Theatre Awardees 2022: Abhishek Mudgal, Mahendra Nayaka K and Pratiksha Khasnis
The Theatre Awardees of 2022 are Abhishek Mudgal, Mahendra Nayaka K and Pratiksha Khasnis.
Abhishek will use his award towards theatre production and stage management, particularly in Rajasthani folk theatre. Mahendra will be studying Kalaripayattu in Theatre. And Pratiksha will explore physicality in theatre.
Abhishek Mudgal
Abhishek Mudgal is a theatre artist working primarily in Rajasthan. He is constantly extending the boundaries of theatre and performance by discovering new languages of theatrical expression, formulating different structures of performance space, and extending theatre to the most outlying and unlikely of contexts. For him, the theatre is a democratic arena where everyone engaged in the creative enterprise. He aims to turn the theatre into a meeting place of diverse cultures, languages, spaces, philosophies and beliefs.
He graduated from the department of Dramatics University of Rajasthan. In 2011, he founded his own Theatre company, Rang Mastaaney. His productions of Hayavadana, Mahabrahman, Oesar Baagi, Dulari bai and Ramdhari Singh Dinkar's Rashmirathi stand testimony to the range and versatility of his directorial ventures. In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Ministry of Cultural Scholarship for young artists for his research on different styles of acting in which he worked with more than hundred actors of Rajasthan.
Since 2015 he has contributed to Rang Rajasthan, a Rajasthani International Arts Festival. He has taught at Jawahar Kala Kendra Jaipur, Baba Farid Group of Institutions Punjab, JECRC University Rajasthan, Kanoria College, and Subodh College, University of Rajasthan.
As part of a long term goal, he has built a theatre space at his in order to engage more audiences with folk theatre. He credits his mentor, Mr. Sandeep Madan, for his outstanding achievements.
Mahendra Nayaka K
Mahendra Nayaka K is from the Raichur District of Karnataka. Although he studied and gained a diploma Metallurgy, he has always been interested in cultural programmes. Upon his arrival in Bengaluru he met and performed with an amateur theatre group who furthered his interest.
He learned the basics of theatre at Ninasam Theatre School, Shivamogga District, Karnataka . It his time at Ninasam and with his theatre group that encouraged him to pursue theatre as a profession. He enrolled for a diploma in theatre at Rangaayana, Mysore. During his year in Mysore, he was introduced to a multitude of performing arts and their respective histories. The one that piqued his curiosity the most was martial arts.
On his return to Bengaluru, he realised that martial arts is an underperformed art and that it needed to be celebrated more. Under the advisement of his guru, Vinod Kandangal and theatre school teacher Digvijay, he decided to apply for the Inlaks Theatre Award in order to study and revive the martial art, Kalaripayattu.
Pratiksha Khasnis
Pratiksha Khasnis an actor, acting coach and theatre artist based in Maharashtra. During her 10 years of practice, she has been studying & developing methods of acting with a strong focus on body & voice.
She studied theatre from Lalit Kala Kendra, Pune University. She also studied child and adolescent psychology. Using her education in psychology she developed a program based on children's literature at Tiny Tales Foundation, an organisation of which she is a co-founder.
Tiny Tales Foundation is a travelling theatre dedicated to working with children through literature and theatre. They travel across India, performing plays in a school classroom, on playgrounds, under the shed of a tree and various other open places, questioning the notions of professional and experimental theatre.
She has had the privilege of working with Caroline Sanders, a German based director as well as renowned theatre artist Geetanjali Kulkarni. She is a recipient of the ThinkArts artist grant and has been awarded by Nasiruddin Shah for her work in children’s theatre.
