Projects

The Kutiyattam Ramayana

The Kutiyattam Ramayana was conceived as a major production of the Department of Theatre Arts at SUNY/Stony Brook in 1989. Kalamandalam Raman Cakyar, my kutiyattam acting teacher, and Eswaran Unni, the distinguished mizhavu drummer, both professors at the famous Kerala Kalamandalam, came to Stony Brook to produce scenes from different kutiyattam versions of the Ramayana. They were generously sponsored by a grant from the Asian Cultural Council of New York.

The objective was to produce an example of kutiyattam in as authentic a way as possible given our resources. Stylized makeup was provided by Kalamandalam Anujan, a talented makeup artists who then resided in Manhattan. and who was also trained at the Kalamandalam. Our student actors spent three months mastering the complicated acting techniques, chanting in Sanskrit, Prakrit, and old Malayalam and learning the complicated gesture-language to accompany their speeches. Richard Finklestein, the scene designer, worked dilligently to duplicate a performance space which would suggest the actual feel of the sacred precincts of the temple theatres. He describes his work to develop the set and provides excellent photographs of the show on his website at http://www.rfdesigns.org/kuti.htm. Richard Dunham, then at Stony Brook and now at UGA used modern lighting equipment to create the feel of the soft lamplight that helps to illuminate the actors in the temple theatres. Dunham came to India for the first time with me on a short study tour during the summer of 2001. Loyce Arthur, our costume designer, used her energies to create costume that would blend into the authentic pieces that were brought from India. Loyce came to India to see kutiyattam for the first time in 2001 and joined my wife and I in Bali to witness Balinese performing arts, later that summer. Her designs for Mozart’s The Magic Flute were inspired by her trips to India and Bali, as well as her extensive familiarity with African costumes. I directed the show for the Chicago Cultural Center.

A video of the Kutiyattam Ramayana was made by the media center at Stony Brook and may be obtained from me upon request. Many of the actors in this production went on to professional careers in television and film and are to be seen on daytime soap operas.