Special features of the organization
Calcutta Performers, a Theatre Group, registered under West Bengal Societies Registration Act 1961 was founded in 1991. This year the Group has completed it 20th glorious years of existence. Since inception the Group is committed to better theatre. It has staged more than fifteen productions in the past twenty years. , Calcutta Performers first marked its presence with Badal Sarkar s Prolap, a serious comedy, which was a runaway success. Prolap was followed by Moliere s Tartuffe in 1992. Tartuffe became so popular that Kolkata Doordarshan televised the play and till date it is considered one of the best plays produced by them. John Steinbeck s The Moon is Down was dramatized in Bengali (Astamukhi Chand) and performed in 1995. Tagore s Chirakumar Sabha (1997), however, remained the most critically acclaimed production so far and till date the Group performed more that hundred sgows. In 2002, the group performed Sekhar Samaddar s Bhul Bhulayia. This was followed by The Merchant of Venice in 2004. This production, with its limitations, gained huge admiration from the theatre critics. All the three plays namely Tartuffe, The Moon is Down and The Merchant of Venice were translated by Tamal Rai Chowdhury. , The group took a break soon after this production and resurrected in 2008 with Surya Sen s Bablu Kokhon Asbe. This was followed by Rash Leela (2009), Bengali adaptation of a French play by Jean Anouille. This adaptation was done by Lokenath Banerjee. In 2010, Calcutta Performers staged Mondo Meyer Bhalo Kotha, a translation of The Respectable Prostitute by Jean-Paul Sartre. This was also translated by Tamal Rai Chowdhury. , Though it would not be out of place that not a stage production we did Moliere s The Imaginary Invalid, a tele play where the redoubtable Kali Banerjee played in the lead role if the Hypochondriac. , Calcutta Performers also regularly organizes lectures, seminars and symposiums to enhance its repertoire. The most recent being the one held at Star Theatre, Kolkata on the subject of Censorship in Plays, where a galaxy of intellectuals, scholars, directors and actors including Soumitra Chatterjee, Shamik Bandyopadhyay, Anup Motilal, Suman Mukhopadhyay and Kaushik Sen deliberated animatedly in a packed auditorium.
x
