Archive for the ‘Arts and Theatre’

Interview with Alison Skilbeck: Are There More Of You?

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Alison Skilbeck will perform her critically acclaimed production Are There More Of You? in Colombo on the 13th and 14th of January at the British Council auditorium. Groundviews caught up with Alison to talk about her play and theatre in general. As noted on the Oxford Playhouse website, Alison Skilbeck was a member of Oxford University Dramatic Society (OUDS) and played lead roles at the Playhouse in many OUDS productions including King Lear, Epicene, The Plough and the Stars, Dandy Dick, and A Winter’s Tale, and toured to the Edinburgh Fringe in Oxford revue. Skilbeck’s enormously varied stage career has taken her to the West End and all over the UK, and on tour to the USA and Europe: early on she created roles in no fewer than six Alan Ayckbourn premieres at Scarborough. On radio she was ‘Polly Perks’ in the Archers until the character’s tragic death; while television credits include Sherlock Holmes, Miss Marple, The Beiderbecke Affair, Dr…

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The Incomplete Thombu: A compelling interlace of architecture, drawing, memory and art

The Incomplete Thombu - Front

Front cover of The Incomplete Thombu. Click here for larger image. Put simply, The Incomplete Thombu by Sri Lankan Tamil artist T. Shanaathanan is, for us, one of 2011′s most compelling publications. It is art, but in the form of a book that deftly entwines it with architecture, drawing, the memory of loss and an eerily compelling exploration of what makes a home, a home by those who have left it behind, or lost it to the war. Short excerpts in the book by those who have lost their home are always poignant, sometimes humorous but never vindictive. There is a fragile, essential humanity to these stories that with a light touch reveals so much the war took away from residents in Sri Lanka’s Northern Province. There are 80 stories captured in the tome and they range in tone, identity, location and age. The drawings by the subjects themselves are very powerful depictions of loss – not just of property,…

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Titus Thotawatte: The Final Cut

Titus Thotawatte, 1929 - 2011

Titus Thotawatte, 1929 – 2011 Emmanuel Titus de Silva, better known as Titus Thotawatte, was the finest editor in the six decades long history of the Lankan cinema. He was also a great assimilator and remixer – a veritable ‘builder of bridges’ across cultures, media genres and generations. Titus straddled the distinctive spheres of cinema and television with a technical dexterity and creativity rarely seen in either one. Both spheres involve playing with sound and pictures, but at different levels of scale, texture and ambition. Having excelled in the craft of making movies in the 1960s and 1970s, Titus successfully switched to television in the 1980s and 1990s. There, he again blazed his own trail in Sri Lanka’s nascent television industry. As a result, my generation remembers him for his television legacy whereas my patents’ generation recall more of his cinematic accomplishments. Titus left an indelible mark in the history of moving images. The unifying thread that continued from 16mm…

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Thoughts on the play ‘Pusswedilla Part 3’

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Photo by Ima Hassen “I, Glorious Honorable Excellency Chaminda Pusswedilla is cumming to the Lynel Went stage. I now planing World Peece! Now there are too many kachal fellows in the world. So i colling oll the fellows to the “Coconut Trees” (Polgas Mandiraya) in ARSIK LAND and sorting out World Peeece. Mewa mata simple wada.. You can olso come and see me at the Lynel (still trying to see where he Went) in Septmebr 29,30 and Octobber 1 & 2. I hope that fellow Wikrama Nikamsinghe dosn’t come… oohari apaley..” Apparently, the local censor board unanimously voted to deny a public performance license for the play because it deals with Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan Politicians and institutions. Consequently, the country name was changed to ‘Arsik land’. My Heartiest Congrats to the playwright, director and producer for the brilliant political satire which is well timed and appropriate. Thank you for your spunk in producing the play when society is afraid…

