ISTA Festival at Ecolint
Geneva High School Deep Dive into Tradition, Theory and Theatre Making
Deep Dives are 2-3 day opportunities for educators and High School aged learners to delve deeply into a particular, focussed area of theatre/performance. Led by experts and in collaboration with specialist organisations these experiences will offer new insights, and a deeper understanding of key areas of interest.
OPHELIA. MAYBE - Friday 13 October, 19:00
This new theatre piece has two friends at its centre. Both try make it in the Performing Arts industry. They dream of the big break, prepare for auditions, read plays, and study characters but above all they are friends. How far will they go to be successful?
'Kalyanasaughandhikam' (The Flower of Good Fortune), from the Mahabharata. This is one of the most famous, and oldest, Kathakali plays, written by Kottayam Tampuran - Saturday 14 October 2023, 18:00
This 35–40-minute performance presentation will introduce the audience to the 500-year-old world dance-theatre tradition from Kerala in Southern India. Kathakali is an intricate combination of facial expressions, gestural language, body movement and dance rhythms combined in performance with live music to tell a story. The performer will practically introduce the audience to each element of performance (the conventions and history) before performing a section of 'Kalyanasaughandhikam' (The Flower of Good Fortune), from the Mahabharata. This is one of the most famous, and oldest, Kathakali plays, written by Kottayam Tampuran (1645-1716) and is still frequently performed today.
Fenella Kelly will perform the first famous scenes of the play where Panchali (the wife of the Pandava princes) sees a magical flower fall from the heavens and she asks her husband, Bhima, to go on a long journey to find her some more. Fenella will perform alone and request the audience to imagine the presence of Bhima on stage.