Prasanna (born 10 February 1951), is a major Indian theatre director and playwright from
Karnataka. He is one of the pioneers of modern Kannada theatre. He graduated from the
National School of Drama (NSD). He founded Samudaya and gave a creative direction to Kannada theatre in the 1970s with other activists. Prasanna lives in
Heggodu
Heggodu is a village located in the Sagar Taluk of Karnataka. It is a very important cultural and educational hub in South India, because of the organizations at this place.
Institutes
Apart from a pre-university and an undergraduate degree ...
in
Karnataka. He is known for his organisational skills and new ideas and innovations in theatre. He is a
Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee. He has directed plays for
National School of Drama (Repertory Company, NSD),
Ninasam, Rangamandal-Bhopal,
Rangayana and worked with many theatre organizations of India.
Early life
Prasanna quit
IIT
The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are central government owned public technical institutes located across India. They are under the ownership of the Ministry of Education of the Government of India. They are governed by the Institu ...
to pursue his passion in theatre. He was Inspired into theatre by
B.V. Karanth, Prasanna joined the
National School Drama (NSD). During the Emergency, he went back to Karnataka and founded Samudaya, a radical theatre movement for workers and masses. He staged street plays, protest plays and propagated their political thought in villages. For a while he was also a visiting faculty at NSD. For a couple of years, he worked for an independent television company in New Delhi. He gave this up and left the capital. That was a phase when Prasanna was disenchanted with theatre and almost gave up on his passion, a man who created well noted stage productions like
Tughlaq,
Gandhi, etc.
Direction
Girish Karnad's
Tughlaq, Gandhi,
Life of Galileo
''Life of Galileo'' (), also known as ''Galileo'', is a play by the 20th century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and collaborator Margarete Steffin with incidental music by Hanns Eisler. The play was written in 1938 and received its first theatri ...
, Thai (Brecht's
Mother Courage and Her Children), Acharya Tartuf, Lal Ghas Per Neele Ghode (translation -Uday Prakash), Ek Lok Katha, Shakuntalam (
Abhijñānaśākuntalam), Fujiyama, Dangeya Munchina Dinagalu, Kadadida Neeru, Uttar Ram Charit, Cupid's Broken Arrow,
William Shakespeare's ''
Hamlet'', Seema Paar(Play on
Bharatendu Harishchandra) etc.
Playwright
He is also a
Kannada playwright, Novelist, and
poet. Some of his dramas are:Uli, Seema Paar, Dangeya Munchina Dinagalu, Ondu Lokada Kathe, Haddu Meerida Haadi, Mahihmapura, Jangamada Badaku.
Books about acting
Indian Method in Acting
Work for visual media
*Docu-film "Gokak" (
V. K. Gokak) for
Sahitya Akademi,
Delhi
*Creative Director- Taana -Bana (1991), TV Serial produced by
Press Trust of India
The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 500 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...
(PTI-TV)
*Worked with ITV
Awards
*
B V Karanth award, 2007,
National School of Drama
*
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi
Sangeet Natak Akademi (The National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama in Englis ...
, for Direction, 1999–2000
References
External links
National theatre needs to be redined: PrasannaEssay Saffron curtain ;Tehelka.comIf people play their part by Priya KanungoTheatre At The Grass Roots: K.V. Subbanna In Dialogue With Prasanna And Geeti Sen
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Indian theatre directors
Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
National School of Drama alumni
Indian male dramatists and playwrights
Kannada people
Kannada-language writers
Living people
People from Shimoga district
1951 births
Dramatists and playwrights from Karnataka
20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights
20th-century Indian male writers
Recipients of the Rajyotsava Award 2004