Dreams from My Room
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, March 23 2015: Chingtham Banikanta's Manipuri play 'Dreams from My Room' which received highest number of seven nominations in the 10th edition of Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) 2015 was staged at Little Theatre Group Auditorium on Sunday in the ongoing Mahindra Theatre Festival from March 21 to 26 in New Delhi.

Kannada play Chitrapata too received seven nominations.

Pan Manipur Theatre's production 'Dreams from My Room' received nominations in Best Director, Best Actor in Lead Role (Male) and Best Stage for Chingtham Bani-kanta Singh, Best Original Script for Buddha Chingtham, Best Innovative Sound design for N.Tiken Singh, Best Light Design for L.Ibochou-ba Singh and Best Costume Design for R.K.Sumitarani Devi.

Manjunath L.Badiger's Chitrapata received seven nominations in Best Director, Best Choreographer, Best Stage Design, Best Actor in Supporting Role (Female), Best Costume Design, Best Light Design and Best Innovative Sound Design.

Ten plays are being staged during the Mahindra Theatre Festival, which began on Saturday at the Little Theatre Group and Kamani auditoriums in New Delhi.

Plays in eight languages including Hindi, English, Marathi, Konkani, Assamese, Kannada, Manipuri and Malayalam would be staged at the six-day festival which would conclude on March 26 .

This year marks one decade of the Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) .

The plays selected by a jury comprising of Anup Hazarola, Deepa Punjani Krishnan, Sajitha Madathil, Sudhir Tandon and Vinod Nagpal had been short-listed from 290 entries.

Later, a jury comprising personalities such as Amal Allana, Anjum Katyal, Nee-lam Mansingh, Ranjeet Ka- poor and Saurabh Shukla will give away the META awards in various categories like best production, director, best lead and supporting actors, stage/sound/costume design, choreography and original script.

Recognizing and rewarding all aspects of theatre production and stage craft, Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards (META) provid- es a concrete platform to celebrate and promote theatre's varied elements like play-writing, set design, costume and light design, direction and performance.

The awards consist of a specially designed trophy and a cheque of Rs.100,000 for the Best Production, Rs.75,000 for Best Original Script and Rs.45,000 for all other award categories.

Seventy-five minute long 'Dreams from My Room' is a solo play performed by Chingtham Banikanta.

It attempts to visualize the mental state of people in a conflicted world.

The play emphasizes the psychology of the victims in a traumatic world and their serious emotions.

An artist dreams from his theatre room for a peaceful living but his dreams could not change the reality of the world in conflicts.

The clashes between ethnic groups and mass-killings increase the number of child soldiers in different conflict zones of the world and contribute to the deterioration of human civilization.

The seriousness of minds leads to an emotional ending.

About the play, Banikanta said, "I experiment with the expressions, trying to interpret the contemporary pro- blems in a conflicting world.

The nature of the play is that of a dark and horrific scenario.

This play uses the idea of self-induced schizophrenia or multiple personality disorder as a way for the psyche to cope with severe trauma.

They are dotted events within the testing room to shake the minds and to retain a level of seriousness, building up slowly to a frantic, bizarre and emotional ending" .

Chingtham Banikanta Singh is a well-known theatre personality in Manipur and has been involved in the theatre since 1968.He got his theatrical experience through an Intensive Theatre Workshop of NSD in 1980.He has been awarded National and State level theatrical awards numerous times.

He also works on Manipuri feature films.

Buddha Chingtham is a critic and playwright.

He has received several META awards nominations.

He is also the recipient of Best Original Script META 2011, Ambedkar National Award 2013, Best Writer Awards and Best Actor Award amongst others.

His work can be seen in the Sangai Express, Theatre India and Rangavarta.

His plays have been part of many International and National festivals.

.NTiken has been working for a long time as a composer, with 17 ballets to his credit.

He has won a number of awards, including Best Music Director and State MAIBI awards for Best Music Director for film and won the Best Innovative Sound Design in the 7th META 2012.He has performed in India and overseas several times.

As a light designer and trainer, Laisram Ibochouba has over 25 years' experience in the theatre world.

He has won several awards like Ustad Bismillah Khan Yuba Puruskar and Best Talent Certificate Awards on Lighting Design.

He has toured nationally and internationally as a lighting director.

RK Sumitarani Devi is working as a costume designer of Pan-Manipur Theatre.

She started her theatre career under the guidance of the eminent and internationally renowned theatre playwright and director Heisnam Kanhailal Singh of Kalakshetra, Manipur.

Her costume design is always very innovative and original.

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