14th META To Confer Lifetime Achievement Award on Mahesh Elkunchwar...META 2019 Jury And More...
February 28, 2019 3:55:37 PM IST MTG editorial
The Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) has announced that the META 2019Lifetime Achievement Award will be conferred on one of India's most progressive playwrights, Mahesh Elkunchwar. He is critically-acclaimed and widely-known for having experimented with a wide range of drama and is a powerful force in both Indian and Marathi theatre for over three decades.
The jury for the 14th edition of the Awards was also announced and comprises renowned theatre artist, actor and screenwriter Akash Khurana, founder and former Executive Director of India Foundation for the Arts Anmol Vellani, popular Indian actress, singer and TV personality Ila Arun, eminent Indian actor, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Managing trustee of Nrityagram and one of India's first professional female lighting designers Lynne Fernandez, former editor of The Hindu and curator of the annual thought conclave 'The Huddle' Mukund Padmanabhan, internationally-renowned dance historian, scholar, author and critic Sunil Kothari, and former Director of Yatrik, the oldest theatre group in the capital, and presently Director of the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, Sunit Tandon.
The Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) and its festival will be held held from March 6th to 12th 2019 at New Delhi's Kamani Auditorium and Shri Ram Centre, where META 2019's ten-shortlisted plays will be performed for an esteemed panel of jury members, as well as theatre-lovers in the capital.
Breaking previous records, over 400 entries were received this year at META, which were viewed by an eminent Selection Committee, comprising well-known theatre practitioners. This year's final nominations feature plays in Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil, along with Hindi and English. The shortlisted plays, this year, will explore several themes.
Curated in association with the Drama School Mumbai (DSM), META will also be conducting Learning@META, a series of workshops and panel discussions which will feature theatre-practitioners and META-nominated stalwarts. The workshops are an extension of META's endeavour to nurture Indian theatre and build a community of practitioners dedicated to the craft. It is also aimed at enhancing public engagement with theatre and developing an understanding for the multitude of skills and techniques that are involved in putting together quality theatre productions. This year, the panel discussions will focus on the idea of starting up and running theatre companies.
The media launch of the META Festival at The Taj Mahal Hotel in New Delhi hosted a panel discussion - 'Is theatre the much-needed valve on the proverbial socio-political pressure cooker of our times?' The panel, moderated by Sanjoy K. Roy, included V.K. Sharma, Sanyukta Saha, Deepan Sivaraman, and Shilpi Marwah, and looked at theatre's role as a key outlet for the countless stress-points created within social and political ecosystems.
The Schedule of the Festival:
*Mumbai Theatre Guide takes no responsibility for change in schedule.
