AAMAAR KATHA Binodini’s autobiography, written long after she quit the stage, is not only a riveting account of the turmoil and trauma experienced by a woman artist in her long journey towards being accepted by bhadralok society, but also becomes a document of how a traditional people falteringly transit towards a new colonial world, trying at each step, to come to terms with its pressures.
Theatre & Television Associates was established in 1985 as a production company specializing in the performing arts, the visual arts, television projects, and the management of cultural events, both national and international.
Over the past 25 years, TTA has made a consolidated attempt to explore different aspects of Indian culture, the primary aim being to project a modern indigenous sensibility in the arts, in a contemporary context. This has involved working in a number of inter-related disciplines like theatre, dance, painting, cinema and television.
Nissar Allana
ERENDIRA is a devised performance event that celebrates an intercultural encounter between Latin American and India. The wholly fantastical journey of the grandmother and her exploited granddaughter, takes place across the deserts of Rajasthan. Using a Rajasthani/Hindi dialect, Amal reinvents the Marquez story into one of women, told by women.
Disseminating our ideas through exhibitions on various aspects of contemporary Indian theatre, through television documentaries on contemporary Indian art, through talks, lectures, seminars on performance practice, Theatre and Television Associates seeks to open up audiences to critical discernment and debate of the art scene in India. The question of a post- colonial modernism that has its roots in tradition and derives from an Asian context has played an instrumental role in the choice of substance, style and aesthetics of our work
In the year 2000, Theatre & Television Associates, expanded its activities to include a new endeavour, The Dramatic Art & Design Academy (DADA), a training institute for acting and design. DADA is known for its innovative and integrated approach towards developing a new methodology for training actors and designers.
The Dramatic Art and Design Academy (DADA) New Delhi, India established in August 2000 is a private academy for training in the theatre arts, and provides courses in Acting, Stage and Costume Design and Public Speaking/Anchoring. The training programme is based on new methodologies evolved using Western and Asian, contemporary and traditional training techniques.
DADA is led by its Director, Nissar Allana, an eminent stage and lighting designer. It is co-founded along with the well known theatre director, Amal Allana. Both rank among India’s foremost theatre practitioners, their work having been critically acclaimed in India and abroad. With several decades of experience behind them in founding and running theatre companies, in Mumbai as well as Delhi, they continue to enrich the experience of theatre going in the respective cities.
DADA is unique in that its faculty consists of a core group of highly trained professional actors, designers, architects and media persons, dedicated to providing training by integrating traditional Indian and international performance practice. The hallmark of DADA is that these subjects are integrated so that students of acting and design work together, providing them with a holistic means of culling out a new performance language. Productions, exhibitions, seminars, workshops and guest lectures are open to the public and help to spread awareness and appreciation of theatre.
Amal Allana
METROPOLIS The play begins with Nora Helmer of Norway, opening her door into the tumultuous, apocalyptic city of Mumbai. With this gesture of her leaving her home, she enters our play, our country, and proceeds to discover a new destiny for herself.
