Mayabazar: The Magic of Science in Theatre with Hansa Thapliyal, Jayachandra Varma Rekandar and Children from Surabhi Theatre | June 24, 2021

India Foundation for the Arts (IFA)
in collaboration with
Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM)
invites you to
Mayabazar: The Magic of Science in Theatre
A presentation by
Hansa Thapliyal, Jayachandra Varma Rekandar and Children from Surabhi Theatre
(The session will be conducted in English and Telugu)

Thursday, June 24, 2021 | 06:00 PM – 07: 00 PM | Zoom and Facebook Live

Join us to listen to how 35 children from Surabhi Theatre created the special effects and performed in the iconic play Mayabazar which was performed at the Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum (VITM) in Bangalore in 2018.

Filmmaker Hansa Thapliyal and theatre practitioner Jayachandra Varma Rekandar will take us through this interdisciplinary project that brought together the worlds of the arts and science. By using a playful and creative approach, they demonstrated to the children the many ways in which stagecraft is rooted in science.

Hansa Thapliyal is a filmmaker, writer and teacher based in Bangalore.

Jayachandra Varma Rekandar is a theatre practitioner with Surabhi Theatre and is the director of this play.

Surabhi Rishik Satya Sai, Aveti Dinakar and Surabhi Parnika are students who will represent the 35 children between the ages of 2 and 17 who participated in the project.

Jayachandra together with Gautam Dayal, a doctor in mathematics, helped the children to explore the technical aspects of theatrical production, and their basis in science. Gautam along with Sajoo Bhaskaran, curator, VITM will also join the conversation.

Surabhi Theatre has developed from a family theatre group that has been active in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, for almost 150 years.

VITM, known for its pioneering activities in science since its opening in 1965, is the southern headquarters of the National Council of Science Museums, Ministry of Culture, Government of India.

Hansa and Jayachandra received a fellowship from IFA to work with the VITM, Bangalore, under the Archival and Museum Fellowships initiative, made possible with support from Tata Trusts.

This session has been organised as part of the Project Showcase @ IFA, a series of online presentations to showcase, discuss, and engage audiences with the diverse projects we support across programmes.

Click here to register for the presentation on Zoom.

The discussion will also be streamed live on our Facebook page - no prior registration required to join the live streaming.