Kathakali is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colorful make-up, costumes and face masks that the traditionally male actor-dancers wear. Kathakali is a Hindu performance art in the Malayalam-speaking southwestern region of India (Kerala).
Madhavan Nair, commonly known by his stage name Madhu, is an Indian film actor, director, producer, and former film studio owner, who works in Malayalam cinema.
E. V. Krishna Pillai (1894–1938) was a writer of Malayalam literature and member of Sree Moolam Popular Assembly of Travancore.
Gopynathan Velayudhan Nair, popularly known by the stage name Bharat Gopy, Kodiyettem Gopy, was an Indian film actor, producer and director. He was one of the first actors to be associated with the New Wave cinema movement in Kerala during the 1970s.
Indian theatre is one of the most ancient forms of theatre and it features a detailed textual, sculptural, and dramatic effects which emerged in mid first millennium BC. Like in the areas of music and dance, the Indian theatre is also defined by the dramatic performance defined by the concept of Natya, which is a Sanskrit word for drama but encompasses dramatic narrative, virtuostic dance, and music. Indian theatre exerted influence beyond its borders, reaching ancient China and other countries in the Far East.
Sukumari was an Indian film actress best known for her work in Malayalam and Tamil films.
Kumara Varma is an Indian theatre director. To date, he has directed at least thirty-six Indian and Western plays during the past five decades, including Raja Oedipus, Urubhangam, Mattavilasam, Abhijnana Shakuntalam, Ashadh Ka Ek Din, Baaki Itihas, Uddhwast Dharmashala, Six Characters in Search of an Author, Death Watch, Agg De Kaleere and Leedli Nagari ki Neeti Katha.
Intercultural theater, also known as cross-culturaltheatre, may transcend time, while mixing and matching cultures or subcultures. Mixing and matching is the unavoidable process in the making of inner connections and the presentations of interculturalities. The majority of the works in intercultural theatre deal basically with thinking and doing around the themes, stories, pre-performative or performative concepts of Asian classical theatre or traditional performing arts forms and practices, mixing and matching the concepts or the ideas of the foreign. After the well-known success of Peter Brook's production of the Mahabharata, the trend has been evolving tremendously around the globe and many the cultural institutions of many governments have become directly interested in pushing the boundaries of intercultural senses and sensitivities by financially investing on new theatrical productions, university research, conferences and fellowships
Thottathimyalil Mathew Abraham is an Indian theatre director and playwright. He is the former Vice Chairman of the Kerala Sangeetha Nadaka Academy. He is also the recipient of the Kerala Sangeetha Nadaka Academy awards for playwriting, Kerala Sahitya Academy Award for the play Peruthachan and the Government of Kerala award for best play direction.
Sankar Venkateswaran is an Indian theatre director.
Thirunalan Sasitharan is a Singaporean theatre educator and the co-founder and director of Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), formerly known as the Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP).
Sajitha Madathil is an Indian film and theatre actor. Her performance in Joy Mathew's feature film Shutter (2012) won her the State film award for second best actress. She is the head of the department of Acting at the K. R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science and Arts (KRNNIVSA), an autonomous institute established by the Government of Kerala. She had been the Deputy Secretary of the Sangeet Natak Akademi New Delhi(Academy of Music and Dance, India), an autonomous body under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. She appeared in the feature films Shutter in 2012, in Adimadhyantham in 2011, and in Shalini Usha Nair's feature film Akam in 2011.
Aattakatha is a literary genre in Malayalam language consisting of the libretto used for the Indian classical dance drama kathakali. The word aatta-katha literally means "story for dancing and acting". The narrative framework of aattakatha consists quatrains in Sanskrit metres where the diction also is heavily Sanskritised; the dialogue part, however, is made up of padas, which can be set to raga (tune) and tala (rhythm) and have to be rendered by means of gestures and body movements by the actors while being sung by musicians from behind.
Vayala Vasudevan Pillai was a Malayalam-language playwright from Kerala, India. He was the disciple of eminent playwright G. Sankara Pillai. He directed over 40 plays. Some of his popular plays include Viswadarsanam (1977), Thulaseevaram (1979), Agni (1982), Rangabhasha (1984), Varavelpu (1985), Kuchelagadha (1988), The Death of Nestling (1992), Suthradhara, Ethile... Ethile? (1993), Kunji Chirakukal (1994), and Swarnakokkukal (1999).
Gopala Pillai Sankara Pillai, better known as G. Sankara Pillai, was an Indian playwright, literary critic, and director, known to be one of the pioneers of modern Malayalam theatre. A proponent of total theater, he was the founder of Nataka Kalari movement in Kerala and the chairman of the Kerala Sangeeta Nataka Akademi. He was a recipient of a number of awards including the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Drama in 1964 for the work Rail Palangal and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for the best playwright in 1979.
Mathar Ramakrishnan Gopakumar is an Indian film, television and theatre actor from Kerala. He began his acting career through Malayalam stage plays and later in tele-films and television serials and into films. In his career spanning over four decades, Gopakumar has acted in a wide variety of roles and has worked in both art house and mainstream films.
G. Sankara Pillai Cultural Complex is a cultural center located in the city of Thrissur, Kerala, India. It was inaugurated in 18 January 2014 by K. C. Joseph, Kerala's Minister for Culture. The complex is named after G. Sankara Pillai, one of the best playwrights in Malayalam literature.
Pravasi Express Awards was introduced in 2013 for appreciating personalities for their outstanding contributions to the society and also the admirable endeavour in their chosen field/profession. The awards are being overseen by Pravasi Publications from Singapore who publishes the Pravasi Express Newspaper.
The Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI), formerly known as Theatre Training & Research Programme (TTRP), is a specialised, independent actor-training school in Singapore that offers a three-year full-time programme that trains actors through contemporary approaches and classical Asian theatre training. It is currently under the aegis of Singapore's Committee for Private Education.
