Academic Thespians Participate in Students’ Theatre Festival at Jaffna University.
The Academic Thespians Students Association has been invited to take part in a student theatre festival organized by the Department of Drama and Theatre Arts, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan Faculty of Performing and Visual Arts, University of Jaffna.
The festival will be held from August 17 to 18, 2023, at the Kailasapathi Auditorium, University of Jaffna. The Jaffna students’ theatre festival is titled “Emerging Voices,” encouraging students to develop as professional theatre practitioners and engage with the public.
Three newly produced short plays staged at the recently showcased Academic Thespians Theatre Festival (ATTF 2023) from July 22nd to July 28th, 2023, will be staged at the Jaffna students’ theatre festival. රතු පාට මල් (Red Flowers) by Naduni Wanigasekera, හණමිටිකාරයෝ (He Who Says Yes) by Bertolt Brecht, and බූෂුවා සාදය (Bourgeoisie Sadaya) Bourgeoisie Party by Anupama Kokila Abeydheera will be performed on the 17th and 18th of August 2023.
Five academics from the Department of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance, including Prof. Saumya Liyanage, Prof. Indika Ferdinando, Mr. Ranga Manupriya, Ms. Nipuni Sharada Pathirage, and Mr. Jagath Padmasiri, will be participating in the festival. This festival visit is supported by the Social Reconciliation (SRC) Centre at UVPA Colombo and the Dept. of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance, Faculty of Dance and Drama, UVPA Colombo.
Thespians’ New Play, ඇස් ඉස් මස් (Body Parts) Will be staged at Pera Wala Festival in August 2023
The final year graduation production, ඇස් ඉස් මස් (Body Parts) produced by the Department of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance, Faculty of Dance and Drama UVPA Colombo will be staged at Peradeniya Sarachchandra Amphitheatre on the 24th August 2023.
ඇස් ඉස් මස් is a play adapted from the original play titled The Visit by Austrian playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt. The play explores the patriarchal and crime centric lifestyle of a tycoon whose journey has begun in the gutters of lumpen political and cultural degradation. Haunted by his past, he is now forced to confront the crises of his own moral decadence.
This play was staged at the 2nd day of the Academic Thespians Theatre Festival (ATTF) 2023 and received wider audience responses.
Dr. Deborah Leiser-Moore Conducts Suzuki Actor Training Workshop for the second time in Sri Lanka.
Dr. Deborah Leiser – Moore, a versatile performer, director, an actor trainer and an academic working in the field of theatre and performance in Melbourne will be at the Dept. of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance to conduct a two day long-acting workshop on 28-29 Aug 2023.
This year, Dr. Leiser-Moore will be continuing Suzuki method actor training workshop for the second time at the Department of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance. On the first day, 28th August, the workshop will be conducted at Kolamba Kamatha rehearsal space. The second day workshop will be conducted at the AHEAD Actors Lab at the Faculty of Dance and Drama.
The application for the workshop will be circulated in social media to attract prospective candidates and 25 applications will be accepted for the workshop. The registration fee for the workshop is Rs 7500.
Dr. Leiser-Moore visited the University of Visual and Performing Arts in 2019 to conduct Suzuki Method actor training workshop for the first time in Sri Lanka and it was organized by Prof. Saumya Liyanage, the then Dean of the Faculty of Graduate Studies, UVPA Colombo. It was a two weeks long actor Training workshop conducted at the Faculty of Dance and Drama and nearly 20 participants attended this workshop to learn how Japanese theatre director and theorist Tadashi Suzuki developed his actor training methodology now known as Suzuki Method actor training.
At the end of this workshop a film titled unHowsaid directed by Dr. Deborah Leiser-Moore is scheduled to be screened at Panibharatha Theatre at 6.30 pm. Faculty of Dance and Drama, University of the Visual and Performing Arts, Colombo. This event is free for public. This film is developed through a multidisciplinary performance project designed and directed by Dr. Leiser-Moore and has represented many international theatre and film festivals, including Alabama International Fringe Festival Digital Program, Alabama, USA 2023, ProAct Festival, Kyiv, Ukraine 2022, SerformanceP Festival, Sao Paulo, Brazil 2021, Cairo International Festival of Experimental Theatre, Egypt (pre-recorded and in competition) 2020 to name a few.
Thespians performed at the Jaffna Student Theatre Festival 2023
Academic Thespians Student Association from the Dept. of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance, Faculty of Dance and Drama, University of the Visual and Performing Arts (UVPA), visited Jaffna University recently and performed three short plays at the first student theatre festival titled ‘Immerging Voices, organised by the Dept. of Drama and Theatre Arts, Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan Faculty of Performing and Visual Arts, University of Jaffna.
හණමිටිකාරයෝ, රතු පාට මල් and බූෂුවා සාදය were staged on the 17th and 18th of August 2023 at Professor Kailasapathi Auditorium, University of Jaffna.
This is the first time that students of the Dept. of Theatre, Ballet, and Modern Dance have taken part in a theatre festival in Jaffna. This tour was organised with the invitation of the Head of the Department, Dr. Navadarshani Karunaharan, and with the support of the festival director, Ms. R. Thavachchelvi. The tour was also supported by the Social Reconciliation Centre (SRC) at UVPA Colombo.
Prof. Indika Ferdinando, Mr. Ranga Manupriya, and Ms. Nipuni Sharada Pathirage represented the Department of Theatre Ballet and Modern Dance, UVPA Colombo, at the Jaffna Student Theatre Festival 2023.