The Artistes' Repertory Theatre, Bangalore
A Dynamic English Language Theatre Company
The Artistes' Repertory Theatre, (ART), is an English language theatre group, formed in 1982 by Arundhati and Jagdish Raja. Their maiden production, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was a great success in Bangalore and South India.
ART, recognising the need for original writing in English, attempts to promote this as much as possible. Over the years however, ART has provided varied fare from comedies to serious drama.
In keeping with the philosophy of being an English language theatre group that is still very Indian, traditional forms of Indian music and dance are often used in various forms. Their production of Animal Farm was one such success.
Another facet of the group's wide ranging repertoire, has been adaptations of various literary works: An Evening with Eliot & Lear, Shakespeare Alive!, Shelley - the man...the poet, Three Men in a Boat, John Keats on his bicentennial.
In March 1998 ART became the first ever Indian Theatre Company to be invited to perform in English in London.
After some years of training workshops, THE ARTISTES' REPERTORY THEATRE - YOUTH was established in 1994 with its first production, RESTLESS - the Spirit of Youth. ART Youth has now become a talented and vibrant group of young people with a production every summer. In 1998 ALICE! The Remix featured over 30 young talents in a tribute to Lewis Carroll in his death centenary.
ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: ARUNDHATI RAJA
Arundhati Raja, is the Artistic Director of The Artistes' Repertory Theatre and ART – Youth. As an actor, she made her debut on the Bangalore stage in 1977 and has since been in over thirty productions in roles as varied as Ma Baker, in Simon's Come Blow Your Horn and Olive in The Odd Couple, Nurse Stephanie in Cactus Flower, Martha in Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Pauline in Ariel Dorfman’s Death and the Maiden and Commander Chin in Theatre Art’s production of M. Butterfly.
Arundhati has directed several of ART's productions, including an adaptation of "Animal Farm" with Indian music and dance. A recent success was ALICE! The Remix – an ART Youth tribute to Lewis Carroll featuring 30 odd young performers.
She was sponsored by the British Council, Madras and the Charles Wallace India Trust for the Arts to participate in a British Council seminar in the UK, on "Advanced Theatre Direction" in June 1994.
LIGHTING DESIGNER AND RESIDENT PLAYWRIGHT: GAUTAM RAJA
Gautam Raja has been in the lighting box from a very young age and began lighting ART shows in 1991. He now designs and executes lighting professionally and has several shows to his credit. A Journalism, English & Psychology graduate, he has been writing for several years with articles published in newspapers and magazines. His first play Admission was written at a workshop run by Mahesh Dattani. His first full-length play RESTLESS - The Spirit of Youth, co-authored with Minakshi Menon, signalled the launch of ART Youth.
He attended a training workshop for young writers at The Royal Court Theatre, London in July '96. This was followed by several short pieces which were presented under the title SHARDS, and which formed part of the production Gati, presented in London in March 1998. His next play, Pecking Orders, was premiered at The Asian Age Theatre festival in November 1997. His most recent plays, Wood and Pub Crawl ran to several shows and won critical acclaim.
He is a new and more importantly, a young voice, in English language theatre.
MUSIC DIRECTOR: TARA KINI
Tara Kini has been singing Hindustani Classical music for the last twenty years and has given many public performances and on All India Radio. Tara received her initial training under Pandit. Narayan Rao Patwardhan of the Gwalior Gharana and holds a bachelor’s degree equivalent in Hindustani Music. She has also conducted workshops and lecture demonstrations. She devised a rendering of Kalidasa's Meghduuta, which was performed as a solo dance drama in Delhi, in 1995.
As ART’s music director she has composed and performed the music for several productions: Animal Farm, Bhagavadajjukam (The Yogi and The Courtesan), Pecking Orders and The Artistes' Repertory Theatre -Youth's productions, Restless - The Spirit of Youth and The Insect Play.
DIRECTOR – MARKETING: JAGDISH RAJA
Jagdish Raja made his stage debut in Bangalore in 1977 and has played, among many other roles, George in Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? And Ui in The Invisible Rise of Arturo Ui.
He has also directed many ART’s productions. He has produced documentaries for television and is a sought after narrator for television, radio and corporate presentations. He has appeared in Granada’s Jewel In The Crown and David Lean’s A Passage To India.Other Places to go:
