NAPA play to be staged in India

Khwabon Kay Musafir is set to be staged at the 13th Bharat Rung Mahotsav in January 2011.


Saadia Qamar September 24, 2010

KARACHI: The National Academy of Performing Arts’ (Napa) production Khwabon Kay Musafir is set to be staged at the 13th Bharat Rung Mahotsav in January 2011. The annual art-theatre festival is organised under the aegis of the National School of Drama in New Delhi.

The festival plans to bring theatre groups from around the world on one platform.

Khawabon Kay Musafir was written by Intizar Hussain. According to Napa’s Artistic Director Rahat Kazmi, it “was originally staged for radio in the 1970s and is in Urdu. (It is) beautiful and lyrically flawless.”  The play was directed by Zia Mohyuddin for Napa.

The plot revolves around Kishwar’s (played by Aiman Tariq) household, her mother Booji (Bakhtawar Mazhar) who is concerned about her marital prospects but things don’t appear to fall into place.

Akbar Islam, the associate director of the play told The Express Tribune, “I am very excited to be a part of this upcoming theatre festival.” He said that the eight cast members of the play which includes Aiman Tariq, veteran TV actor Ayesha Khan, Akbar Islam, Bakhtawar Mazhar, Ali Shiekh, Ali Rizvi, Owais Mangalwala and Rauf Afridi, as well as the stage and light directors will be travelling to India for the play.

Aiman Tariq says, “It is an amazing thing to be able to perform in India, I have had the honour of previously performing in Indian cities such as Kolkata, Murshidabad, Amritsar and of course New Delhi.” Tariq, who has acted in TV serials says, “My focus remains theatre.”

This is the second Napa production that will be staged at the festival. At the 12th Bharat Rung Mahotsav, Zain Ahmad’s Shakuntala was presented at the festival.

Durvesh Arya, a recent graduate of New Delhi’s National School of Drama says that the school has been promoting the world theatre festival in the form of Bharat Rung Mahotsav since 1999.

“At the 12th Bharat Rung Mahotsav (held in January 2010) 14 countries from around the globe participated in the event,” Arya said. Napa’s students staged Shakuntala, and Arya says, “It was great that actors from Pakistan were doing a Sanskrit play which was translated into Urdu.”

Other Pakistani theatre groups including Sheema Kermani’s Tehrik-i-Niswan and Madeeha Gohar’s Ajoka have previously participated in the festival.

Published in The Express Tribune,  September 25th, 2010.

COMMENTS (3)

Zeeshan Zaidi | 13 years ago | Reply great news !
akbar islam | 13 years ago | Reply nice coverage saadia best of luck
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