NEW DELHI, April 21(MIC): Internationally acclaimed theatre personality, Ratan Thiyam of Imphal who is a recipient of several awards and honours including Padmashri will be honoured with this year’s Life-Long Achievement Award of the New Delhi-based Chaman Lal Memorial Society, informed a statement issued by Manipur Information Centre.
It said the society instituted the award in memory of the late Chaman Lal, a pioneer in the field of stage lighting and stage craft.
The 17th edition of the annual award ceremony will be held at Siri Fort Auditorium, the national capital’s most prestigious elegant auditorium on April 23 at 7 pm with the renowned cine and theatre personality Tom Alter, as chief guest.
The Chaman Lal Memorial Society stated that Ratan Thiyam has made a powerful impact in the field of theatre as a writer, theatre artist, Ex-Chairman of Sangeet Natak Academy and Ex-Director of National School of Drama. This year, the Society is honouring him with the Life-Long Achievement Award for enriching the performing arts particularly the theatre world with his extraordinary talent.
Past recipients of the award were Joy Michael of New Delhi , M.S. Sathyu of Bangalore, Shyamanand Jalan of Kolkata, Gursharan Singh of Chandigarh and Ms. Sushma Seth of New Delhi.
In recognition to his outstanding works in theatre, Ratan Thiyam has already been conferred with Indo-Greek Friendship Award (Greece) 1984, Fringe First Award from Edinburgh International Festival 1987, Sangeet Natak Akademi Award 1987, Padma Shri 1989, Diploma of Cervantino International Festival, Mexico 1990, Nandikar Award 1992, La Grande Medaille (France) 1997, B.M.Shah Award 2000, B.V.Karanth Smriti Puraskar 2004, One India One People Outstanding Indian Award 2006, Kalidas Samman 2006, Siu-Ka-Pha Award 2006, John D. Rockfeller award 2008 and Alkazi Foundation Award 2008.
Besides Ratan Thiyam, the Chaman Lal Memorial Society will confer the Award for Excellence in Stage Craft to the Delhi based H V Sharma, an 80-year-old veteran in the art of stage craft for his outstanding contribution in Indian Theatre cannot go unnoticed.
Raghav Prakash, a pass out of Bhartendu Natya Academy, Uttar Pradesh, specialized in lighting design will be honoured with the Award for excellence in Light Design for his creativity in the field.
The awards, which carry a cash award of Rs. 25,000 each, along with a citation, memento and a shawl will be presented by the chief guest Tom Alter.
The award ceremony will be followed by a 40-minute multi-media light, sound and dance choreography presentation, “SARGAM” designed by R.K. Dhingra.
The Chaman Lal Memorial Society was established in the year 1995 with the objective to acknowledge and honour people, who have with their different back stage expertise created magical moments on stage for some of the most spectacular presentations of dance, drama, music etc. The categories include Stage Light Design, Costume Design, Stage Craft & Make-Up, which are all highly specialized skills and an art in themselves.
These awards are conferred every year in the memory of Late Chaman Lal, who was a pioneer in the field of inventing Stage Lighting Equipments. The society is committed to keep his memory alive by conferring awards to artists who have through their outstanding skills contributed to the theatre world. This society is perhaps the first in the country to acknowledge the contribution of back stage artists and honoring them with these annual awards.
Ratan Thiyam’s is a big Manipuri original cultural and traditional destroyer. (His always base on Hinduism and destroyed original form of Manipuri dance & culture; his trying to get his own status only)