MT News Service
Jammu, July 1:
Natrang’s National Theatre Talk Show, ‘Young Voices of Theatre’ featured Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuva Awardee, theatre director and light designer Gagan Mishra today who shared his inspirational thoughts with the global audience at the Facebook page of Natrang Jammu. Director Natrang, Balwant Thakur complimented all the brilliant speakers of this unique talk show who are highly acclaimed because of their outstanding work and stated that they all are contributing towards a bigger cause of theatre by sharing their precious thoughts with people who may drive immense inspiration and learning from it.
As per press statement issued to mercury times, from Jaipur, Rajasthan, Gagan Mishra has been continuously active in theatre for the last 25 years. Gagan has also been awarded Junior Fellowship by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India in the year 2018. He is also active in Children’s Theatre since last 15 years and has the credit of conducting several theatre workshops under the aegis of Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, TIE Company, National School of Drama, New Delhi, NCZCC, Allahabad, British Council, New Delhi, NZCC, Patiala and NCERT, New Delhi and directed more than 25 plays. Gagan started his theatre journey through Children’s Theatre at the age of 16 and afterwards participated in many theatre workshops conducted by prestigious institutions like; TIE Company, National School of Drama, New Delhi, Rajasthan University, Jaipur, Jawahar Kala Kendra, Jaipur, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Jodhpur, Central Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi and worked under the guidance of eminent theatre personalities like; Barry John, Asha Singh, Abdul Latif Khatana, Vibha Chhiber, Sophia Steph, Dr. Ravi Chaturvedi, Satyabrat Raut, Ashok Sagar Bhagat, Gautam Bhattacharya, Jairoop Jeevan and many more. Ministry of Culture’s scholarship holder, Gagan has the credit of designing lights for more than 100 plays with Dance-Drama & Ballet Dances. He has played major roles as an actor in more than 25 plays and directed more than 30 plays for the youth. An expert of jury committee of NCERT for the book “Joy of Theatre”, Gagan has the credit of having designed Theatre-in-Education Syllabus for schools and worked as technical director of major events like; Award Ceremony of Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi in 2018, Theatre Olympics, organized by National School of Drama, New Delhi, Commonwealth Games in 2010, Bharat Rang Mahotsava by NSD in Jaipur and many more. In an interesting conversation with Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee actor and Natrang’s senior artist Anil Tickoo, Gagan spoke about his journey of theatre which started through children theatre. He got fascinated by the process of stage lighting and resultantly equipped himself for it. Gagan believes that Children theatre helped him to learn a lot, moreover, it makes you active and spontaneous. He also termed improvisation method a wonder tool to kindle creativity and imagination among children. Speaking about his choice of scripts for children’s plays, he asserted that his team prefers improvised acts rather than written scripts as it provides new dimensions and adds wings to the creativity. He also revealed his idea of designing lights for children plays, which elevates the overall impact of the play and also provides ease in performing to the children.
Gagan believes that there is a lot of scope in the allied arts of theatre like lighting, music, make-up, set design, costume design etc. and more and more enthusiastic people should come forward in these areas to revolutionize the overall ambience of theatre. He also shared his wonderful experience of working as a light designer in prestigious festivals. Positive about the virtual medium during the Corona crisis as there was no other medium to keep the spark of creativity kindled, he opines that the online medium has reshaped many things and there should be no hesitation in getting adept to it.
Natrang’s creative team which is managing this national event includes Neeraj Kant, Anil Tickoo, Sumeet Sharma, Sanjeev Gupta, Vikrant Sharma, Mohd Yaseen, Brijesh Avtar Sharma, Gauri Thakur and Chander Shekhar. National School of Drama alumni, theatre, film & TV actor, director, Neelu Dogra would be featured in this talk show on 2nd July, 2021.
