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New Indian Playwrights Series
In a country divided by language, regional traditions and cultural variations, promoting cultural interaction
across differences becomes all the more important. In the field of theatre, there was a major gap of knowledge of one another's theatre
tradition between the different states. In order to bridge this gap, translation was perceived as important: translation into a link
language common to most states, i.e English, accepted by the south and the north as a practical compromise to enable communication. Unfortunately,
most existing translations from regional languages into English were shoddy, careless and quickly tossed-off exercises in which faithfulness to the
original was not a priority.
Responding to this situation, and the lack of familiarity with playwriting traditions between the different states, Seagull conceived
a translation and publication programme for contemporary playwriting. The project was to carefully and systematically undertake translations of contemporary
plays by playwrights in different regional languages. The translations would go through three stages: first, the playwright and the tranlator would work together,
second, the translation would be thoroughly counterchecked by a
third consultant and the Seagull editorial team; and finally it would go back to the playwright for final approval. The result was a publication programme of
contemporary playscripts, offering reliable translations, each volume comprehensively introduced and annotated, with production histories of the plays. This
is an ongoing series and several translations are in the pipeline. Regional languages from which plays have been translated include Bengali, Hindi, Marathi,
Gujarati,Malayalam, Kannada, and Manipuri.
Another valuable aspect of this series is the fact that Seagull has chosen to cover playwrights in a systematic and comprehensive manner, rather than do one-off plays
as other publishers in this country do. We provide access to a whole body of work; this helps the student and scholar in their research and criticism, eventually feeding back
into the critical discourse that can only enrich theatre practice and scholarship in this country.
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This is the first time such a sustained publication programme has been undertaken in an attempt to systematically disseminate post-independence
playwriting in this country. Scholars and students benefit from the availability of these texts, both within the country and abroad. Theatre practitioners
have for the first time found access to plays in other regional languages;once they familiarize themselves with a play, or the work of a playwright, they usually
translate directly from the language of origin into their own, using our English translation as a reference. This is yet another way in which Seagull's activities
are helping develop the field.