Draupadi - The Voice of Dignity

Third Half Theatre is proud to be associated with Malhaar in their musical 'Draupadi - The Voice of Dignity'. It promises to be a spectacle of Music, Dance, and Theatre with classical as well as contemporary influences.

On the one hand you have the music, steeped in the best Indian traditions, yet with windows thrown open to influences from all over the world, old and contemporary. Then you have the dances, again born from the rigour of classical training, but tempered with modern and even post-modern touches. And then there is the theatre, trying to give it all a breathable, believable context. 

A lot of folk have enquired about the language of the show--the spoken dialogue is in English, however a large portion of the show is music and dance, of which the music is mostly Indian traditional music in various languages set to classical as well as contemporary rhythms.

'Draupadi...' will be staged at Madinat Theatre, Souk Madinat Jumeirah, Mina A'Salam on May 23 and 24 at &:30 p.m. 

Tickets priced as follows: Platinum AED 150, Gold AED 100 and Silver AED 75

Tickets available at Time Out Tickets, Madinat Theatre Box Office and Select Liali outlets (Meadows, Ibn Battuta, Spinneys - Trade Center Road and Mercato Mall).  For further information, please call 055-1013652.

Read coverage for the show in the Friday magazine and in The National. See you over the weekend!

At Sikka 2014

We will be performing 'Badke Bhaiya' as part of three short plays presented by Short+Sweet at this year's Sikka Art Fair.

The Sikka Art Fair is held annually at the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood and features local and international artists. Please refer this link for ways to get to Sikka.

Our play will be staged tonight at 7.00 p.m. on the main stage. There are signs all over that should lead you to the stage once you've reached the Fair.

Third Half Theatre presents..

Badke Bhaiya

Based on the short story 'Bade Bhaisahab' by Munshi Premchand

Adapted for the stage by Nihal Parashar

Directed by Sumedh Kulkarni

Cast: Paurav Shah, Sunil Jasuja

At the Litfest Fringe 2014

Third Half Theatre will feature again this year at The Penguin Fringe of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature.

We have a 45 minute slot and plan to pack it with non-stop entertainment, quite along the lines of our performance at Sikka which was one of our favorite shows last year.

We begin with some live music to, well, liven things up a bit and follow it up with two short plays back to back: Badke Bhaiya, and what still remains a firm favourite with both group-members and audiences alike, Garçon.

The show begins at 5 p.m. sharp on Friday the 7th of March at Al Baraha 1, Intercontinental Hotel, Dubai Festival City. Entry is FREE so look forward to seeing you there.

And don't forget to check out the other theatre action this year at The Penguin Fringe featuring some of the best ten minute plays from Short+Sweet, a stage adaptation of Kafka's Metamorphosis, Theatresports and more.

Third Half Theatre presents..

The musical talents of 

Rohit Gupta and Cmith Sarkar

Followed by..

Badke Bhaiya

Based on the short story 'Bade Bhaisahab' by Munshi Premchand

Adapted for the stage by Nihal Parashar

Directed by Sumedh Kulkarni

Cast: Paurav Shah, Sunil Jasuja

And signing off with..

Garçon 

Written and directed by Sanjeev Dixit

Cast: Sanjeev Dixit, Tuhinanshu Chaturvedi, Disha Joseph, Jatin Deepchandani, Aditya Sule

It's All Been Done Before

Our final play for this year's Short+Sweet is an original Third Half Theatre presentation.

Do come and catch us at the Top 30 - Week 3 at Kilachand theatre, Ductac, Mall of the Emirates on 19, 20, 21 Feb 2014 at 8 p.m. Yep, the show runs from Wednesday to Friday night at 8 p.m this week. Tickets are available as usual on TimeOut and at the venue.

We're all set for the dress rehearsals tomorrow, can't wait! The thing with writing a comedy is that it isn't one till you perform it for an audience, and they then tell you with their reactions whether it actually is one. Still, I would like to think of the play as not just a comedy or a farce, but also an insider's view of the funny ole' world of the stage.

Looking forward to the reactions on this one...

Third Half Theatre presents
It's All Been Done Before
Written & Directed by Sanjeev Dixit
Cast in order of appearance: Sanjeev Dixit, Disha Joseph, Sumedh Kulkarni, Dharam Veer Sood, Butool Zaidi, Shantanu Mhaisalkar, Minali Patel, Cmith Sarkar
Crew: Anitha Kulkarni

Coming up with an original play for Short+Sweet isn't easy, especially when the darn characters keep getting in the way!

The Man Who Was Music

Our second play for this year's Short+Sweet is the story of a composer who, at his final concert, reminisces on how he came to be a musician.

Part of Wildcards week 2, it's on at the Kilachand theatre, Ductac, Mall of the Emirates on Saturday the 15th of February, 2014. There are two shows at 3 p.m & 8 p.m.

Tickets are available online at TimeOut and also at the venue.

The following excerpt from T.S. Eliot's The Dry Salvages, to me, best evokes the play's intent and scope:

"For most of us, there is only the unattended

Moment, the moment in and out of time,

The distraction fit, lost in a shaft of sunlight,

The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning

Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply

That it is not heard at all, but...

You are the music

While the music lasts."

Third Half Theatre presents...
The Man Who Was Music
Written by Aishwarya Jha-Mathur
Directed by Rhea Dixit
Cast: Sanjeev Dixit, Sumedh Kulkarni, Mitali Patel, Cmith Sarkar
Crew: Anitha Kulkarni

Studio One Live

Was on the Studio One Live show last week with Liz Hadaway, Associate Director of Short+Sweet Dubai.

Here's the full episode, we're on the first segment from 1:40 to 8:55 ..

Badke Bhaiya

Our first play for Short+Sweet is an adaptation of a Premchand short story.

Part of Wildcards week 1, it's on at the Kilachand theatre, Ductac, Mall of the Emirates on Saturday the 8th of February, 2014. There are two shows, at 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.

The festival will run from the 5th to the 22nd of February and will feature over 60 plays. Tickets are available at time out tickets, and at the venue.

See you there!

Third Half Theatre presents..

Badke Bhaiya

Based on the short story 'Bade Bhaisahab' by Munshi Premchand

Adapted for the stage by Nihal Parashar

Directed by Sumedh Kulkarni

Cast: Yashwanth Jaggumantri, Paurav Shah

The long and the short of it..

It seems like only yesterday that we were in Delhi with 'I Am'. And here we are now, a new year, a new festival, and a new play.

Delhi was great fun. Bunking down with gracious friends who let us into their homes and hearts, tasting (and surviving) some of Delhi 's best street food, and getting to see some truly wonderful plays. It was a privilege to perform in Delhi. And 'I Am' is a play inspired by events that took place there, so it was an homecoming of sorts.

Back in Dubai, things are beginning to heat up in preparation for Short+Sweet 2014. This years line-up features over 60 plays from all over the UAE. Third Half Theatre will have three entries this year. One will be an original play, and two are plays that we saw, and loved, in Delhi.

It's shaping up to be quite a festival this year. Especially looking forward to original plays written by dear friends and colleagues from the dubai theatre fraternity; all the best folks!