Avartan adieus University of Hyderabad

               

     Hello friends, this is Avartan. Hope you all are doing well. If you have little time please read it. We promise we will not take much time of yours. Well, as you know Avartan is a group of students from different departments of University of Hyderabad who used to do some cultural activities. But due to some problems aroused in front of us now onwards we have decided to close all our student oriented activities in the campus. By the way we would also like to say that Avartan is a registered professional theatre group in the city of Hyderabad. But soon after its establishment and our personal involvements with UoH slowly we found ourselves in the midst of students. With the time we found that our main goal of a professional theatre group is almost vanished and rather we turned into a student community group conducting various kinds of activities. Yes, we were very happy on that.

                    We continued our activities in the campus and most of you have probably witnessed some of it. But very recently we found ourselves in little trouble. The main reason is we were refused to continue our activities in the place where we used to do earlier and it is very difficult to do work without any shelter. The next thing is though we don’t have any allegation with anyone but we found that directly or indirectly we are being watched unnecessarily by some people. The reason may be those people thought that Avartan is getting much limelight and probably they took Avartan as a threat to them. Thus these people never supported Avartan and its activities in the campus. But believe us we never wanted to trouble anyone. On the other side we found very supportive people also from inside and outside the campus. We thank all of them for their support, well wishes and for being with us. Same time we thank the Vice Chancellor sir of University of Hyderabad for his extended support always. But we understand his and our limitations too.

                     It is not any poster or counter poster or posterbaji, it is just a modest poster addressing campus community and revealing what forced us to take this decision. The poster is just to say thanks and good bye to all. We just cannot escape silently. Simply because we consider that the whole campus community was the stakeholder of Avartan and it is our duty to inform them about our decision that we are not continuing our activities at UoH. It is to say that we love you people and certainly we are going to miss you. We know you too liked us and we thought we should give minimum respect to you by informing about our decision and future plans. Well future plans, yes from now onwards Avartan will continue its theatre activity as a professional group in Hyderabad and elsewhere. For that we need your support and blessings too. We are sad and sorry if Avartan heartened you in any way in the course of time. We believe what we have decided is good for all of us. You say, after doing all this voluntary work who can expect a call to his or her head or guide. Anyway leave it that is a different story. So, good bye, Alvida University of Hyderabad.

avartanhyderabad@gmail.com

Invitation for the Avartan Workshop Play 2012...

          

Respected Mam/Sir,

We, Avartan, a community theater group based in the University of Hyderabad, cordially invite you to the following events:

1. A Painting exhibition; The paintings of all those who participated in our recent event "Saare
Zameen Par" will be exhibited.
2. A Book Release (Hyderabad); “On the Croosroads of Theatre” written by Dr. Satyabrata Rout, Associate Professor, Department of Theatre Arts, S N School, University of Hyderabad.
3. Two of Plays; presentations by the Avartan Workshop participant 2012, “Kafan” (Written by Munshi Premchand) and “Inspecter Matadin Chand Par” (Written by Harishankar Parsai).

The events will start from 6.00 PM at Rangabhumi, Near School of Medical Science, University of Hyderabad, Gachibowli, Hyderabad - 500046

Your presence will greatly encourage us to continue our activities with greater zeal. We, therefore, request you join us and grace the occasion thereby making it a successful one.

Thank You
Avartan Hyderabad

avartanhyderabad@gmail.com

9494242645

For the Sake of Theatre, Avartan at Postnoon...

For a long time the old campus of Sarojini Naidu School in the University of Hyderabad lay abandoned. But of late the place is abuzz with activity, loud dialogues and music on almost any given evening. Ever since the place was taken over by Avartan, a theatre group comprising of students from across academic disciplines, the school has been the hub of all workshops and rehearsals for upcoming theatre performances.

Avartan, an independent theatre club of UoH, aims to spread awareness abo­ut theatre and its possibilities am­o­ng students. With objectives like personality development, performing skills and understanding the applied theatre, the club was found in 2007 under the supervision of few faculties from the University Theatre Arts department.

“Though our university provi­des theatre as an academic subject, it has limitations to accommodate more people. The idea of an independent theatre group came to my mind after I decided to train more people in the performing arts,” says Satyabrata Rout, the founder of Avartan and associate professor of University Theatre Arts department. “The club primarily seeks to empower students from different communities. It comprises of students from various cultures, communities and academic backgrounds and allows them to share their performing abilities,” he adds.

The participatory nature of the club is widely recognised on the campus. According to the members, Avartan has an inclusive platform for them to express and improve their skills. “Since my school days, I was attracted to theatre, and I used to take part in different plays back home. After joining UoH, Avartan became my platform to spruce up my acting abilities,” says Krishnasoni, a Hin­di PhD student from Bihar. “Now, being with this group, I am getting the opportunity to write and direct plays,” adds Krishna, secretary of the club.

