23rd March 2017
Meet the Artist – Artists of Ganapati
Krishnayan at 12:00 (Entry Free)
This play was performed by Vinay Kumar, Arvind Rane, Pascal Sieger, Apoorva Arthur, Nimmy Raphel, Anoop Davis
(Performers); Vinay Kumar (Light Designer); Ashiqa Salvan (Light Operation); Kiyomi Mehta,
Anand Satheendran (Technical Help); Veenapani Chawla (Direction, Script, Concept, Music
Arrangement, and Choreography); Sandbox Collective (Executive Producers)
The performance is an interpretation of the birth stories related to the myth of Ganapathi/Martanda (the elephant headed god from the Puranic cycle) from the Vedic cycle.
The performance suggests its concerns largely through different pattern and textures of rhythms. The verbal text is minimal. And both the verbal text and the aural images are supported by visual cues and images. The rhythms used in this piece have been evolved from the rhythms of Koodiyattam music and folk rhythms from various parts of South Asia.
As rituals commemorate myth the performance opens with the ritual creation of an image of Ganapati for the annual festival, by a group of artisans. It is a structured play in a recurring cycle of creation, celebration, destruction and return of the myth of Ganapati. These are narrated by an actor from different points of view.
This production emerged from a grant made by the India
Foundation for the Arts to Adishakti on the topic Rhythm
as a Text in Koodiyattam and Contemporary Theatre.
