Stages of Life

Indian Theatre Autobiographies

By (author) Kathryn Hansen

Publication date:

01 October 2011

Publisher

Anthem Press

Dimensions:

216x140mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780857286604

The vanished world of India’s late-colonial theatre provides the backdrop for the autobiographies in this book. The life-stories of a quartet of early Indian actors and poet-playwrights are here translated into English for the first time. These men were schooled not in the classroom but in large theatrical companies run by Parsi entrepreneurs. Their memoirs, replete with anecdote and humor, are as significant to the understanding of the nationalist era as the lives of political leaders or social reformers.

List of Illustrations; Preface; Acknowledgments; Part 1; Chapter 1. Pioneers to Professionals: A Retrospective of the Parsi Theatre; Chapter 2. Theatrical Memoirs and the Archives of Autobiography; Part 2; Chapter 3. Narayan Prasad Betab, ‘The Deeds of Betab’; Chapter 4. Radheshyam Kathavachak, ‘My Theatre Days’; Chapter 5. Jayshankar Sundari, ‘Some Blossoms, Some Tears’; Chapter 6. Fida Husain, ‘Fifty Years in the Parsi Theatre’; Part 3; Chapter 7. Self and Subjectivity in Autobiographical Criticism; Chapter 8. Voices and Silences: Reading the Texts; Appendix 1. Historical Personages and Institutions; Appendix 2. List of Plays and Films; Glossary Hindi and Urdu Terms; Bibliography

‘These four autobiographies of artists and writers who shaped the Parsi theatre at its peak are as riveting as the fare that the theatre itself provided, and Kathryn Hansen’s lifelong and perceptive involvement with their rumbustious enterprise infuses every word of her translation of these texts.’ —Girish Karnad, award-winning playwright, screenwriter, actor and director