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Joshua Roman in Sri Lanka

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I met Joshua Roman, a TED Fellow, at TED 2011. TED audiences are very hard to please. Because of the nature of the TED Fellows, speakers and performers, the bar for any presentation is set so high that an appearance on that stage is absolutely nerve-wracking. Many in the audience pay thousands of dollars to attend TED and come from the wealthiest families in the US, corporate giants and Hollywood. In sum, they are usually those with a passion for new ideas and a penchant for music, art and culture. That Joshua received standing ovations every time he performed on stage in front of this critical audience is a singular measure of his musical prowess. As Yo-Yo Ma notes, “Occasionally I get to meet an extraordinary young musician. Such is the case with Joshua Roman. … To me, Joshua is one of the great exemplars of the ideal 21st-century musician. He’s deeply grounded in a classical tradition and he is…

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In conversation with Mandhira de Saram

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Madhira de Saram‘s website describes her as follows, After completing her primary education in Sri Lanka, she was awarded a music scholarship to North London Collegiate School where she completed her secondary education. She was also a Leverhulme Scholar at the Junior Royal Academy of Music where she performed both as a violinist and pianist, also taking classes in composition and conducting. Her violin teachers have included Igor Petrushevsky, Howard Davis and Levon Chillingirian. Mandhira graduated with first class honours from the University of Oxford with a high first in performance and was the winner of the Worcester College Arts Prize for the highest result in an arts subject. Here she was the leader of several orchestras and chamber groups including Ensemble Isis which specializes in contemporary music. She also held an Oxford Philomusica Orchestra Award. Working professionally as a freelance violinist, she appears frequently as soloist, chamber musician and orchestral violinist around the UK and abroad. In Sri Lanka…

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Pecha Kucha: Celebrating creativity in Colombo

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Groundviews was invited to the press conference official launch of Pecha Kucha Colombo. It’s an interesting concept, more details of which can be read on its website here. Post-war Sri Lanka affords a space for this kind of event which was not present during the war, and this is something to be welcomed. As the website notes, “Pecha Kucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.” The first event (there will be four over the course of the…

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  • 26 Jun, 2011
  • 0 Comment
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo,
    Language

In conversation with Neluka Silva, Professor in English, University of Colombo

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Neluka Silva is the Head of the English Department and Professor in English, University of Colombo. Given the recent agitation amongst University staff and the general crisis over tertiary education, I first asked Neluka why she has taught at Colombo University for decades and what drives her to do this. Referring to an article by Prof. H.L. Senevirtane published in the Lanka Monthly Digest (June 2011) on restoring English as a language of teaching, I ask Neluka what, if any differences in pedagogy and the perception of the English language there was from the time she was an undergraduate student to what she teaches today in Colombo University. We talk about Neluka’s manuscript novel The Choices We Make which was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Prize in the late 90′s and will be published later this year under the title The Iron Fence. I ask her why she changed the titled of the book and how she went about writing it. We talk…

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Watch Moving Images at Kandy International Film Festival (KIFF)

Compelling stories in high-definition

We are very pleased to announce that films from Moving Images will be part of the first Kandy International Film Festival (KIFF). Though the official schedule is still being finalised, we have been informed by the organisers that Moving Images will be screened from 4 – 6pm on Saturday, 25th at the Kandy City Centre. A moderated discussion will follow. The selection of films will be from A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka by Menika van der Poorten and Koothu, kerosene and paper: portraits of resilience by Kannan Arunasalam. Please join us. Ticketing information for KIFF can be accessed here. The Kandy Film Festival will be a four-day celebration of global cinema, with a special focus on Asian film and upcoming talent, in the UNESCO world heritage city of Kandy, Sri Lanka. Against a stunning background of gardens, hilltops and cultural architecture, the Festival will showcase an exciting program of films celebrating diverse techniques, styles and themes…

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Floating Spaces: Theatre and censorship in Sri Lanka

