Natya darpan ADVISORS

is Professor of the Department of Theatre and Film Studies, University of Georgia/Athens. Recent productions he has directed include, Silence! The Court is in Session, Romance in the Garden, and Tartuffe for the Indian Cultural Society of East Brunswick, The Little Clay Cart, Sacrifice, and Hayavadana for Epic Actors Workshop, as well as Romeo and Juliet,Hamlet, and A Christmas Carol for Circle Ensemble Theatre of Athens, Georgia. 

He continues to develop a website on kutiyattam (sanskrittheatre.com) perhaps the oldest genre of theatre that has survived from ancient India. His most recent publication is Kutiyattam and Kerala Temples: Patterns of Survival by Margi Madhu Chakyar. He edited the book and assisted in the translation from Malayalam to English with the late L.S. Rajagopalan. His “Indian Traditional Theatre” was published in the Routledge Handbook of Asian Theatre, London: Routledge, 2016

Dr. Meena Nerurkar is a gynecologist, actor, director, author, playwright, dancer and choreographer.

She is a gynecologist, actor, director, author, playwright, dancer and choreographer.

As a gynecologist- she was invited by President Bill Clinton to the White House to participate in health care reform.

As an actor- she has appeared on American TV in the ABC soap opera “One Life to Live,” the Bollywood movie “English Vinglish,” and the Hollywood movies “Sleepwalkers Anonymous” and “Dr. Ravi & Mr. Hyde.”

As a director- she was given the Mangeshkar Foundation’s Adishakti Award and the Jagatik Marathi Academy’s Award for “Sundara Manamadhe Bharli.”

As an author- her two books were among the Top 10 Books by the Maharashtra Times.

And as a playwright- she received the Annasaheb Kirloskar Purskar and the Maharashtra State Award for Best Playwright for “Awagha Rang Ekachi Zala.”

She is fluent in English, Marathi ,Gujarati and Hindi, Dr Meena Nerurkar divides her time between Philadelphia & Mumbai.

Please visit her website: www.MeenaNerurkar.com

Dr. Dipan Ray, a Pharmacist & Scientist by profession but theater is his passion.

A Pharmacist & Scientist by profession but theater is his passion.  Even after a successful research career with three patents and several publications, he opted to work in an educational institute rather than working for the much more lucrative corporate world of pharmaceutical research, so as to have equal time to devote to his first love, ‘theater’.  Ray began his acting tour, in the seventies and eighties in Kolkata under the guidance of Debesh Chakroborty, a disciple of Utpal Dutta and formed his own group Epic Actors’ Workshop in 1988 after moving to United States.  But his greatest contribution to the Indian Theatre in general and Bengali Theatre in particular has been his pioneering work in introducing concept of South Asian Theater Festival in North America in 2006 that has become an annual event in New Jersey. In 2008, he produced South Asian Theater Festival in collaboration with New Jersey Performing Arts Center, a sixth largest cultural center in North America that opened a new chapter in Indian Theater in USA.  He also organized several theater workshops for Children and Youth with the help of Middlesex County Cultural & Heritage Commission.  He introduced ancient Indian classics in contemporary form to main stream American audience.  He made overseas tours with his team to present “Pagla Ghoda”, Directed by Amol Palekar in 2008 and Tagore’s “Sacrifice” in 2011 in many Cities of India.

He has been recipient of several awards of recognition from organizations such as Bangladesh Theater of America and New York City Council in 2005,  Indo Canada Overseas Broadcasting Corporation, Toronto in 2004 and Rittik of Berhampur, West Bengal in 2010, Good Citizen award from Indian Cultural Society in 2012.  He is also being interviewed extensively by paper media such as Star ledger, Home News Tribune, News India, Mumbai Theater Guide and The Times of India and electronic media such as EBC Radio, TV Asia, ITV, Tara TV and Doordarshan 

On professional side, he has been involved in several missionary projects that include a trip to Haiti after the earthquake disaster in early 2010 and organized a health camp with his students in two slums in Delhi and Agra in 2012.  He is also a volunteer for American Red Cross and had the opportunity to serve the families of victims during the 10th anniversary of 9/11 memorial.  He is currently serving in the committee for Hepatitis B & C Coalition and Immunization Coalition with Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in New York City to determine policies to improve health outcome of New York City residents. 

Yogesh Soman is working in the field of media for the past 30 years.

