Gillo's Bangalore tour in July 2015

We are returning to Bangalore this month!

 Hanuman Ki Ramayan
A swang-nautanki in Hindi
Suggested age 8+ / 45 mins performance + 45 min interaction

Based on a story by Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik 
Published by Tulika Books
Nautanki adaptation & music by Pt. Ram Dayal Sharma
Directed by Dr. Devendra Sharma

Valmiki has barely put his pen down after completing his magnificent creation, the epic Ramayan, when he realises he has competition. The sage Narad tells him that there is a better Ramayan, written by Hanuman. Valmiki is devastated! And when Hanuman sees Valmiki so upset, what does he do?

Since 2012 it has been performed in Mumbai, Bhopal, Pune and New Delhi with over 50 shows.

Performers: Hetal Varia Prasad Dagare Ghanshyam Tiwari Vighnesh Sinkar Vinati Makijany Manoj Karki Ravindra Belwanshi Janit Temkar

Shows:

Fri 24th July 4.30pm at Seva Sadan, Malleswaram

Sat 25th July 11.00am at Suchitra Film Society, Banashankari

Sun 26th July 4.00pm at Antara Collective, Harlur, off Sarjapur Road (presented by Antara Collective and Think Arts)

Tickets: http://in.bookmyshow.com/bengaluru/plays/hanuman-ki-ramayan/ET00031865

She-he-shey

Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore's 'Shey' (Multilingual)

A play for all above 12 years

Original Bengali Text Rabindranath Tagore
English Translation Aparna Chaudhari
Adaptation & Direction Shaili Sathyu
Choreography Hamsa Moily
Music Anagh Banerjee & Mithila Lad
Production Design Abir Patwardhan
Light Design Sananda Mukhopadhyay

She-He-Shey is a stage adaptation of Tagore’s book ‘Shey’ (Se), a collection of stories of extraordinary adventures, created for his nine-year old granddaughter Nandini. To keep the tales spinning he employs ‘Shey’, a person constituted entirely of words and rather talented at concocting tales. This stage adaptation is a free flowing response to the stories in the book Shey, set in a collage along with poems and paintings by Tagore.
Originally commissioned by Happenings Kolkata for Rabindra Utsav 2013, this play has also been performed at Santiniketan and at Nandikar's National Theatre Festival.

Cast: Vighnesh Sinkar Prasad Dagare Hetal Varia Vinati Makijany Ghanshyam Tiwari Naman Banthia Jigna Khajuria Amit Bhargava

Show:

Fri 24th July 7.00pm at Seva Sadan, Malleswaram

Tickets: http://in.bookmyshow.com/bengaluru/plays/she-he-shey/ET00031726

Tickets for all shows available at www.bookmyshow.com

Further details at www.gillogilehri.blogspot.com

Contact gillo.gilehri@gmail.com OR +919167000458

Discount available for group bookings of 10 seats and above.

TURN INTERN - a summer internship for young people

After staging plays for children for five years, we decided it was time to get them over to the other side. So we announced a summer internship programme called Turn Intern and offered it to young people who had either been a part of one of our workshops or drama clubs over the past five years.

Two young men joined us at the end of April. Pratik and Samar, both who had been a part of Gillo's Saturday Drama Club.

Group photo from our play GULABO AUR PARIZAAD.

At top left is Pratik and at bottom right is Samar.

Here are excerpts from their reflections.

Samar Jaswal, student in Std.9

"Even after attending two children workshops with Gillo, my heart was still pounding with fear the first time that I arrived at Akshara High School. The ride from my house to the school was filled with anxiety, I was worried thinking what kind of people will there be, how they would treat me. 

Will they be friendly, abusive or authoritative to a new comer? 

As I walked into this huge hall called 'activity room', everyone who was practicing turned towards me and smiled. All the thoughts that I had previously, vanished. A formal introduction made by our director-shaili ma’am eased me a lot and made me feel like I was at home. 

I have since then grown a lot as a person. I learnt how to manage time, how to get the best in a limited amount of money, how to work in a team and how not to waste food. I have had a lot of fun moments and some bad ones too… I really became good friends with nearly everyone and only I know how much we used to crack jokes backstage and in the green room, and Pratik giving me tips and advice on how to do work...

