structure, but all narrative—fictional and otherwise; it breaks open and reveals the very way we perceive and render all experience. 

About the facilitator

IRAWATI KARNIK is a multiple-award-winning writer, translator, director and actor based in Mumbai. She writes in Marathi, Hindi and English. Among her drama scripts are Sex, Morality and Censorship (Hindi) directed by Sunil Shanbag, The A Casting (English, later translated into German) directed by Sophia Stepf, which premiered in Berlin in November 2011, and two scripts that won the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Award for Best Original Script: Gasha (Hindi) directed by Abhishek Majumdar and C Sharp C Blunt (English) directed by Sophia Stepf (Flinttheater, Berlin). She was a dramaturg on the award-winning play Kaumudi (Hindi) written and directed by Abhishek Majumdar. 

Irawati has written a number of full-length feature films in Marathi including Mana Pakharu Pakhar for which she won the Zee Award for Best Dialogue, Medium Spicy, and more recently, Anandi Gopal. Her Marathi plays include Teech Ti Diwali, Vadani Kavala Gheta, Mrugacha Paus, Varle Ahet, Aaltoon Paaltoon, and Chhapa Kata, which is running successfully across Maharashtra. 

The workshop will be limited to 15 participants between the ages of 18 and 35.

Note to applicants

You can apply by sending a mail to sarita.tfaindia@gmail.com, along with a short bio-note and a statement explaining your interest in doing this workshop. 

Deadline for Applications: 15 February, 2018.  

Once you are selected, we will let you know how to remit the fee. Participants will be requested to make their own arrangements for lunch. Coffee and snacks will be provided.

Toto Music Award 2018: Shortlist

Three musicians/bands have been shortlisted for the 2018 Toto Music Award. They are (in alphabetical order):

1. Prabh Deep, New Delhi

2. Rohan Rajadhyaksha, Mumbai

3. The Sine Painter, Bengaluru

TFA congratulates the shortlisted applicants and wishes them best of luck! The winner will be announced at the Toto Awards function in Bengaluru on January 13, 2018.

New Voices in Indian Cinema: Two Films by Mohit Takalkar

Toto Funds the Arts

in association with

The British Council Library

is proud to present the sixth edition of

New Voices in Indian Cinema

with a screening of two films by Mohit Takalkar

Chirebandi  and The Bright Day 

Date: Saturday, 18 November 2017

Venue: The British Council Library, Prestige Takt, 23 Kasturba Road Cross (Opposite Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum) Bengaluru 

Programme: 

11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Chirebandi (90 minutes)

3 p.m. to 5 p.m.

The Bright Day (90 minutes)

(The screenings will be followed by an audience interaction with the director)

About the Films

CHIREBANDI 

A documentary on the playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar, who is widely admired for his relentlessly creative spirit, immaculate craftsmanship, the sweeping canvas of his plays, and his deep understanding of the human psyche. The film aspires to understand the person behind the playwright, demystify his writing process and provide a window into his extraordinary life. It narrates the story of how Elkunchwar, raised in Vidarbha, Maharashtra, became one of India’s most important, prolific and multifaceted playwrights. At its core, the film explores the mystery and sources of creativity, and the playwright’s constant struggle to give creative expression to deep and fundamental truths through the medium of drama. 

THE BRIGHT DAY 

A feature film in Hindi/English about the confusions and dilemmas of a young generation finding their feet in the world and searching for the path they want to take. The film travels through visually diverse and arresting terrains and locales to explore this journey, and depicts inner and outer worlds through strong cinematic imagery. 

The film premiered at the prestigious Toronto International film festival before travelling to film festivals in Shanghai, New York, London, Mumbai, Calgary, Vancouver, The Hague among other places. The cast of the film includes Rajit Kapur, Shernaz Patel, Mohan Agashe and Sarang Sathaye.

About Mohit Takalkar 

Mohit Takalkar has led a life devoted as much to theatre (as a playwright and director) as cinema (as a film editor, director and scriptwriter) for the past 18 years.

Since setting up his theatre group Aasakta in Pune in 2003, Mohit has directed over 30 plays in Marathi, Hindi, Urdu, English, Rajasthani and Kannada. He made his directorial debut with Girish Karnad’s Yayati in 1999. His notable productions have included Mein Huun Yusuf Aur Ye Hai Mera Bhai, F-1/105, Uney Purey Shahar Ek, Comrade Kumbhakarna, Garbo, Kashmir Kashmir and Chotyashya Suttit. 

He has won a slew of awards and fellowships, among them the Homi Bhabha Fellowship, Bismillah Khan Sangeet Natak Award, Shankar Nag Award, Aditya Vikram Birla Kalakiran Puraskar, Sahitya Rangbhoomi Fellowship and Maharashtra State Award. As a Charles Wallace Scholar, Mohit completed his post-graduation (with distinction) in Theatre Practice from the University of Exeter.

He is currently creating a new theatre piece, a monologue in Urdu, Mathemagician, which will have its first shows in November in Mumbai. A trained chef, he also runs a small restaurant, ‘Barometer’, which opened in Pune last August.