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Masquerade (Theatre Group)
Masquerade - the Performance Group is a Chennai based English theatre group. It is one of the few theatre groups in Chennai that survive without commercial financial sponsorship or funding from business houses or the likes, backed by public faith and smaller donorships from patrons, parents of tweens and teens who pay for training workshops. Public performances are rarely priced and income from performances are invariably through hat collections, done consciously as a tool to gauge audience appreciation of the show. Since 2000, the group has been extensively working with youth both at schools and through private workshops. Since 2009, through its youth & teen theatre initiativeMasquerade Youth Theatre (MYT) Masquerade has been conductinCamp Neuve an annual three week summer workshop that trains teens between ages 13 and 19 years. This leads to an eventual production featuring the workshop participants. Since 2009, through its The Bear and Beanbag Children's Theatre, the group has ...
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Chennai
Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Census of India, 2011 Indian census, Chennai is the List of most populous cities in India, sixth-most-populous city in India and forms the List of million-plus urban agglomerations in India, fourth-most-populous urban agglomeration. Incorporated in 1688, the Greater Chennai Corporation is the oldest municipal corporation in India and the second oldest in the world after City of London Corporation, London. Historically, the region was part of the Chola dynasty, Chola, Pandya dynasty, Pandya, Pallava dynasty, Pallava and Vijayanagara Empire, Vijayanagara kingdoms during various eras. The coastal land which then contained th ...
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Günter Grass
Günter Wilhelm Grass (; 16 October 1927 – 13 April 2015) was a German novelist, poet, playwright, illustrator, graphic artist, sculptor, and recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature. He was born in the Free City of Danzig (now Gdańsk, Poland). At age 17, he was conscription, drafted into the military and served from late 1944 in the ''Waffen-SS.'' He was taken as a prisoner of war by US forces at the end of the war in May 1945. He was released in April 1946. Trained as a stonemason and sculptor, Grass began writing in the 1950s. In his fiction, he frequently returned to the Danzig of his childhood. Grass is best known for his first novel, ''The Tin Drum'' (1959), a key text in European magic realism. It was the first book of his Danzig Trilogy, the other two being ''Cat and Mouse (novella), Cat and Mouse'' and ''Dog Years (novel), Dog Years''. His works are frequently considered to have a left-wing political dimension, and Grass was an active supporter of the Soci ...
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The Hindu
''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian Newspaper of record, newspapers of record. , ''The Hindu'' is published from 21 locations across 11 states of India. ''The Hindu'' has been a family-owned newspaper since 1905, when it was purchased by S. Kasturi Ranga Iyengar from the original founders. It is now jointly owned by Iyengar's descendants, referred to as the "Kasturi family", who serve as the directors of the holding company. Except for a period of around two years, when Siddharth Varadarajan, S. Varadarajan held the editorship of the newspaper, senior editorial positions of the paper have always been held by members of the original Iyengar family or by those appointed by them under their direction. In June 2023, the former chairperson of the group, Malini Parthasarathy, w ...
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Oleanna (play)
''Oleanna'' is a 1992 two-character play by David Mamet, about the power struggle between a university professor and one of his female students, who accuses him of sexual harassment and, by doing so, spoils his chances of being accorded tenure. The play's title, taken from a folk song, refers to a 19th-century escapist vision of utopia. Mamet adapted his play into a 1994 film of the same name. Plot summary Act I Carol, a college student, is in the office of her professor, John. She expresses frustration that she does not understand the material in his class, despite having read the assigned books and attending his lectures. Of particular concern is a book written by John himself, wherein he questions the modern insistence that everyone participate in higher education, referring to it as "systematic hazing". While talking with Carol, John is often interrupted by the phone ringing. He is about to be granted tenure along with a handsome raise. Anticipating this, John is about to ...
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David Mamet
David Alan Mamet (; born November 30, 1947) is an American playwright, author, and filmmaker. He won a Pulitzer Prize and received Tony Award, Tony nominations for his plays ''Glengarry Glen Ross'' (1984) and ''Speed-the-Plow'' (1988). He first gained critical acclaim for a trio of 1970s off-Broadway plays: ''The Duck Variations'', ''Sexual Perversity in Chicago'', and ''American Buffalo (play), American Buffalo''. His plays ''Race (play), Race'' and ''The Penitent (play), The Penitent'', respectively, opened on Broadway theater, Broadway in 2009 and previewed off-Broadway in 2017. Feature films that Mamet both wrote and directed include ''House of Games'' (1987), ''Homicide (1991 film), Homicide'' (1991), ''The Spanish Prisoner'' (1997), and his biggest commercial success, ''Heist (2001 film), Heist'' (2001). His screenwriting credits include ''The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981 film), The Postman Always Rings Twice'' (1981), ''The Verdict'' (1982), ''The Untouchables (film), ...
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Alan Bennett
Alan Bennett (born 9 May 1934) is an English actor, author, playwright and screenwriter. He has received numerous awards and honours including four BAFTA Awards, four Laurence Olivier Awards, and two Tony Awards. In 2005 he received the Society of London Theatre Special Award. Bennett was born in Leeds and attended Oxford University. He taught medieval history at the university for several years. His work in the satirical revue '' Beyond the Fringe'' at the 1960 Edinburgh Festival brought him instant fame and later a Special Tony Award. He turned to writing full time and gained acclaim with his plays at the Royal National Theatre. The following plays were adapted into films: '' The Madness of King George'' (1994), '' The History Boys'' (2006), and '' The Lady in the Van'' (2015). Early life Bennett was born on 9 May 1934 in Armley, Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. The younger son of a Co-op butcher, Walter, and his wife, Lilian Mary (née Peel), Bennett attended Christ Ch ...