The journey from activity room to the stage of Prithvi theatre was amazing, great  learning, a first positive step towards my goal under able guidance. I wish to continue. Thank you Gillo."

Pratik Shah, student in Std. 11

"When the final bell rings, all the faces are lit up with a bright smile as the recurring thoughts on the land of dreams is finally allowed into the real world. That is how the last day of school before the highly awaited summer break ends. The students minds are all engulfed with plans to make the coming summer most exciting as ever. When most people were considering swimming or tennis as the ultimate "life-sorted" choice, my mind was obstinate enough to allow me do only one thing- Theatre.

So that is how I ended up getting Gillo Summer Internship. Well I was quite skeptical when I first entered . The reason? I had done a documentary the year before and that experience while shooting and dubbing had helped me develop a strong prejudice for people in this industry.

But when the truth unveiled itself, my thoughts were proved wrong as I realized that Gillo lay unaffected by the negative touch of reality. I was given an amazing warm welcome on the first day itself and the next one month seemed full of optimism.

As the days passed, I learnt amazing things and quite fully understood the process of play preparation. I realised that the script of a play has many improvisation sessions before it is finally     ready and our director, Shaili, was kind enough to allow the actors and production members try out their improvisation in various scenes. Another thing that I learned was time management -The sum total of all experiences while planning rehearsals and scheduling transport of props made me realize the true meaning of the proverb "Time is Money".

There were many obstacles in our play, for instance once the tempo was too small to load the props or at times the actors had not learnt their lines, but facing all the technical and other problems without letting pessimism hindering the objective was another thing that I learnt.

Another amazing thing that I learnt was the smart usage of actors to satisfy the script of the play.(Spoiler Alert!) For example in "Taoos Chaman Ki Myna ", Hetal Varia plays the role of the protagonists mother as well the wife of a British Officer (Double Role!!) without even the audience realizing it !!

So in this one month I learnt time management, money saving, account management, play formation process and many other amazing things which can never be taught in school or through books. It only comes through experience.

So in short - It was a summer well spent."

A big thank you to Samar and Pratik for joining us this summer!

Join our team

Gillo Theatre Repertory is in the process of expanding its team for the next 12 months (work period July 2015 to June 2016)

If you are interested in working in THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES (that means target audience of 2 to 18 years), then write to us and register for our Orientation Workshop. (You MUST be above 18 years).

You may be interested in acting or singing or writing or direction or design or music or dance or whatever else...

Lets find out more about each other and see if we would like to work together.

(Kindly do not register if you are looking for an acting class or a weekend hobby class in drama)

You can read more about us on our Blog www.gillogilehri.blogspot.in and Facebook page www.facebook.com/GilloGilehri

PLEASE REGISTER by sending us your name, email id, contact number and a short note about yourself and why you want to attend this workshop.
Email to gillo.gilehri@gmail.com

Participation in this event is subject to confirmation from Gillo.

DATE: Saturday 27th June

TIME: 4pm to 6pm

VENUE FOR THE WORKSHOP: Multipurpose hall, Akshara High School. Kandivili West. Mumbai

GULABO AUR PARIZAAD

Gillo Theatre Repertory’s GULABO AUR PARIZAAD

A charming little tale about a little mouse and an even littler elf.

LANGUAGE Urdu

DURATION: 1 hr (no interval)

Gulabo aur Parizaad is a story about a little mouse and a parizaad (elf). The play is based on two stories by Begum Qudsia Zaidi, published in the 1950s.

How do you make friends with someone who is most unlike you? Getting to know this new person can be funny and strange, all at the same time. The parizaad shares his stories from across the universe and takes Gulabo on a wonderful, magical journey.

They become friends, they play and party together and finally part ways. This is a charming tale of a friendship that lasts a few moments, but is remembered for a lifetime.

