Theatre is a part of human civilization and this practice has preserved the tradition and culture in all society. For example, our practice of rituals, hunting, celebration of various festivals, making our unique costumes etc is a skill. These practices, being a part of our everyday life, we may not look and consider it as a theatre. But all these are an expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, which is a theatre in itself. Today, many contemporary performing arts have emerged over the centuries and conserve our culture according to the changing trend of time. Theatre has added life, character and colour to the traditional values. Theatre as a performing art has not been explored in Nagaland in the real sense. Theatre culture is very strong in our neighboring state such as Assam and Manipur. It has been one of the main tools in preserving their rich ethnic culture. In Nagaland, performing art or theatre is still limited to dance, music, fashion and other alien culture. This is due to the lack of both theoretical and practical knowledge on theatre. If developed, Naga Theatre has so much of potential to weave all the art forms and evolve a theatrical arena to preserve and refine our rich culture. This production oriented workshop aims to develop a theatrical language through the famous legendary Ao folklore Etiben and Jina, which is the Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet of the Ao Naga tribe. Every ethnic community has their own beauty of narration and uniqueness in its form and oral tradition elements. The production will device a production on the Etiben and Jina story using the rich folk songs, dance ballads, etc and showcase our culture. It will also incorporate all the theatrical elements such as light, sound, costume, make-up and other advance theatrical equipments. It aims to encourage theatre in Nagaland and to the other regional theatre and to connect to the main stream theatre. Over the years the Naga tradition values is fading and theatre as an art form has the potential to revitalize by evolving a contemporary language. There by, carrying on our tradition with change of time. The workshop will also invite different cultural experts of different tribes and create space to interact, learn and engage with eminent personality. Alongside, conserving out traditional performances the workshop will initiate the participants/students to discover their inner being, create space to explore their skills and to develop and nurture it. The workshop is organized and sponsored by NEZCC in association with Hill Theatre, Nagaland.
