Presenter
Sharma Chinmay - Shiv Nadar University, Shiv Nadar University, Gautam Buddha Nagar, IndiaPanel
29 – Mapping Itineraries of AdaptationsAbstract
My paper will discuss University of Hawai‘i’s Kennedy Mainstage theatre production – A Midsummer Night’s Bollywood Dream (2019, co-directed by Paul Mitri and Sai Bhatawadekar), which received recognition and awards from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as well as the Hawai‘i State Theatre Council. Both Shakespeare and Bollywood are the “center” or “mainstream” in their own separate contexts and performative spaces. They also have a high brow – low brow dichotomy of literary and entertainment value. The consumption and performance of Bollywood itself have an important place in the migration and diaspora studies of Indians/ South Asians worldwide, and therefore within post- and decolonial research and practices. Additionally, in the context of place-based learning: Hawai‘i is geographically in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific ocean and therefore culturally and politically between East and West. It has a complex Asia-Pacific diversity and among the various Asian cultures in Hawai‘i, South Asia is on the margins. In the midst of all these struggles, bringing Shakespeare and Bollywood together with their cultural capital and performative norms created both contested and congenial spaces of creative negotiation. These transnational lessons were learned not in a classroom, but in rehearsals and on stage, in an embodied and emotional way.