Though his expertise lies in Marathi experimental and commercial theatre, for the past 11 years his work in the field of Films and Television has also left its mark.

After completing his Diploma in Printing and technology he perceived his graduation from Arts faculty. Then he did his Masters in Politics. Simultaneously he also did a Diploma in Journalism but his main interest and passion was theatre and films. His first commercial play was ‘Ata Kasa Wattay’ in the year 1999.

Then a series of plays like, ‘Case No. 99 (2000)’,’ Rangya Ragila Re(2002)’, ‘Ganapati Bappa Moraya(2003)’, ‘Songati(2004)’, ‘Achanak(2006),’ Dili Supari Bayako chi(2006)’, ‘Ananddoh(2010)’,’ Ekda Pahava N Karun(2013)’, ‘Nakalat Disale Sare(2013)’, ‘Mi Vinayak Damodar Savarkar (2015)’ and ‘Shyampat (2017)’ saw a great success.

He created his own audience and they became fan of his writing and different style of direction. His film career also began at the same time. In 1995 he did his first film ‘Limited Manuski’ as an Associate Director. He was assistant director for ‘Veer Savarkar’. In the year 2006 he did his first commercial film ‘Achanak’.

Then in the year 2010 came his second film ‘Dadagi Mule’, ‘Maza Bhirbhira’ in the year 2017 and he is all ready with a new flower in his bouquet with ‘Jyoti’ a short film reveals a story of 1851. Few of his famous films as an actor are ‘Rama Madhav’ ‘Drushyam’, ‘Manja’, ‘Faster Fene’ and ‘Ye Re Ye Re Paisa’. He also tried his hand at television.

Out of the 62one act plays he wrote till date 16 were shown on the channels like Mayboli, Prabhat and ETV Marathi. Few of his famous TV serial as an actor are ‘Dilya Ghari Tu Sukhi Raha’, ‘Nanada Saukhya Bhare’, ‘Anjali and Crime Petrol’. His major contribution in conserving history of Marathi theatre is the set of 30 documentaries named ‘Itihas Rangbhumicha’. All 30 documentaries are based on the lives of veteran Marathi artists from varied fields like theatre, folk and films.

To his credit as an writer he has 64 one-Act Plays, 20 of his One-Act Plays are translated in Hindi and Gujrathi Lnguages, 15 Full Length Plays, 4 – Solo Acts and 4 short stories. The various panels he is a part of · Secretary – Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Parishad, Pune Suburban Branch. · Governing Council Member – Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Parishad, Mumbai main Branch. · Marathi Drama Sensor Board Govt. of Maharashtra – Member (2006-14) · Sansakrbharati Natya Vidha Pramukh – Pune · Advisory Board Member – Pu. La. Deshpande Kala Academy, Maharashtra · Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) Member – Regional Office Pune In spite of being successful on all fronts he is always keen on finding a unique way to tell his stories. The zest to find something new keeps him going.

Mr. Vijay Kenkre is a legendary theater personality from India.  He is an award winning director who has directed over 100 plays  in Marathi, Hindi and in English including one act plays, children's play, experimental theater plays, commercial plays, TV serials, TV plays etc. Mr. Vijay Kenkre is an accomplished actor in Bollywood and Marathi movies, theater, Teleplays and TV serials. He has received numerous overall excellence awards for acting as well as for directing various plays. He is currently serving as an  Academic Council Member at National School of Drama -New Delhi as well as holding various faculty positions at  many prestigious theater institute including Theater development Center , NCPA, Lalit Kala Kendra, Pune and University of Mumbai-Academy of Theater Arts.

Padmashree Satish Alekar is the author of Marathi plays like MAHANIRVAN,

MICKY ANI MEMSAHIB, MAHAPOOR, DOOSRA SAMANA, BEGUM BARVE,

SHANIWAR – RAVIWAR, PIDHIJAT” (DYNASTS), etc. is practicing theatre in

Maharashtra since 1970. Satish Alekar was working as Professor and Head of

the Centre for Performing Arts (Lalit Kala Kendra) at University of Pune from

July 1996 till he retired in Jan. 2009. He developed the Centre for for

Performing Arts at Pune University during his tenure as Professor and Head

(1996-2009) from the scratch. It is regarded as the one of the best training

centres in the field of Performing Arts in the country and in Asia.

