Art

Samanalaya Drama Festival

by Ranga Chandrarathne

The annual drama festival of the Sunera Foundation, Samanalaya Drama Festival that commenced on July 1, 2007, had been held in ten locations island-wide, including Jaffna. The festival consists of 31 short plays performed during the month.

The festival which is the end result of the hard work and dedication by differently able participants and workshop trainees of the Sunera foundation is a platform for showcasing their talents.

One of the novel features of the Samanalaya Drama Festival which is held for the third consecutive year is that the performance at provincial level will be predominantly viewed by relatives of the participants and will be evaluated by a panel of judges. The selected dramas at the provincial level will be staged at John De Silva theatre on August 7, 8, 2007 at 5.00 pm

Awards will be given to the best production, best direction and the best performer. The panel of judges at the performance consists of veteran theatre personalities Dharmasiri Bandaranayake, Parakrama Niriella and Tilak Jayaratne.

The event is sponsored by the World Bank (Small Grant Scheme), The People's Bank, Friends of Sunera Foundation (UK) and the Employee's Trust Fund Board.

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Exhibition of paintings by George Beven

by Ranga Chandrarathne

An exhibition of paintings by Goerge Beven, internationally renowned Sri Lankan painter will be held at the Lionel Wendt Gallery from August 11 to August 14, 2007. The exhibition will be officially opened on Friday the 10th of August at 6.30 a.m.

A book George Beven, A life in Art by Neville Weeraratna which was made to mark the artist's 75th birthday, will also be on sale at the exhibition. The exhibition will showcase some of the rare paintings of the artist. The collection is made up of drawings on Sri Lanka, a favourite theme of the artist.

Goerge Beven was born in the coastal town of Negombo and studied at Newstead and Maris Stella colleges where his talent for paintings was spotted by a teacher. He was encouraged to send some of his drawings to Ceylon Observer.

Then Editor of the Observer, recognizing the talent offered him a job when Beven was preparing for S.S.C examination. Thus Beven became the first paid artist on Ceylon Observer which led him to his series studies in the craft. The Observer first enrolled Beven at the Hayward School of Arts where he was fortunate to study under the tutelage of the renowned David Paynter.

In 1955 Beven was sent to London on a scholarship offered by Ceylon Observer to study fashion, drawings and illustrations at the prestigious St. Martin School of Art and Design.

Following his studies Beven decided to stay in London and held several exhibitions there. His solo-exhibition held at the Commonwealth Society was covered by the cinema news reels of Pathe Pictorial and Beven was seen across the globe.

Among his portraits which were autographed by the celebrities include Rudolf Nureyev, Michail Baryshnikov, Margot Fonteyn and Dietrich. His portrait of HRH Princess Margaret was commissioned in the monotone style and was hung at Kensington Palace at the time of her death.

The sprightly twenty-five year-old with a spring in his step I had met over half a century ago has, strangely, not changed very much, except that the white short sleeve shirt and black belt that was his habitual dress has given way to coloured Kurtas and Barefoot sarongs, when he is in Sri Lanka now.

I am sure he would wear these in London too, weather permitting states Nihal Ratnayake, a long term friend of Beven in an Introduction to the book Goerge Beven, A Life in Art by Neville Weereratne.

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Eshantha to conduct premier composition at SOSL's Young Soloists' Concert

Composer and musician Eshantha J. Peiris will conduct the premiere of his composition '26/12/2004: South-East Asia', for symphony orchestra and traditional drums, at SOSL's Young Soloists' Concert to be held on 11 August at Ladies College hall. Eshantha's respect for the sheer structural magnificence of the tidal-wave prompted him to model the piece's narrative structure directly after the tsunami's chronological sequence.

The composition is dedicated to all those who lost loved ones during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, and is his personal reaction to the catastrophe, of which he heard while in New York.

It is a self-reminder of the things in life that are beyond our immediate control, and he hopes it might serve as a timely commemoration of the catastrophe that, at least briefly, saw us join together as a nation in providing immediate relief for our fellow citizens.

As a composer, Eshantha writes music that spans a stylistic spectrum ranging from traditional-classical to jazz to rock to fusion.

His compositions have been performed by groups such as the Cantando Cello Ensemble, the NYU Jazz Choir, the Groundhog-day Jazz Orchestra and the Wind Quintet of the Americas, and in venues as diverse as New York City's Lincoln Center to Colombo's nightclubs.

A unique event on art calendar

by Ranga Chandrarathne

A unique theatre festival dedicated to youth theatre in Sri Lanka will be held from 9-11 August at Lionel Wendt theatre. The festival is being conducted by the Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Foundation set up as a voluntary organisation by veteran theatre personality Somalatha Subasinghe in 1981. The organisation was incorporated in parliament in January under Act no. 03 of 2007.

The festival will provide a much-needed independent platform for young theatre directors to showcase their talents in the craft. It will also be a valuable opportunity for theatre goers to enjoy theatre with meaningful entertainment both in the categories of original and adaptation from the international theatre.

The selection of the plays were done purely on the basis of merit and the creativity of the productions in order to present 'true' talented directors and theatre personalities, particularly in youth and mainstream theatre in Sri Lanka.

The festival makes up of award winning dramas with deep-insights into the socio-cultural issues and lined up plays for the festival are Vikurthi (Distortion) by Somalatha Subasinghe (9th August), Me Heenata Namak Denna (Name This Dream) by Priyanth Kaluaarachchi (10th August), 'Asinamali' by Pujitha de Mel (Nothing to loose) (11th August), Sanda Langa Maranaya' (blood wedding) by Kaushalya Fernando (12th August).All the productions have won national awards.

Youth Theatre Festival is a part of the 25th Anniversary Celebrations of Lanka Children's and Youth Theatre Foundation (LCYTF) or Play House-Kotte. Over the years LYCTF has produced a repertoire of internationally acclaimed musical theatre for children and youth and award winning mainstream theatre productions.

The festival is held under the theme of Theatre for Education and Reconciliation. Plans are afoot to add new features such as Theatre for children, short plays by young directors and plays from the south Asian region to make Colombo a significant location for showcasing high quality theatre productions with meaningful entertainment.

There will be two performances, per day, at 3.30 p.m and 7.00 p.m. Tickets are available at the theatre for a nominal fee. According to organisers the parking facilities are provided for first come first serve basis.

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