About Begum Zaidi

Begum Qudsia Zaidi, writer, social worker and theatre practitioner, is best remembered for her pioneering role in establishing the Hindustani Theatre in Delhi in the 1950s. But Begum Zaidi's first love was writing for children. She was very fond of illustrated stories. During her days in Rampur she wrote and translated a number of books for children and this interest was to continue all her life. In Delhi she became an active part of Shankar's Weekly Children's Art Competitions and Book Trust. She was encouraged to continue writing children’s stories and plays in Urdu by Dr.Zakir Hussain, an eminent educationist who later became the President of India. ‘Chacha Chakkan ke draamey’ is one of her most loved and performed series of plays for children. Among her stories, 'Gandhi Baba ki Kahani' and 'Gulabo chuhiya aur gubbare' have been most popular and still in print.

About Gillo

Gillo Theatre Repertory works exclusively in Theatre for Young Audiences, which includes content development, performance and training. Our focus is on developing and showcasing original Indian content; developing value for performing arts; creating age-specific performances; training performers and making theatre more accessible to children.

We have a group of adult performers who stage short and full length plays for children of different age groups. Our current productions include Kyun-Kyun Ladki Hanuman Ki Ramayan, Taoos Chaman Ki Myna, She-He-Shey and other short plays. Though created for younger audiences, many of our productions equally appeal to adult and as a result we are now regularly invited to perform at theatre festivals across India.

Creative workshops for children, teachers and parents are an important part of our effort to engage children and their community with the theatre arts.

CAST & CREDITS

Story: Begum Qudsia Zaidi

Adaptation: Shaili Sathyu

Design: Abir Patwardhan

Music: Hetal Varia

Movement: Timira Gupta

Cast: Devina Medda, Ghanshyam Tiwari, Vinati Makijany, Janit Temkar, Amit Bhargava, Manoj Karki

Production team: Tanya Mahajan, Afsana Ahmed, Shreyans Iyer, Jigna Khajuria, Pratik Shah, Nishna Mehta and others

For more information on Begum Qudsia Zaidi and the centenary celebrations, see
https://www.facebook.com/BegumQudsiaZaidi and
http://www.begumqudsiazaidi.wordpress.com/

20th March - World Day of Theatre for Children and Young People

​

20th March is celebrated as WORLD DAY OF THEATRE FOR CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE.

This is an ASSITEJ campaign, promoted and celebrated through the message

'Take a Child to the Theatre Today'.

ASSITEJ (International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People) is a network organisation spread over 60 countries. It has institutional as well as individual members. In India we have over 35 members and are growing as a network body.

World Day is a global campaign which is celebrated by ASSITEJ through its members as well as Networks with affiliates across 100 countries.

Since 2001, each year there has been a World Day message by a different theatre-related personality like Peter Brook, Augusto Boal, Suzanne Osten, Suzanne Lebeau, Michael Morpurgo, among others. There is also a new message each year from the President of ASSITEJ:http://www.assitej-international.org/about/world-day.

The focus is to enable ASSITEJ members, performing companies, arts organisations, academics, teachers, artists, practitioners and others interested in theatre for young audiences to connect with the idea of World Day and ‘make the case’ for children’s entitlement to theatre and the arts.

In Mumbai, Gillo Theatre Repertory and Tram Theatre shall be presenting performances to celebrate this day.

Gillo shall perform its play HANUMAN KI RAMAYAN and Tram shall perform snippets from its play ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Date: 20th March

Time: 6pm

Venue: BCCA Hall, Bhavans Campus, Andheri West, Mumbai

Entry is free, but registration via email is advised. (Contact gillo.gilehri@gmail.com)

https://www.facebook.com/events/1421668774800328/

This celebration is supported by Bhavans Cultural Centre, Andheri.

Gillo turns five!

Gillo Theatre Repertory completed five years in December 2014. We thank all our young and old friends, supporters, well-wishers, audience and donors for being a part of our journey.

The past five years have been engaging and enriching for our team as we have explored and expanded our work across languages and forms.

Gillo is now a registered public trust and moves into a new phase of work in the area of theatre for young audiences, arts education as well as engagements with schools and NGOs. More details shall be available soon on our new website.

Cast and crew of our play 'Taoos Chaman Ki Myna' at a show for Junoon's School Programme

As we looked back at our work, here are some numbers that we put together:
5 years
12 productions
4 languages
14 theatre festivals
16 cities / towns
50 schools
170 shows
30000 audience
90 cast and crew

We look forward to bring you more in 2015 and the years ahead!

Gillo