December 1994. Editor: Anjum Katyal
It takes one craftsman to recognize another. Only someone who has spent long hours studying, practising, mastering his skill, technique, craft, can instantly recognize similar mastery. And if he sees in the new or foreign something that he feels will enrich or strengthen or broaden his own work, even something he thinks will be fun or enjoyable to try, he will have no hesitation in adapting it to his own use. This has been the way of craftsmen for centuries. In the most unselfconscious, the most natural manner, concepts, ideas, techniques, practices, have flowed into and across cultural practice wherever exposure of any kind has occurred. The process of interface which some like to call multi-or inter-culturalism, the whole complex and inevitable business of 'influence', of translation and adaptation across cultures, is in itself not new. It is as old as human travel. What has changed is the significance and meaning given to it, and since it now has a label and therefore some kind of a definition, the manner in which it is regarded. No longer just a matter of choice for individual craftsmen or practitioners, it now signifies as one 'culture' seeking to add value to itself by importing features from 'another culture', and reversely, one culture being raided or plundered by another. And this in turn sets off alarms in the jealously manned guardrooms of ethnic and national chauvinisms, arousing protests concerning image, prestige, honour. In one way or another, most of the pieces in this issue touch on this problematized area of cultural interface; and the gamut of attitudes towards it-from the matter-of-fact taking-it-for-granted of Bansi Kaul to the formal theorizing of Richard Schechner -interestingly indicate the many ways in which cultural practitioners negotiate this insistent reality of our times.
CONTENTS Encounters with Cultures: Contemporary Indian Theatre and Interculturalism Sumitra Mukerji 'One of the few handicrafts left...' Richard Schechner Points of view Bansi Kaul Translating Music for Theatre Bhaskar Chandavarkar The power of detail: Manohar Singh in performance Amal Allana Matter and Energy: Some notes Ranjabati Sircar Theatre Log Tapas Sen's Workshop Kaivan Mistry Masks-An Integral Part of Theatre Training Vasanthi Sankaranarayanan Theatre Workshop, Maheshwar: A Social Act Bharat Sharma Notebook Letters Download the complete issue here