Projects

Tales of an Indian Princess

I have been involved with three versions of the Panchatantra tales. My own version was adapted by me for presentation in a small hundred seat proscenium theatre in the Fine Arts Building on the Michigan State campus in 1978. It was called Tales of an Indian Princess. It was meant to meet the needs of children for something culturally challenging besides the diet of Cinderella and Snow White they were accustomed to seeing in our community. The costumes were khurtas and pyjamas constructed in our costume shop. The acting was based on ideas I had seen at the Hawaii Children’s Theatre. Like everything else I have done, the work was meant to broaden the range of our actors, as well as to enlighten our audiences about Indian life and culture. In subsequent years, I followed Tales of an Indian Princess with Tales of a Chinese Princess and African Folk Tales, all meant for elementery school audiences.

In 1986 our department persuaded Pearl Padamsee, the stage and film actress and stage director from Bombay, to come to Michigan State. She produced a version of the Panchatantra adapted by Kamala Ramchandani. Again the work was used to introduce students to these fascinating moral fables and to explore the dramatic potentials of the spacious lobby of the newly constructed Wharton Center for the Performing Arts.

And finally in the 1990s I had the pleasure of inviting Stuart Cox to the University of Georgia on behalf of the Center for Asian Studies and the Friends of India to perform his one-man retelling of stories adapted from the Panchatantra entitled, Stargazer. Please consult my interview with Mr. Cox, elsewhere in this journal.

These little stories are surely some of India’s most charming works, easily adapted for use in a wide range of venues. Without question, teachers may find them a delightful way to introduce India to children of all ages.