The Space Theatre Ensemble is one of the arms of SPACE, the Society for Promoting the Arts, Culture and Education, Goa, set up in 2008, with the express purpose of taking the arts to younger people in high school and college. It's other arms include the Art Club, and Media Cell and planning is underway to launch a music association.
Functioning as a self-sustaining theatre repertory from 2008, the ensemble works with persons aged 18 to 35 or older who take time off to train with its principal actors and artistic director over a month long residency to imbibe the physical theatre the ensemble practices. Such persons also commit another two months to take the production on tour on the ensemble's well-established performance circuit in the rest of the country.
The ensemble's first production brought together five people from different parts of India who performed 'For Mother Earth', eight villanelles written for them by the US-based philosopher/teacher Uma Narayan, in some 25 performances in Pune, Mumbai and Goa.
Their second production in 2009 brought together another five people from different parts of the country who evolved 'Creatures of the Earth', a dance performance set to a jazz score especially composed by the ensemble's music director, Steve Siqueira. They performed this in some 30 or so venues in Pune and Goa.
The same performance, depicting the horrors of open cast mining and its effects on a traditional spring, was revived by the ensemble in 2010 and has thus far had more than 500 performances in Goa, Pune, Surat, Ahmedabad, Khandala, Salem, Kudankulam, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Ranchi, Raipur, and villages in Odisha, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.
The ensemble has concurrently also revived 'For Mother Earth'; has a well-developed comic repertoire on education; and a physical performance that decries violence against women. All have been performed extensively.
The Space Theatre Ensemble now invites young actors to join them in a residency in Goa where they are based, in mid July. We are particularly interested in young people who may have finished their 12th standard and want to take a gap year. We would be willing to take them for as long as they want but would also be willing to help them negotiate other internships for the year in various initiatives we are already in touch with to form a wider internship network....
We also welcome those students who may have failed their exams at the school or college level, and will not only teach them the basics of theatre and performance, but also teach them to share the pleasures and drudgery of living in a nomadic commune, and ensure that they devote time to study every day.
The residency is funded by monies earned by the ensemble and everyone is provided modest lodging and excellent food. As soon as the ensemble tours monies are shared equally by all and most who work with the ensemble earn an average of 15,000 rupees over two or three months. The logic is very simple: the more performances the ensemble does, the more it earns. The ensemble follows a differentiated performance fee structure and willingly performs free when asked to for a deserving cause.
Kind regards,
Sincerely,
Hartman de Souza
artistic director
artistic director
Space Theatre Ensemble
<hartman.desouza@gmail.com><ensemblespacetheatre@gmail.com>
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