"The Eleventh Face: Ravana's Untold Story" a devised Indian theatrical performance

March 27, 2011 - PRLog -- Media Contact:
Sejal Shah
202-746-7000
sejal@sapanarts.org

The SAPAN Institute announces production of
“The Eleventh Face: Ravana’s Untold Story”

Fresh off the heels of the maximum INDIA festival, local performance company continues the celebration of South Asian culture through the retelling of a timeless epic Undercroft Theatre, April 8-10, 2011

Washington, D.C. March 23, 2011 – The South Asian Performing Arts Network and Institute (“The SAPAN Institute”) proudly announces the production of its first ever theatrical show entitled “The Eleventh Face: Ravana’s Untold Story.” Based on the ancient Hindu epic, known as The Ramayana, “The Eleventh Face: Ravana’s Untold Story” presents an alternate interpretation of The Ramayana. Through original words, dance and song, The SAPAN Institute tells the story of The Ramayana through the eyes of its infamous antagonist Ravana, the ten-headed demon king of Lanka, similar to the popular musical “Wicked,” which tells the story of the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Opening only three weeks after the closing of the Kennedy Center’s prestigious maximum INDIA festival, The SAPAN Institute continues the celebration of South Asian culture by presenting a vast array of artistic skills from all corners of the Indian subcontinent in one production. With a cast of close to 30 artists, the SAPAN Institute Performance Company is composed of the Washington D.C. metro area’s most talented South Asian actors, dancers and musicians, who have contributed to the overall story, dance choreography and musical composition featured in the show.

“The Eleventh Face: Ravana’s Untold Story” is the result of over a years’ worth of collaboration between the artists of The SAPAN Institute and co-directors Alexandra M. Miller and Melanie St. Ours, who wrote the script through a devised theatre process. “Part of what we hoped to achieve artistically,” says St. Ours, “is to take a story that’s meant so much to so many generations of South Asians and make it relevant to the new generation in a new way, and introduce an intricate and nuanced epic to those not exposed to it.” Miller and St. Ours have been instrumental in directing the telling of the story and weaving all the different pieces of this elaboration production together to create an impressive whole.

The show also integrates live music and dance all composed and choreographed by the
talented artists of The SAPAN Institute Performance Company. The company’s musical talents include trained classical Hindustani and Carnatic vocalists, self-taught folk musicians, Bollywood vocal enthusiasts, masters of tabla percussion, the harmonium, the bansuri flute and the violin. Moreover, the company’s dance talents include classical Bharatanatyam, Punjabi and Gujarati folk dancing, modern Bollywood, western hip-hop and lyrical, to name a few. True to the devised theatre method and the mission of the SAPAN Institute, all artists involved in the production have developed the characters, the scenes, the movements and music collaboratively.

Tickets, priced at $20 General Admission and $25 Door, are on sale at www.sapanarts.org. “The Eleventh Face: Ravana’s Untold Story” will be running for three shows: April 8th at 8pm, April 9th at 8pm, and a matinee show on April 10 at 2pm. Performances will be held at the Undercroft Theatre at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church, located at 900 Massachusetts Avenue NW.

This unique production promises to leave audiences spellbound by the richness of South Asian diasporic culture to take the stage.

About The SAPAN Institute:

The SAPAN Institute is a D.C.-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation and presentation of all South Asian performing art forms, including dance, music and theatre. The mission of the organization is to provide a leading forum and distinguished network for the global education, collaboration, advancement and celebration of South Asian performance arts and performing artists. In accordance with this mission, the vision of the SAPAN Institute is to serve as an institutional nexus for all professional South Asian performing artists to work together to collaboratively advance South Asian performing arts as well as their individual dreams and aspirations. For more information go to: www.sapanarts.org.