Adishakti's Artistic Director Veenapani Chawla passes away...
December 1, 2014 10:21:31 AM IST MTG editorial
Yesterday, 30th November 2014, Veenapani Chawla, the acclaimed Artistic Director of her theatre company Adishakti passed away. She suffered a heart attack and was 67 years old.
Recipient of the Sangeet Natak Akademi award, Veenapani Chawla established Adishakti in 1981. She and her team galvanised Adishakti into becoming a modern Indian theatre company that experimented with text, and focused on the actor's body as a key resource for performance. Veenapani Chawla often spoke about the importance of breath in her vocal and physical training of her actors. Some of the best known works from Adishakti's repertoire included re-interpretations of Indian mythological texts, conducted as solo pieces by the repertory's leading actors.
Over the years Adishakti gained reputation as one of the leading contemporary Indian theatre companies and opened its doors to practitioners who wished to research their practice and experiment with forms of theatre. Adishakti would also offer various residential courses and master classes in their idyllic, sprawling campus near Auroville, on the outskirts of Pondicherry in Tamil Nadu.
Early this year, Shanta Gokhale's book about Veenapani Chawla's theatre titled 'The Theatre of Veenapani Chawla: Theory, Practice, and Performance' was published.