Do:Nyi – Po:Lo
Majuli Theatre Festival
19 & 20 November 2022
Do:Nyi – Po:Lo Majuli Theatre Festival 2022
The first edition of Majuli Theatre Festival titled Do:Nyi-Po:Lo Theatre Festival (Mising words denoting the significance of sun and moon) completed successfully at Sitadhar Gaon, Garmur, Majuli on 19th & 20th November. While the main performances and masterclasses happened on these two dates, the artists and the teams had arrived in Majuli a week earlier and started offering workshops to each other as well as to local youth as a way of initiating the process of learning and cultural exchange, which was also one of the major objectives behind organizing this festival.
Vision of the festival:
The vision of the festival was to bring back to life the traditions of the land especially the performing arts and offer the local community members an opportunity to be exposed to and engage with the larger outside world of Performing Arts, sense the significance of traditions, arts and culture and for the local youth and artists to gain a livelihood perspective, thus broadening their horizons and worldviews.
The theme of the festival was Body Wisdom. Body Wisdom as a way of recognizing and nurturing and that theatre and dance can be the perfect medium to accomplish this goal. It was hoped that through all the performances and workshops, the artists would learn to tap into the wisdom of their bodies more and pay more attention to the cues, responses, sensations and movements of the body under different circumstances. Also the objective hence in our curation was to choose a variety of shows or performances within this broad umbrella of expressions of Body Wisdom
The festival was successful in achieving all of the above to a great extent, and was completely rooted in nature, thus respecting and promoting the ecology of the river island. All the performances took place under the open skies, inside a bamboo grove and the riverfront of river Luit.
Spreading the word in Majuli:
The main highlights of the festival making it vibrant, alive and a truly indigenous experience were –
1. The venues (two different stages for performances) were open spaces in nature and that created a great symbiotic energy for the festival. The decoration was completely done as per local traditions and using natural items, such as leaves, bamboo, local textile – which rooted the festival completely in the culture of Majuli and gave all the attendees from outside Majuli a peek into the local art and culture.
Bamboo Grove
Riverfront
2. The inaugural ceremony of the festival included a Mising prayer and lighting of the lamp by the dignitaries as well as the local Mising priests, thus honoring the values of the land and taking the blessings of all elders and ancestors. In the closing ceremony also, the ritual of tying the Mising threads (riddin) was included to give wishes and blessings to each other and to pray for the festival to grow in its vision of promoting the local traditions.
3. The participation of local youth in all the pre-festival workshops, masterclasses during the festival, as volunteers taking care of the registration desk, ushering etc. and as audience members – boosting their confidence and level of exposure.
4. The participation of local men, women and children from the nearby villages throughout the festival, giving them the taste of worldwide culture in the space of performing arts, and also helping them realize the value of their own traditions. They were seen smiling, laughing, crying and appreciating each of the plays/performances they attended.
5. The learning exchange was a constant process throughout the festival, all the artist groups found the masterclasses to be highly beneficial in understanding each other’s style, craft and the process of preparing for a performance. At the end of each day, there were reflection and discussion sessions, dedicated to sharing our key learnings from the day, new insights, techniques everyone picked up and how their experience would add to their growth as an artist. The masterclasses were attended by local youth and artists too, thus helping them learn new artistic skills while participating in the festival.
More details on the two days of the Festival
Here’s the details on the activities conducted during the festival and the pre-festival workshops
16th November – Artist teams started arriving in Majuli, the Amares Teatro team from Uruguay and Surjit Singh from Manipur arrived on this day
17th November – The pre-festival workshops started with great participation from local community members, artists and youth
Clowning Workshop by The Amares Teatro Team (Andres & Betina) from Uruguay
Movement Workshop by Surjit Singh from Manipur
The rest of the day was devoted to rehearsals by the artist teams and preparations by the BCF team in getting the two stages ready, sound and light arrangements, receiving guests etc.
18th November – The pre-festival workshop continued by the Uruguay team (Andres & Betina) and more artists and guests arrived throughout the day.
Clowning Workshop by The Amares Teatro Team from Uruguay
6.30 p.m. – Welcome rituals and sharing circle with all the artist groups, guests and the team
In the welcome circle, all the artists from different teams got the opportunity to introduce themselves and share their expectations from the festival. The BCF team explained the overall vision of the festival and brought everyone in sync with the schedule and arrangements for better alignment.
It was an honour for us to have our guests join us from this day itself. Notably, Mr. Sanjeev Hazarika, noted filmmaker and his wife from Guwahati and Ms. Tapati Choudharie, senior journalist from Kolkata, Mr. Ravishankar, Director of NID Jorhat, Ms Ruma Bezbaruah from FM and other valuable audience from all over India who joined us and supported the festival in different yet very valuable capacities
19th November 22 (Saturday) – Day 1 of the festival
The first day of the festival was full of excitement and elation as a lot of hard work had gone into the preparations. As the day rolled, everyone was left bewildered on seeing the amount of participation and the love and appreciation showered on each performance.
8.30 – 10.00 am: Masterclass on Clowning by Amares Teatro from Uruguay
The day started with the Masterclass by the Uruguay team, Andres & Betina, which was attended by new participants and artist teams that arrived the day before. The workshop was a perfect start to the festival, as it energized everyone and was completely in sync with the overall theme of recognizing and nurturing our Body Wisdom.
11.00 am – 12.00 pm: Inaugural Ceremony
Formal Inauguration of the Festival by dignitaries with local performances including Gumrag Dance by the Mising artists and the musical symphony by NOI Band of boys.
It was such a beautiful beginning to the festival, under the bamboo grove, which started with lighting of a lamp by the dignitaries and special guests, a Mising prayer led by Shri Kamala Kanta Koman (a Mising priest and celebrated organic farmer), introduction to all the artist teams, and beautiful performances by the local artists – A Gumrag dance, a traditional dance of the Mising community, choreographed by Rakesh Pegu and a musical symphony by the band of boys NOI Lohor, a group of 8 boys who play 30 different music instruments from NOI centre of BCF.