He is one of the founder members of India’s best-known theatre

group THEATER ACADEMY, PUNE that he administered from 1973 to 92. Many

of his plays have been translated and produced in several regional languages all

over India. With his plays like MAHANIRVAN (1974) and BEGUM BARVE (1979)

he created new idiom in Marathi theatre by his unique use of black humor,

language and absurdity to convey the oblique sense of reality. He also authored

several short plays that are extensively staged by the experimental theatre

groups all over Maharashtra for past thirty years. He recently completed his

new short play “Ek Divas Mathakade...” which is running in Hindi at Delhi and

in Marathi at Pune. English translation of this play published in the issue of

“Theatre India” in March 2012 by NSD, Delhi

Satish Alekar conceived and successfully implemented programmes

like Playwrights Development Scheme and Regional Theater Group

Development, which were supported, by the Ford Foundation for Theatre

Academy, Pune since 1985 to 1994. He has extensively traveled abroad. In

January-May 2003 he was the Fulbright Professor at Department of

Performance Studies, Tisch School of Arts, New York University. He also was at

the Duke University, N.C., U.S.A. on adjunct teaching assignment during spring

1995 semester. He lectured on CONTEMPORARY INDIAN THEATRE at the

several universities in U.S.

Prof. Alekar is the recipient of “Padmashree” in 2012. He was

honored with several National and State awards since 1973 for his contribution

to the field of Theatre and Literature. He received Nandikar Sanman at

Calcutta in 1992 and fellowships from the Asian Cultural Council, New York in

1983 to study Theatre in U. S. and from the Ford Foundation to study Theatre

of South Asia in 1988. He received National Award for the playwriting in 1994-

95 from Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi. He scripted the national award

winning Marathi feature film Jait Re Jait in 1977 and directed a Hindi T.V. Serial

in 13 parts Dekho Magar Pyarse for Doordarshan in 1985. He also scripted the

dialogues for Marathi feature film Katha Don Ganpatravanchi produced by

N.F.D.C. in 1995-96. He was invited to participate in ODIN THEATRE week by

Eugenio Barba at Odin Teatret, Holstebro, Denmark in August 2002. He

participated in the 12th ISTA’s International Theatre workshop conducted by

Eugenio Barba in Germany in September 2001 and in Eugene O’Neill Theatre

Centre’s Playwrights Conference in Connecticut (U.S.) in 1992. He participated

in the World Theatre Congress of I.T.I. (UNESCO, Paris) held in Berlin (1983),

Athens, Greece (2002) and Tampico, Mexico (2004) where he is nominated as

the Vice President of the International Playwrights Forum.

His published plays are available with Neelkanth Prakashan, Pune

(in Marathi) and Seagull Book, Calcutta (in English). Many of his plays have

been translated, produced and published in several Indian regional languages

like: Hindi, Tamil, Dogri, Kannada, Gujarathi, Rajasthani, Punjabi, and Konkni.

His plays also included in the National Anthologies published by the National

School of Drama and Sahitya Akademi, Delhi published in 2000-1. Oxford

University Press published his six plays in a volume “Collected Plays of Satish

Alekar” in 2009 (ISBN: 978-0-19-806023-9)

Satish Alekar has also collaborated in several international

translation projects. He freely translated and directed short plays by German

Playwright Tänkred Dörst (for Goethe Institute, Pune) in 1980; play “The Flood”

by Günter Grass in 1980 (for Goethe Institute, Pune), Two short plays by

Egyptian playwright Dr. Alfred Farag, Cairo (in association with American

University in Cairo) in 2001.

Prof. Alekar served many cultural organizations, institutes and

universities like Bharat Bhavan, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi, National School

of Drama, University Grants Commission, Delhi, S.N.D.T. University, and Shivaji

University as advisor member of the committees. He was Govt. of India

nominee on the society for the National School of Drama, Delhi and also

nominated as the officiating Chairman, NSD, Delhi in 2005. He is currently a

member of the academic council, NSD, Delhi. He was also a member of the

Theatre Advisory committee of Sangeet Natak Akademi, Delhi 1999-2004. He

received the Late Prin. V.K. Joag Award (2005) for outstanding performance in

teaching from University of Pune. Prof. Alekar successfully completed in 2011 a

grant project supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust under the auspices of University

of Pune under which nine text books in Marathi on the performing arts were

published.

Prof. Satish Alekar also worked as Research Officer at B.J. Medical

College, Pune being a trained Biochemist.Satish Alekar M.Sc. (Biochemistry),

Poona University (1972), lives in Pune.