Indian Folk Theatres Theatres of the World Series

Indian Folk Theatres is theatre anthropology as a lived experience, containing detailed accounts of recent folk theatre shows as well as historical and cultural context. It looks at folk theatre forms from three corners of the Indian subcontinent:

• Tamasha, song and dance entertainments from Maharastra
• Chhau, the lyrical dance theatre of Bihar
• Theru Koothu, satirical, ritualised epics from Tamil Nadu.

The contrasting styles and contents are depicted with a strongly practical bias, harnessing expertise from practitioners, anthropologists and theatre scholars in India. Indian Folk Theatres makes these exceptionally versatile and up-beat theatre forms accessible to students and practitioners everywhere.

Acknowledgements. Introduction: First Encounters. 1. Chhau – Competing Spaces 2. Expanding Chhau – Beyond Masks and Maharajas 3. Rediscovering Folk Theatre 4. Tamasha – Escape 5. Re-working Tamasha – From Socialism to Social Mobility 6. More Discoveries 7. Theru Koothu – Coalescing Worlds 8. Modern Theru Koothu – Survival 9. The Global Village. Glossary of Terms. Bibliography. Therukoothu Appendix

Julia Hollander is a British theatre director, teacher and writer. She has staged operas all over the world, including three acclaimed productions for English National Opera in London. Her study and artistic collaboration with Indian folk theatre practitioners began in the early 1990’s.