Anjali Parvati Koda

Anjali Parvati Koda is a writer in Telugu films and a playwright. She is the co-founder of Hyderabad's popular theatre group Samahaara along with actor-director Rathna Shekar Reddy. Her father is filmmaker Mohan Koda and her brother is screenplay writer Rahul Koda.

Biography

Koda is a critically acclaimed playwright^[1]^[2] and writer in films. Her father is filmmaker Mohan Koda^[3] and brother Rahul Koda is a screenwriter in Telugu who co-wrote Telugu movies including Anaganaga O Dheerudu, Panjaa. She wrote her first play Purushotham-He, the Victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers at 18,^[4] and later on penned Dominic Wesley, directed by Stu Denison, which received good reviews.^[5]^[6] She co-wrote the adaptation of Samahaara's workshop production 'The Last Wish Baby', a satirical comedy and her latest play was Gregor Samsa, a stage adaptation of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. Her first play Purushotham, He the Victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers was included in the syllabus for BFA and MFA at Rutgers, State University of New Jersey in the academic year 2013-14.^[7]

Samahaara

Rathna Shekar and Anjali began with touring their maiden production The Crest of the Peacock,^[8]^[9] an educational play on mathematics across the twin cities to schools and colleges, staging more than 50 shows. Their play Purushotham-He, the Victim of Spiders and Pressure Cookers has gotten critical acclaim. They have worked on many productions since including another original play Dominic Wesley written by Koda directed by UK-based Stu Denison, Unlucky (based on Samuel Beckett's plays) also directed by Denison,^[10] Rabindranath Tagore's Post Office, Woody Allen's God,^[11] Athol Fugard's The Island and many workshop productions.

The Hyderabad Theatre Festival

The group Samahaara under the guidance of Rathna Shekar Reddy and Anjali Parvati Koda is credited with making theatre popular and involving the young crowd in Hyderabad. Their most significant contribution to the Theatre of India, apart from their original productions, has been organizing three editions of The Hyderabad Theatre Festival, namely The Hyderabad Theatre Festival 2009,^[12] The Hyderabad Theatre and Short-Film Festival 2010 ^[13]^[14] and the Samahaara Hyderabad Theatre and Rock Music Festival 2011.^[15]^[16] The Festival has been instrumental in bringing together the various amateur and professional theatre groups in Hyderabad and improving the quality and scale of the plays. The platform of HTF as it is abbreviated has been a great boost for theatre groups in Hyderabad.

Many of Samahaara's stand-alone productions are performed at various auditoriums across the city, including the open-cultural center Lamakaan, the iconic Ravindra Bharathi, Telugu University and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. HTF 2009 was held in June 2009 at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, HTF 2010 was conducted at Ravindra Bharathi in July 2010 for 7 days and HTF 2011 was conducted in December 2011 at three venues: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Ravindra Bharathi and Taramati Baradari.^[17]

Theatre workshops

Samahaara also organized many theatre workshops for both beginners and professionals by theatre personalities like Rathna Shekar Reddy, Mike Daisey, Theatre MXT from USA (in association with the US Consulate General Hyderabad),^[18] Stu Denison from the UK and David Zinder from Israel.^[19] The workshops help promote theatre awareness and increase professional approach and scope in the city.^[20]

References

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