Nation & Writing | Workshop by Hemang Yadav

As part of Centre 42’s Co-Lab Residency, Brown Voices’ Hemang Yadav presents a two-part online workshop titled “Nation and Writing: Using the National Allegory in Playwriting”.

Synopsis

When Frederic Jameson came up with the notion that all third-world literature was a ‘national allegory’ he created a furore amongst third-world writers and critics. At the same time, many writers embraced this concept as a very useful reading strategy that allows for interrogating the effects of nation-building and overcoming the ‘crippling habits of colonialism’. This workshop explores how this concept can be usefully employed or subverted to create new play scripts. The workshop will use Haresh Sharma’s Model Citizens as an important case study of a play that (consciously) uses and perhaps deconstructs the national allegory.

Through the workshop, participants should gain a greater consciousness of the ubiquitous and insidious presence of the national allegory in numerous local plays. This consciousness should provide them with a tool for coming up with plots and characters who can both exemplify the effects of nation-building and maintenance of national identity as well as question, deconstruct and subvert them.

A Note to Participants

Participants can look forward to some hands-on writing activities and, by the end of the session, come up with a concept-paper for a play using national allegory.

However, this is not an introductory workshop for playwriting, so participants who are completely new to theatre or to writing may not fully benefit from this workshop. Some basic knowledge of staging and the form of a script would be necessary.

All participants will also be given access to the play-script and the 2010 staging of The Necessary Stage’s Model Citizens as required reading and viewing materials for the workshop. Do register early to gain access ahead of the session.

Created by Hemang Yadav

Produced by Centre 42 and Brown Voices, with the generous support of The Necessary Stage.

Workshop Dates: 13 & 14 August 2021, Online Via Zoom

• 13 August 2021 (Fri), 7pm – 9pm
  Part 1: Lecture on the National Allegory & Question and Answer

• 14 August 2021 (Sat), 3pm – 5pm
  Part 2: Hands-on Activities, Writing and Discussion

Register now at https://forms.gle/kEDJfakwcimsgBAw8 by 12 August 2021 1200hrs. 

Do register early to gain early access to the required viewing and reading materials ahead of the workshop.

Terms and Conditions

• All participants must attend both sessions on 13 & 14 August 2021.
• Please note that this workshop is recommended for writers and those who have basic knowledge of staging and the form of a script.
• Participants are capped at 10 pax for this workshop. We seek your understanding that allocation will be on a first-come-first-served basis.
• All participants will be contacted before 12 August 2021.

HEMANG YADAV
Hemang has penned and directed a number of plays, including a modern Noh play All The Crazy People (Wisdom of Monkeys, 2010), Maya: Demon Architect (Esplanade Raga Series/RDG, 2014), the opera-based play Letter to Juliet (Bellapoque, 2014), site-specific plays for the annual Arts Walk Little India (RDG, 2017-2019) and Pongal (Late-Night Texting 2019, Dastak 2021). Dramatised reads of his plays Malavika and Shakuntala were presented by Theatreworks and Esplanade respectively. He is a member of the writers collective Brown Voices. Hemang played memorable roles like the Bhagavadha in Girish Karnad’s Hayavadhana (Experimental Theatre Company, 2006), Kent in Ho Tzu Nyen’s The Lear Universe (Singapore Arts Festival, 2008), Demetrius in Stageclub’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Godse in Elangovan’s Satyameva Jayate (Agni Koothu, 2009), Bhima in WeCanDoIt’s Trikon (performed in Bangalore, 2011), Patel in Mahesh Dattani’s Tara (RDG, 2015) and Pillay in the site-specific First Storeys (2019). He worked as a dramaturg for Saga Seed’s The Shape of a Bird, RDG’s Adukku Veettu Annasamy, Drama Box’s Chinatown Crossings and Bhaskar Arts’ Marabu 2. Hemang is the festival director of the annual Tamil ten-minute play festival Pathay Nimidam, which brings together Tamil and non-Tamil theatre practitioners.