About Me
My research has been published in journals such as Indian Theatre Journal, Modern Drama, Asiatic: IIUM Journal of English Language and Literature, and Emergency Index. Many of my papers have also been selected for presentation at American Society for Theatre Research - ASTR (2016, 2018); International Society for Cultural History (2018); American Comparative Literature Association (2016); Association for Asian Performance Conference (2015); ATHE (2015); Performance Studies International (PSi) Conference at Leeds, UK (2012), Stanford University, USA (2013), Shanghai, China (2014) and Melbourne, Australia (2016); Jadavpur University, India (2012); Goldsmiths, University of London, UK (2011); and University of Pittsburgh (2011). Having completed my Master’s degree in English literature from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, I have been involved in various theater productions, in English and other regional languages, staged in Kolkata, where I was born and raised. As an artist, I have been involved in various performances in the Bay Area and around the world – at Stanford, I performed in Democratically Speaking; acted in Seneca’s Oedipus, and directed Sam Shepard’s Killer’s Head, both staged as a part of Stanford Summer Theater Festival. I devised a performance piece ‘almost…home…’ (supported by the Spark! Grant from Stanford Arts Institute), which addresses questions of identity, place and belonging in a globalized world; and deals with personal narratives and political activism. I work on performance pieces that are multicultural and experimental in terms of combining different media; such as film and theater, visual art and performance, landscape and the live body, and site-specific and staged. This crossing over allows me to explore issues of hybridity, fragmentation and the effects of a globalized world in a performative context. I also value practices of text-based performances and critical cultural studies. I have written original plays and worked closely with Prof. Cherrie Moraga, playwright and activist, in developing original text-based work. One of my original plays, A Bare Stage, was staged in April 2015 as part of the production season at Stanford. In 2012, I adapted Girish Karnad’s play, Hayavadana (the adapted version was titled Divided Together) and directed it for the departmental production. I performed in several productions by EnActe Arts (The Conference of the Birds; Merchant on Venice; Noor: The Empress of the Mughals). I have worked as the dramaturg for several EnActe productions, such as SoundWaves: The Passion of Noor Inayat Khan (2017); and The Parting (2018), which is based on lived experiences of survivors of the Partition of India, 1947. I also directed a youth production of the Ramayana, co-produced by EnActe Arts, SFShakes and the City of Cupertino. In August 2014, I was selected to attend a ten-day performance workshop, led by Eugenio Barba and his team, at Odin Teatret, Denmark, which emphasized and demonstrated the importance of body-based performance techniques; methods of non-verbal communication; and the politics of intercultural performances in a globalizing world. It would be wonderful to hear back from you, and you can always This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Sukanya C. |