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Some of the best conversations featured on this site have been with those involved in the arts in Sri Lanka. Noted theatre personalities featured on Groundviews to date include Tracy Holsinger, Mohamed Adamaly and the iconic Iranganie Serasinghe. Jake Oorloff joins this august list, and as Co-Creative Director of Floating Space Theatre Company, his work has been reviewed and featured on Groundviews before. Gaza Monologues, produced for the first time in late 2010, was reviewed here and an interview with Jake and Ruhanie Perera, the co-founder of the Company, was featured here. A review of ‘My Other History’, their most recent production on post-war reconciliation in Sri Lanka appears here. We ask Jake why a few years ago he started a new theatre company, when there were already quite a few established ones around, which then led into a discussion around Jake’s approach to theatre and acting. Jake explains what theatre is for him and what in general theatre is,…

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Proud of being a ‘half-caste’: Perceptions of Eurasians in Sri Lanka

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Although there were times when to be an Eurasian meant that one was generally looked down upon, considered ‘half caste’, Rosemarie is proud of her mixed heritage. At the time when she was growing up, Eurasians and Burghers saw themselves as being distinct and different from each other. Now, both communities are a rarity in Sri Lanka and frequently perceived as being outsiders, foreign. “Where are you from?” is a familiar refrain. For Rosemarie’s story and video, please click here. For Part 1 of Rosemarie’s story, click here. Produced by Menika van der Poorten for Moving Images. A trailer of A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka can be seen below, and all the videos on the Moving Images website.

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  • 28 Apr, 2011
  • 1 Comment
  • Arts and Theatre,
    Colombo,
    Moving Images,
    Photos

A happy mix of English, Sinhala, French and Tamil: A second generation Eurasian in Sri Lanka

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Rosemarie Le Mottee Joachim is second generation Eurasian. She grew up in Colombo but her roots were in the hill country. A happy mix of English, Sinhala, French and Tamil, Rosemarie tells the story of her grandparents. For Rosemarie’s story and video, please click here. Produced by Menika van der Poorten for Moving Images. A trailer of A Lost White Tribe: The Eurasians of Sri Lanka can be seen below, and all the videos on the Moving Images website.

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Kerosene: How does a taxi driver take the sick to the hospital when there’s no fuel around?

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How does a taxi driver take the sick to the hospital when there’s no fuel around? How does a newspaper publish news of bombs and deaths without newsprint? And how does a community with leprosy survive despair and isolation? Koothu, kerosene and paper: portraits of resilience, expression and survival about the people of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Watch Kerosene in full here. Shot and cut by Kannan Arunasalam. A trailer for Kannan’s stunning three short films can be seen below.

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Prawns and privations: Sugeeth’s life in Slave Island

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At 27 years old, Sugeeth Kumar is part of a generation of Slave Island’s young entrepreneurs. Tiring of the long hours his previous job at Pizza Hut required, he decided that if he must work so hard, he would do it on his own time and for his own business: vending prawn vadai – a popular Tamil fried food – out of a cart at the Galle Face Green Promenade. Like many Slave Island residents, Sugeeth’s new livelihood is very much tied to his locality – his home is a few kilometers away from Galle Face Green and each afternoon, he must wheel his cart and ingredients to a rented spot, before setting up. Each vendor’s process is different. Sugeeth prefers to make his prawn vadai in advance, even frying them halfway through before coming to Galle Face. That way, when his customers flock to him hungry for hot vadai, they are not disappointed. He drops the half-fried vadai into…

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Koothu: Theatre and leprosy in Jaffna

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How does a taxi driver take the sick to the hospital when there’s no fuel around? How does a newspaper publish news of bombs and deaths without newsprint? And how does a community with leprosy survive despair and isolation? Koothu, kerosene and paper: portraits of resilience, expression and survival about the people of Jaffna, Sri Lanka. Watch Koothu in full here. Shot and cut by Kannan Arunasalam. A trailer for Kannan’s stunning three short films can be seen below.  

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About Groundviews

Located at the Centre for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Groundviews is a citizen journalism website that uses a range of genres and media to highlight critical perspectives on governance, reconciliation, human rights, the arts and literature, democracy and other issues. The site has won two international awards, including the prestigious Manthan Award South Asia in 2009. The grand jury's evaluation of the site noted, "What no media dares to report, Groundviews publicly exposes. It's a new age media for a new Sri Lanka... Free media at it's very best!"

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