For some students, the group has been an important part in their campus life, which helped them to network with people. “Avartan workshops helped me get along with students from different academic backgrounds, and it also taught me team spirit,” says Shikha Sharma, an MA Linguistic student. “In future, even after my university life, I would love to take part in theatre plays, if given a chance,” she grins.

Tarun Dhariwal, a student of M.Tech Artificial Intelligence, finds Avartan analyses important social issues through its plays. “I like to entertain people for different social causes. Undoubtedly this club has been encouraging my interests,” he says. Though Tarun is going to take up a job as an engineer he doesn’t want to discontinue his experiments with theatre. “Avartan has inspired me tremendously and in the future, I would like to be an engineer-cum-theatre artiste,” he says.

What makes Avartan a winner with most students is that it produces multilingual plays. “On stage, we are given the opportunity to deliver dialogues in whichever language we are proficient,” says Princy, a student of linguistics from Kerala.

She also thinks that the club helps beginners, like her, in theatre production. “Though I didn’t have any previous experience, they encouraged me to do an important role in the previous play. Now I am confident enough to stretch my abilities,” she says.

Avartan conducts workshops in every semester and train students in various techniques of theatre. So far, more than 10 plays have been staged in the campus. Some of the plays also have been staged at other universities in Goa and Chhattisgarh.

KK Abdul Rahoof...

Avartan X-Press Saturday, 12 November 2011

Today’s “Avartan X-Press” talk will be given by Professor Harjinder Singh (Laltu Ji). He will speak on his short stories and read his poems too. Sir has said it will be like a solo performance. Though, Laltu Ji needs not any introduction to us but still a brief one for all. Interestingly he is a man of science. Currently he is Prof.  & Head, Center for Computational Natural Sciences and Bioinformatics, IIIT, Hyderabad. B.Sc. from Presidency College, Calcutta University, M. Sc. from IIT, Kanpur and holds his Ph. D. from Princetown University, USA. He has huge complex research interests which we may not understand. He is a visiting fellow of lots of national and international institutions. He also got several awards and honours and held administration position too. And yes sir has a long list of publications which is impossible to read here. But finally he is a lover of theatre and arts and often encourages too. He writes poetry and short stories also. He has several collections of poetry and short stories which got published and he translates also. Avartan is happy getting him for the first day talk.

Here are some links for you regarding Laltu Ji…

http://www.iiit.net/people/faculty/harjinder

http://faculty.iiit.ac.in/~laltu/index.html

http://faculty.iiit.ac.in/~laltu/hindi.html

http://laltu.blogspot.com/

Please come and witness the inaugural of “Avartan X-Press”. Invite your friends and make it a huge successful event.

Avartan Theatre for All...

Students of the university will now be able to learn theatre and also get to perform, thanks to Avartan.

Avartan is the first of its kind theatre club set up in the University of Hyderabad by Satyabrata Rout. It was setup in 2010 with the aim of spreading awareness about theatre among students. It actually began in 2007, in the name of Theatre Club of S N School with a small group of students interested in theatre. The group wanted to do drama outside the theatre department, so as to take drama to all kinds of students.

            The group staged a lot of performances across North India in 2007 and hence gained immense popularity. With a wish to promote theatre awareness, personality development and ‘applied theatre’, which is not just confined to theatre; it seeks to empower students. “We get students from different streams. For a lot of students, especially from science backgrounds, it’s about creative relaxation. They spend so much time studying that drama is like a creative distraction to them,” explains Mr. Rout.

            The workshop is conducted every semester for a period of 10 days for two hours in order to benefit students from all streams. “We have a screening procedure for students who apply, where we interview and then shortlist them. There has been an overwhelming response from the students, which is good news, but we take a limited number of students only.”

He further added, “We can definitely do with more support from the administration, as we are still growing and have great potential.” The workshop first enlists students, trains them in theatre, and by the end of the course, a play is staged by the students for all to see. The students, on completion of the course get a certificate from Avartan. “Being an autonomous club, we don’t act in accordance to any department, not even the Theatre Arts department where we actually work,” he added.

Srinivas, an MA Communication student, who attended the workshop last semester says, “It was a dream come true for me. It brought out the latent talent and gave me a lot of confidence. The idea of a student from a non-theatre background performing on stage to an audience is an exhilarating experience.”

Avartan also plans to work with slum kids in nearby villages and with the spastic society to push the boundaries of applied theatre. They recently staged a play called – Waiting for Godot at Lamakan, a cultural centre in the city. “We are having a performance in the university on the 22^nd of October at the DST auditorium and on the 23^rd at the NIFT,” Mr. Rout said.