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Joe Orton
John Kingsley Orton (1 January 1933 – 9 August 1967), known by the pen name of Joe Orton, was an English playwright, author, and diarist. His public career, from 1964 until his murder in 1967 committed by his partner, was short but highly influential. During this brief period he shocked, outraged, and amused audiences with his scandalous black comedies. The adjective ''Ortonesque'' refers to work characterised by a similarly dark yet farcical cynicism. Early life Joe Orton was born on 1 January 1933 at Causeway Lane Maternity Hospital, Leicester, to William Arthur Orton and Elsie Mary Orton (née Bentley). William worked for Leicester County Borough Council as a gardener and Elsie worked in the local footwear industry until tuberculosis cost her a lung. At the time of Joe's birth, William and Mary were living with William's family at 261 Avenue Road Extension in Clarendon Park, Leicester. Joe's younger brother, Douglas, was born in 1935. That year, the Ortons moved to ...
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The Ruffian On The Stair
''The Ruffian on the Stair'' is a play by British playwright Joe Orton which was first broadcast on BBC Radio in 1964, in a production by John Tydeman. It is an unsympathetic yet comedic one-act portrayal of working class England, as played out by a couple and a mysterious young man who toys with their lives. It was based on ''The Boy Hairdresser'', a novel by Orton and his lover Kenneth Halliwell. The title and play are based on a few lines from poet and dramatist William Ernest Henley: "Madam Life's a piece in bloom, / Death goes dogging everywhere: / She's the tenant of the room, / He's the ruffian on the stair." ''Ruffian'' is not as renowned as other works such as '' Loot'' and '' What the Butler Saw'', but it is still staged on occasion. Sample dialogue Joyce: "Have you got an appointment today?" Mike: "Yes, I'm to be at King’s Cross station at eleven. I'm meeting a man in the toilet." Joyce: "You always go to such interesting places." Plot Mike and Joyce are a poor Lo ...
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Alan Ayckbourn
Sir Alan Ayckbourn (born 12 April 1939) is a prolific British playwright and director. As of 2025, he has written and produced 90 full-length plays in Scarborough and London and was, between 1972 and 2009, the artistic director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, where all but four of his plays have received their first performance. More than 40 have subsequently been produced in the West End, at the Royal National Theatre or by the Royal Shakespeare Company since his first hit '' Relatively Speaking'' opened at the Duke of York's Theatre in 1967. Major successes include '' Absurd Person Singular'' (1972), '' The Norman Conquests'' trilogy (1973), '' Absent Friends'' (1974), ''Bedroom Farce'' (1975), ''Just Between Ourselves'' (1976), '' A Chorus of Disapproval'' (1984), '' Woman in Mind'' (1985), '' A Small Family Business'' (1987), '' Man of the Moment'' (1988), ''House'' & ''Garden'' (1999) and '' Private Fears in Public Places'' (2004). His plays have won numer ...
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Confusions
''Confusions'' is a play by Alan Ayckbourn consisting of a series of five interconnected one-act plays. It was first staged in 1974 (1976 at London's Apollo Theatre starring Pauline Collins, John Alderton, Sheila Gish, Derek Fowlds and James Cossins) and played by just five actors. The scenes are all loosely linked by characters or locations, but more subtly through the common underlying themes of obsession, isolation and human desire for companionship. Summary of the Five One-Act Plays # ''"Mother Figure":'' Housewife Lucy has the difficult job of looking after the children alone whilst her husband is away. This job of looking after the children has taken over her life; so much so that she never leaves the house and doesn't even have the time to change out of her pyjamas. Concerned neighbour Rosemary decides to come around to check on Lucy and to give her the number of her husband Harry who has been trying to call her for a while, and is shocked to find Lucy rushing aro ...
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Der Jasager
' (literally ''The Yes Sayer''; also translated as ''The Affirmer'' or ''He Said Yes'') is an opera (specifically a '' Schuloper'' or "school-opera") by Kurt Weill to a German libretto by Bertolt Brecht (after Elisabeth Hauptmann's translation from Arthur Waley's English version of the Japanese Nō drama ''Taniko''). Its companion piece is '' Der Neinsager'' (''He Said No'') although Brecht's other text was never set by Weill. Weill also identifies the piece, following Brecht's development of the experimental form, as a '' Lehrstück'', or "teaching-piece".Weill says: "In '' Lindbergh's Flight'' Bert Brecht and I had the schools in mind for the first time. I am hoping to develop this direction further in my latest play, the '' Lehrstück'' ''He Said Yes''. ..I no longer want to offer 'songs' so much as self-contained musical forms. In the process I want to take over whatever I hitherto found right, like what I once termed the gestic approach to music. The melody must give cle ...
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The Decision (play)
''The Decision'' ('), frequently translated as ''The Measures Taken'', is a '' Lehrstück'' and agitprop cantata by the twentieth-century German dramatist Bertolt Brecht. Created in collaboration with composer Hanns Eisler and director Slatan Dudow, it consists of eight sections in prose and unrhymed, free verse, with six major songs. A note to the text by all three collaborators describes it as an "attempt to use a didactic piece to make familiar an attitude of positive intervention."Willett (1959, 38–39). Plot Four agitators from Moscow return from a successful mission in China and are congratulated for their efforts by a central committee (called The Control Chorus.) The four agitators, however, inform the committee that during their mission they were forced to kill a young comrade for their mission to succeed. They ask for judgment from the committee on their actions. The committee withholds its verdict until after the four agitators re-enact the events that led to the yo ...
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