Inspirations 2013 - The Program

The Program

The program is presented in English or with translations

Opening feature: Tagore’s music through symphony orchestra and choir: A first for Ontario stage

The evening opens with a medley of Tagore's music that brings together Eastern and Western melodies. This for him, was a way to show how music could overcome boundaries that would otherwise seem impossible to cross. 

Conductor:         

Debsankar Roy of the internationally renowned Violin Brothers from India    

Music Director:  

Manasi Adhikari, Founding-Director, Geetanjali Music and Dance Group, Toronto 

Our performers are a true microcosm of today’s Toronto: they come from Indian, Brazilian, Chinese, Irish, Bangladeshi, Japanese, Korean, Russian, South African, Ukrainian, Afro-Guyanese, Afro-Canadian and Jamaican communities. 

Presentation of Inspirations Spirit Awards in honor of Rabindranath Tagore

(Hosted by John Van Burek, Artistic Director and founder of Pleiades Theatre, Director of Tagore's Post Office and Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, Professor, York University)

Our award for Poetry and Social Justice will be presented to Dionne Brand, Canada's leading poet of social justice   

Our award for Diversity and Social Inclusion will be presented to Matt Galloway, Host, Metro Morning, CBC   

Our award for Empowerment through the Arts will be presented to Inner City Angels and its Executive Director Jane Howard Baker 

Our award for Building Inclusive Economies will be presented to the Ontario Co-operative Association and its Executive Director Mark Ventry  

Concluding presentation: A Woman’s Quest, adapted from Tagore’s play Chandalika (1933)

Chandalika is one of Tagore’s timeless tales about the impossible choice a woman often has to face: that between love and justice. Based on a Buddhist folk tale, it is one of the few narratives of a woman's rebellion portrayed in her own voice written in colonial India.

Prakriti is a young woman who rebels against the injustice she faces. Into her life comes Ananda, a recluse, who gives her the recognition she has been fighting for. An ecstatic Prakriti falls in love with him. What follows is a powerful journey of rebellion and pain, of desire and transformation - through which two women - Prakriti and her mother confront the dual quest for love and justice.



The production will bring together several forms of Indian classical dance accompanied by live music, drama and narration.



Direction:                                                    

Manasi Adhikari, Founding-Director, Geetanjali Music and Dance Group


Translation:                                                

Ananya Mukherjee-Reed, Professor, York University and Bandana Mukherjee, Lecturer in English (Retired)


Advisor:                                                        

Maitreyi SenGupta, Researcher, Netaji Research Bureau, Kolkata, India

Choreography & Lead Roles:                

Enakshi Sinha (as Prakriti); Sanjukta Banerjee (as Mother); and Harikishan S Nair
 (as Ananda)

Lead vocalists:                                          

Krishnakali SenGupta; Debjani Bandyopadhyay; Aparesh Chakravarty

Supporting vocalists:                              

Sunanda Mukherjee; Monalisa Chowdhury

Supporting cast:                                      

Somshankar Chakravorty; Shibsankar Vaidya; Akhil Chandan

Dancers:                                                     

Bipasha Ray, Poulomi Nandan, Soma Chakraborty, Suryani Chakroborty, Ashmita Roy, Nisha Chatterjee, Paromita Ghosh, Aparajita Das, Paromita Roy, Sanjukta Banerjee, Gunja Chakraborty

We chose this play at this moment in time for a particular reason. While recent events in India have turned our attention to the situation of women, they have perhaps obscured the long tradition of women raising their voice against injustice. Prakriti is a reminder of that tradition of challenging society under the most difficult of conditions.