STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A foreign scholar who came all way from Washington DC to Jammu was given a warm send-off here on Thursday at Natrang Studio Theatre Jammu in a felicitation function. The honours were done by Natrang Director, Padamshree Balwant Thakur.
Devika Ranjan under a grant award programme of the Georgetown University USA worked here for fifteen days and studied the work of Natrang and its Director Balwant Thakur. The outstandingly different work done by Natrang that too in a lesser known place like Jammu has been the major attraction of the scholar, who exclusively came to India to interact closely the entire work process and the approaches evolved by Natrang during its last 32 years of its creative journey. Interestingly the work of Natrang and its director Balwant Thakur has got the global significance because of its uniqueness both in terms of unique content and innovative form.
While trying to deeply understand the working methodology of Natrang, Devika also conducted workshops with children and young actors of Natrang.
Devika Ranjan, a US citizen with Indian origin currently lives in Boston. As a visiting scholar from the United States, she had a close look study of Natrang’s use of theatre in community engagement. She Studies at the Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, Washington DC where she focuses on “Human Rights, Culture, and Communication.” Devika has a strong theatrical background in acting at both a community and university level. She has directed two full-length plays, devised a work based on ethnographic poetry, and written a one-act play. Aside from theatre, Devika serves as Class Representative to the School of Foreign Service, Bollywood-hip hop fusion choreographer, and Resident Assistant in a first-year dorm.
Expressing great joy about the visit of US scholar, Natrang Director Balwant Thakur said that her research visit and interactions for over a period of about 15 days has enriched the experience of Natrang actors and hoped that she will also take along lot of creative experiences and will become the Ambassador of Natrang’s work in the entire USA.
Among those who were present on the occasion include Neeraj Kant, Sumeet Sharma, Mohammad Yaseen, Aarushi Thakur, Ankush Lakhnotra, Mahikshit Singh, Pankaj Verma, Rajan Thakyal, Shivam Singh, Sachin Bamba, Kritika Singh Bhau, Sarvesh Gupta, Rohit Sharma, Nitin Kumar, Raghavendra Choudhary, Rohit Kumar and Nitish Koul.
