Manipur Information Centre
New Delhi, December 24: World-renowned theatre director Ratan Thiyam from Manipur was among three eminent personalities elected in the field of performing arts as Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows for the year 2012.
Writer, director, designer, musician, painter and actor, Ratan Thiyam is one of the most important and influential theater makers at work in the international performance scene. A son of Manipuri dance masters, for a time, Thiyam studied painting before turning to writing. He published his first of six novels in 1961 at the age of 22, wrote poetry and reviews.
Writing led him to theater. In 1971, he enrolled at the National School of Drama in Delhi, gaining a reputation as a powerful actor and director. In 1976, he returned to Manipur and founded Chorus Repertory Theatre. He was also briefly the director of National Scholl of Drama, New Delhi in 1987–88. His plays have traveled, from Aryan Theater, GM Hall, Jawaharlal Nehru Dance Academy (JNMDA) in Manipur to the Shriram Center for Arts, New Delhi and the group’s first overseas break was their trip with Chakravyuh to Greece in 1984. His plays have travelled throughout the world, fascinating audiences with their grace and a spectacular style drawn from Manipuri performing arts like Thang-Ta (a Manipuri martial art) and Nata Sankirtana (a classical dance and music form) into his works, which through subversion and reversion, get assimilated into his own distinct form.
He was honored with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1987 and the Padma Shri in 1989. His play Chakravyuh got the prestigious “Fringe Firsts Award,” from Edinburgh International Theatre Festival in 1987. He was the second Indian recipient of John D. Rockefeller Award after Kapila Vatsayan, which is presented yearly by the Trustees of the Asian Cultural Council to an individual from Asia or the United States, who has made a significant contribution to the international understanding, practice, or study of the visual or performing arts of Asia.
The General Council of Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama, New Delhi at its meeting held on Friday elected three eminent personalities in the field of performing arts, namely N. Rajam, T.H. Vinayakram and Ratan Thiyam as Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellows (Akademi Ratna).
The Fellowship of the Akademi is the most prestigious and rare honour, which is restricted to a very limited number at a given time. Presently there are only 40 Fellows of the Sangeet Natak Akademi.
The General Council of the Akademi also selected thirty six (36) persons from the fields of Music, Dance, Theatre and Puppetry for the Sangeet Natak Akademi Awards (Akademi Puraskar) for the year 2012.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/ratan-thiyam-to-be-conferred-sangeet-akademi-fellow/
